Visit to Magico

Puma Cat

Puma Cat

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Yesterday, my local audio club, San Francisco Audiophile Foundation, made a visit Magico in Hayward, CA.

We met founder Alon Wolf, and he gave us a tour of the facility as well as the various rooms they do testing and development. I'll post some of photos a bit later when I have time to edit them. You should see the 3-D milling machines they use for manufacturing the cabinets. Whoa.
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We were then given an audition of the latest spec Magico S5s in Magico's latest SOTA listening room. I'll just add that the level and execution of the acoustic treatments/layout for this room was world-class. Superb acoustics. This photo only shows a portion of the room acoustical treatment.

Very impressive demo with Pilium amplification, Wadax Server and Streamer and first-class electronics and cabling all-round. I'll add that the speaker cables were also properly elevated off the floor. (y)

Shown here is a photo of the S5's in action during our demo. Apologies for the photo not being "perfect", I was not sitting on-center, and this was just a quickie iPhone photo.

Magico-S3A.jpg


I'll post some other photos from our visit a bit later when I've had time to edit them.
 
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bryans said:
What's up with the screen/frame at the bottom of the rack? Is that some form of diffuser?
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I don't know, and Alon didn't say. I'm sure it if had an impact on the acoustics, though, they would not be placed in that manner. Trust me, though, the acoustics in this room were world-class.
 
As Mike as been there, regarding the Magico factory, I'm confident that Mike would agree that Magico is executing, for all aspects of product research, design, development, parts specification, manufacturing and quality control, at the level of a Formula 1 team.
 
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Puma Cat said:
As Mike as been there, regarding the Magico factory, I'm confident that Mike would agree that Magico is executing, for all aspects of product research, design, development, parts specification, manufacturing and quality control, at the level of a Formula 1 team.
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And testing and measurements!
 
Always enjoy your posts. Thanks for taking the time to document the visit. I would enjoy having the opportunity to hear the S5 in Magico's listening facility.
Puma Cat said:
Yes, that's correct, another "autocorrect' induced typo. I've corrected it, thanks.
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What impressed me when I toured the Magico factory was how much attention was paid to all the internal parts we don't see. Critical components were polished to a jewelry finish and carefully arranged in trays ready for installation. They weren't tossed in a dirty bin. Everything mattered.
 
I also participated in Saturday's tour, and I concur that the care and effort that goes into Magico's loudspeakers' designs, as well as into their manufacturing, is tremendously impressive. I wish I could say that the S5 speaker demo was at the same level, as it certainly was not. Perhaps the other groups fared better, but Group A was subjected exclusively to about 15 minutes of "music" selections that were obscure, non-involving, and altogether useless in assessing the musicality of the S5. There is no question that what I and others heard was a tour-de-force of absolute accuracy in reproducing sound effects. Unfortunately, that demo again raised my concern that Magico designs and builds speakers that are as perfect as possible within the financial restraints of their various series and models -- i.e., all science and no art. The best analogy I can try to convey is to offer the contrast of two doctors -- both oncologists. Both are exceedingly skilled and rank among the top in their field. One of them is a pure clinician in his approach and relates to his patients as a skilled auto mechanic who brings all of his knowledge and skill to repairing a high-performance V8 engine. The other doctor is similarly knowledgeable and skill but also applies it in a warm and compassionate manner that responds to her patient's fear.

I know that I am poking a hornet's nest, but I think that Magico expends all of its efforts in the pursuit of accuracy, whereas it might produce better loudspeakers if just a bit of its resources and energy was dedicated to ensuring that they "sounded good", too. Those two goals are not mutually exclusive.
 
I am not familiar with the new audition room. My visit was when an older room was in use. It was acoustically treated to the "max". I thought it very strange listening to " just speakers" instead of a speaker/room system. Alon told me that was the purpose of the room--to evaluate the speaker alone. I missed all the spatial cues. It was disconcerting. But I understand the intent. In home installations the acoustics will vary widely. Magico cannot anticipate all situations so they concentrate on making the speaker as accurate as possible.

I have been encouraging a different speaker manufacturer to stop playing demo tracks that are only meant to show off certain aspects of the speaker but do not engage the listener. I have strongly suggested they play music the audience has heard 1000 times but play it at a performance level they never heard before.
 
You are so right! Saturday's demo was disheartening. The prior day, I spent the afternoon at Music Lovers Audio in Berkely. I listened extensively to both the Wilson Sasha V and the Sonus Faber Stradivarius G2 ; fortunately, the electronics were nearly a duplicate of what I use at home. The Sasha V was incredible in how lifelike and engaging all the music was (I played a list of music with which I am very familiar); the Stradivarius wasn't bad, but it fell short in its ability to induce a similar reaction in me. I don't think there is a better test of a speaker (and the rest of the system, too) than by listening to one's favorite music -- particularly in decent room environment.
 
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