If they were using the Soulution 511 monos on Thursday, the I liked the 701s much more.
When I have visited the Soulution/Magico room on Thursday, it was a typical Soulution/Magico demo for me - very controlled, articulate, with excellent resolution, but a bit on the cool side, which made it a bit uninvoilving.
When I came to that room back on Saturday - WOW. That was simply the best sound of the show for me. I have spent over 30 min there just listening - sth that didn't happen in any other room. The sound was every bit as articulate and resolving as I've remembered from Thursday (and all other previous Magico Q/Soulution demos I've heard in Munich in recent years), but this time it also had the proper color saturation. If one was listening to it blingsighted, you could be fooled there was at least one tube component somwhere in the chain. The sound was very low in coloration, but at the same time, it was very natural, full, colorful, weighty, saturated - sounded very much like a real instrument.
The system they were using that day was Magico M-Project driven by 701 monos.
I also liked the S5 mk 2 demo. That was a #3 room for me at the show (with the second beeing the Sound Galleries demo at BMW Welt). The speaker to my ears is a clear improvemt over my old S5s mk 1. Especially the mids sounded more open, more lively, with much more microdynamic shading than my S5s could ever manage.
I only wished they were demoed with the same Soulution gear as the M-Projects vs the Constellation amps they were using. Historicly, the Magicos on the Constellation have always sounded softer, rounder, with more tone color vs more resolved and articulate sound of Soulution pairing. The M-Project / Soulution demo have proven to me that you can have the cake and eat it too. No need to soften the sound to make them sound great.
I had a chance to meet and talk to Alon Wolf himself. He confirmed to me that the S5 mk 2 mid and tweeter are indeed identical to the S7s (the woofers on the S7 are quite different though).
The M3s were not present at the show. There was only an M3 roll-up present in the Magico room. At present, there is only one pre-production pair at Magico factory, that will be still worked on (the front baffle is still to be reworked for example, to make the mid more flush with the baffle surface, like in the M-Projects). He also said that in the crucial mid and high range, the M3 sound every bit as good as the M-Projects, and really should be treated as M-Projects for the smaller rooms.
All in all, having the S5 mk 2 on order, I have left the room extremely satisfied. Having heard what the improvement is, I cannot wait till I fire them up in my room in a couple of weeks. On the other hand, the sound of the M-Projects hadreally gotten under my skin, so my S5 mk 2 episode my be shorter than initially planned ...
