Magico Q7 Mk. II

I think that many of you should visit the Magico factory actually see the elaborate process that goes into building a Q7 (or any model of Magico--or any top flight speaker for that matter nowadays). I really think many audiophiles think these are some $400 DIY speaker kit you buy online where you bolt six pieces of wood together, glue a xover in, solder some connections, screw some drivers in and presto you have sound.

Just for starters, a 1000 parts go into making one Q7 speaker. The baffle is hardly JUST bolted on. Xovers and drivers are built and tested and matched. You have a whole new front baffle being machined, anodized, etc. You hardly make a couple of cuts like on a piece of wood and you have a baffle. There is an elaborate CRC cutting and finishing process. Oh and the anodizing rejection rate for the front baffles, even for the BEST company Magico could find--and they tried quite a few--is 30 pct. Alon hates the anodizing process. Then you want to make sure the baffle actually matches color wise the existing speaker. Then all the pieces are torqued and tensioned to control the cabinet's and driver's resonances. Those waterfall cabinet resonance charts that you see from Martin Colloms, etc. don't happen by accident.

After the speaker is assembled, it then goes through a lengthy break-in process. Then the speaker goes through an elaborate Q/C testing process that only four other companies in the world use. I won't name who doesn't use this system but two of the others are B&W and KEF IIRC. Then the speakers are brought into Magico's custom built listening room and checked before shipping (I won't go into the shipping process.)

So you add up the hours and the number of people involved and it's very costly. And me thinks that people here think that Alon should eat all this time--that also remember either he has to hire new people to do--or it takes away from his existing staff's time to build all his speaker models.

And the alternative? You sell your existing speaker for 1/2 price at best and then reinvest that plus the difference into a new one. As I see it, current owners are getting a good deal from Magico. Sure it's costly but if you have the money to buy a Q7, I think it's a different matter.

After all, updates build customer loyalty but very few come at no cost. You buy a Linn upgrade for instance and you take your turntable to the dealer and buy the upgrade kit/parts and pay the tech's time, which ain't cheap, to install the upgrade. So the same goes for Magico. I really don't see why they should take a loss on the upgrade when I don't see anyone else in the industry doing that.
 
Myles B. Astor said:
Keith the "cheap" drivers in the S5 are all over $1000 each. The Q7 are far more expensive to manufacture. You can do the math with 5 drivers per side, new xover (and u can bet those caps aren't cheap), machining time, parts, etc. One thing Alon won't do is rip his customers off. No 10X markups on his speakers.
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there aren't 5 drivers a side to this upgrade - its a new tweet and mid. i wouldn't do it because of shipping and requiring new front panels which is a huge expense for 2 drivers.

i know you tote the Magico line, but come on now. 50k is an entire pair of Alexias. and there are quite a few folks in the industry that don't agree with his markups.
 
KeithR said:
there aren't 5 drivers a side to this upgrade - its a new tweet and mid. i wouldn't do it because of shipping and requiring new front panels which is a huge expense for 2 drivers.

i know you tote the Magico line, but come on now. 50k is an entire pair of Alexias. and there are quite a few folks in the industry that don't agree with his markups.
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Yeah, but the Alexias are only worth about $24k when you sell them (after deciding you want a real pair of speakers :))
 
KeithR said:
there aren't 5 drivers a side to this upgrade - its a new tweet and mid. i wouldn't do it because of shipping and requiring new front panels which is a huge expense for 2 drivers.

i know you tote the Magico line, but come on now. 50k is an entire pair of Alexias. and there are quite a few folks in the industry that don't agree with his markups.
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Not sure what you mean by that Keith but I don't push any manufacturer. Yes I personally own Magico speakers but I could easily own several other speakers too. (And maybe there are other reasons I don't own another speaker). I was simply trying to point out the facts of what I've seen up close and personal and what audiophiles tend to gloss over. Not to mention that some people begrudge a manufacturer making a profit.

I think if we're worrying about 50 grand, then we're not talking about the customer buying the Q7.
 
Am I missing something (probably), but isn't the cost of the original Q7 + upgrade just about what the Mk II costs? So despite the large numbers, a current owner who might want the new model only has to pay about the difference between his original cost and the current cost of the new model, rather than sell (probably at a big loss) and rebuy? That sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
 
rbbert said:
Am I missing something (probably), but isn't the cost of the original Q7 + upgrade just about what the Mk II costs? So despite the large numbers, a current owner who might want the new model only has to pay about the difference between his original cost and the current cost of the new model, rather than sell (probably at a big loss) and rebuy? That sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
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Why is the mark2 45k more? certainly not manufacturing cost.

makes zero sense except for profit.
 
XV-1 said:
Why is the mark2 45k more? certainly not manufacturing cost.

makes zero sense except for profit.
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How do you know? Why would the new tweeter cost the same as the old one? It sure looks like it should be more expensive. What about the new Graphene midrange, do you know what is the cost of Graphene? New caps from Mundorf, these alone can run in the thousands of Euro. And what the hell is wrong with profit?? Do you work for free? Look at what other companies sell at that price (Raidho, Wilson, Tidal etc), this looks like a bargain in comparison.
 
I love my S5 speakers but man if I had to do it over given $$ I would buy a pair of Magnepan 20.7 for 13k and call it day with my cj350 driving them. My wife had the WFA steer me to Magico which then meant the constellation to get the best of them. Something to be said for saving dough and being happy with something that gets one 80 percent of the way. That last 10-20% of the journey is complicated and expensive.
 
If it keeps your wife happy (not usually an easy task with expensive audio components) I would think it's money well spent :)
 
Seems like Alon and Magico will now get you half way. Must have been more than one complaint, especially from out of the USA.

I asked Mr Wolf once is there any way to upgrade tweeter in Q7 to be the new diamond one like M Project , he replied " no" because of the difference in size. I was disappointed.
But now he manages to do that, I'm glad. But the cost and procedure seems totally prohibitive to me.
a 20,000$ with a kit/tools that can be done locally by trained dealer then I'm in !
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I won't put words into his mouth, only my own. 20k for a tweeter. bend over boys
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Dpod4 said:
I love my S5 speakers but man if I had to do it over given $$ I would buy a pair of Magnepan 20.7 for 13k and call it day with my cj350 driving them.
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Interesting ……………a pair of Maggie 20.7's combined with a pair of top notch JL or REL subs driven by a pair of big PASS Monoblocks, that will get you well beyond 80%. If given the right room, you'll be right there !!
 
I agree that the 20.7's probably need a bigger room than their price might otherwise indicate. I heard them in a room about my size (14x23x11) and couldn't get both the bass and imaging "right", yet I have been told by others that in a room at least 50% larger they will do both. Given that they probably need a dedicated room (they would be very obtrusive in a "family room", IMHO) that's a significant negative for many of us.
 
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