S3s w/ Alon Wolf in Santa Monica

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KeithR

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Will be at Audio Salon for this event this weekend if any Sharks are interested....nothing like a gear and music Saturday :)

I heard the S3s on Chord amplification recently and felt the amps werent good enough- Constellation or Spectral should be on display Saturday.

KeithR
 
I think you'll like both on the S3.

Could you ask him about the ETA for the Q5 replacement? If you remember and it isn't a pain. Just curious.

Thank you
 
Really nice meeting Alon- have much respect for what he has done. He confirmed the M Project isnt an updated Q5 and that no other M speakers were coming- just a one off project.

He recommended Q3 and Q7 for the easiest to drive Magicos. And he has an old pair of Minis at home- though hardly listens there. The description of the construction of the big horns was impressive- and there wont be less exoensive version made. Horn is made by a company that supplies boeing in Seattle- they can make only 1 per month. He inferred they built 10 pair this year! Requires 5 amps, two built in.

The S3s were in a fully vibracoustic treated custom room with Constellation Virgo and Centaur driven by the BA Ref dac. Nordost cabling and conditioning. As far as sonics? Eh, I thought the soundstage was a bit flat, notes lacking decay, and bass a bit fuzzy in spots. Resolution was very good and I did not find the treble hot. Sound was a bit hifi this evening.

Ive always said id like to hear more Magicos on tubes- and for SS have heard Dart is sublime with them. Nordost wouldnt be my first choice in cabling either.
 
Interesting point about the M speakers. Did he mention what purpose or statement Magico is trying to make with this "one off" speaker?
 
"Ive always said id like to hear more Magicos on tubes"

I know I just started selling Tenor, so up to you how you want to take this ---- But why I don't hear anyone talking about a Magico/Tenor combo, I can't figure out. The Tenor amp's are wonderful sounding, super easy to listen to with zero listener fatigue yet very involving, you just don't want to stop listening, on goes another album. They combine the magic we all love about tubes plus the control and power of SS being completely stable operating at 2 ohms.

I have not even received my Magico demo units, the first few models will arrive in a week or two, I just can't wait to hear them with the Tenor amps. my guess, they will be a match made in heaven.

 
it was big 10 years ago- JTinn distributed the OTL amps. the 75 monos were very nice sounding and def the amp du jour, but had reliability issues. Kharma/Tenor was the magic combo. He took on DarTZeel and the rest is history.
 
Overture AV in Wilmington, DE had a similar show for the S3s this past weekend that I attended. Robert Harley was also present to display and talk about TAS's new book, The Illustrated History of High-End Audio. There will be 3 volumes of this book, the first focusing on loudspeakers. I flipped through it and thought it was great seeing (literally) all of the garages many of these speakers came out of. I wound up purchasing a signed copy.

Alon talked about the S3 a bit, but nothing you really couldn't find on the forums or the rags. Then the demo. The S3s were driven by all TOTL Spectral gear and the requisite MIT cables. I had heard the Q7s under a similar all Spectral setup up at Goodwins and did not care for the sound. While the soundstage was amazing (especially given the symphonic music we were listening to), the sound was grey/silver in color to me, and the imaging barely had any body to it. Disappointed to say the least. When I saw the all Spectral gear at Overture I thought uh-oh, this isn't going to be good...

It turns out I actually liked the combo! The sound was liquid and the midrange was fairly rich, adding texture and body to the vocals images. The tonal palette was varied, and was not the thin, flat grey I heard on the Q7s. But of course, the Magico resolution was all there to be heard. I wouldn't have thought the two speakers came from the same manufacturer. Of course, different room, maybe slightly different electronics, so difficult to compare.

There wasn't much of a Q/A session as another group of eager audiophiles were waiting their turn. I was able to grab Alon between sessions and asked if that midrange enclosure in the S3 would find it's way into the S5. He didn't see that happening in the foreseeable future as he felt the sound of the S5 stood pretty well on it's own as it is.

Overall I really enjoyed the setup and especially the S3s. It really filled a 17x28x9 room wonderful music!:audiophile: But as always, YMMV!
 
Thanks, Allen.

I heard the Q5 (and Q3) at Goodwins and remember thinking that I thought the tonal balance was strange - especially on non-classical music (although the soundstage was really nice).

I have heard the S5's with Spectral and thought the combo was amazing. I thought the Spectrals had great control over the S5's and brought them to life with a great mix of detail and musicality.

All this to say it's not surprising to me that you liked the S3 & Spectral combo.
 
I find that the S3 is more to my liking sound wise than the rest of the magico line.

socfan12 said:
Overture AV in Wilmington, DE had a similar show for the S3s this past weekend that I attended. Robert Harley was also present to display and talk about TAS's new book, The Illustrated History of High-End Audio. There will be 3 volumes of this book, the first focusing on loudspeakers. I flipped through it and thought it was great seeing (literally) all of the garages many of these speakers came out of. I wound up purchasing a signed copy.

Alon talked about the S3 a bit, but nothing you really couldn't find on the forums or the rags. Then the demo. The S3s were driven by all TOTL Spectral gear and the requisite MIT cables. I had heard the Q7s under a similar all Spectral setup up at Goodwins and did not care for the sound. While the soundstage was amazing (especially given the symphonic music we were listening to), the sound was grey/silver in color to me, and the imaging barely had any body to it. Disappointed to say the least. When I saw the all Spectral gear at Overture I thought uh-oh, this isn't going to be good...

It turns out I actually liked the combo! The sound was liquid and the midrange was fairly rich, adding texture and body to the vocals images. The tonal palette was varied, and was not the thin, flat grey I heard on the Q7s. But of course, the Magico resolution was all there to be heard. I wouldn't have thought the two speakers came from the same manufacturer. Of course, different room, maybe slightly different electronics, so difficult to compare.

There wasn't much of a Q/A session as another group of eager audiophiles were waiting their turn. I was able to grab Alon between sessions and asked if that midrange enclosure in the S3 would find it's way into the S5. He didn't see that happening in the foreseeable future as he felt the sound of the S5 stood pretty well on it's own as it is.

Overall I really enjoyed the setup and especially the S3s. It really filled a 17x28x9 room wonderful music!:audiophile: But as always, YMMV!
Click to expand...
 
madfloyd said:
Thanks, Allen.

I heard the Q5 (and Q3) at Goodwins and remember thinking that I thought the tonal balance was strange - especially on non-classical music (although the soundstage was really nice).

I have heard the S5's with Spectral and thought the combo was amazing. I thought the Spectrals had great control over the S5's and brought them to life with a great mix of detail and musicality.

All this to say it's not surprising to me that you liked the S3 & Spectral combo.
Click to expand...

It seems like we heard similar things with the similar gear. It's strange I liked the S3 so much with Spectral but the same gear with the Q series left me a bit cold.



the professor said:
I find that the S3 is more to my liking sound wise than the rest of the magico line.
Click to expand...

I did like the S5s quite a bit when heard at Bob's (and even Ears Nova). The S3 has a lot of what the S5 has to offer but that S3 enclosure really has done some magic to sweeten that midrange up.
 
I remember hearing the Q5 vs S5 over a year ago in Toronto and posted that the S5 smoked the Q5. I got chastised on another forum for saying so. How could a lesser expensive speaker sound better? Blasphemy! Well, seems like my view is now shared by many (cue: tooting my own horn.)



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