Magico S1 Mk II - The First Review

Magico, of Hayward, California has officially announced the launch of the S1 Mk II in a press release and on the Magico website.  Now that the cat is out of the bag, so to speak, I can finally blog my initial impressions of this truly beautiful speaker. Thanks to a generous invitation extended to the San Francisco Audiophile Society by Magico I was able to audition these about a month before the general announcement.

The S1 is a diminutive, 43" tall 2-way floor stander starting at $16,500 a pair.  The driver compliment includes the Magico uber-high tech Beryllium/Diamond 1" tweeter along with a proprietary 7" carbon fiber and graphene driver.  Sensitivity is listed at 87db.

Magico has a really enviable listening room which, in addition to the S1/MK IIs they also hooked up Convergent Audio Technology preamp and the eye-wateringly expensive CAT JL3 amplifiers, known for having apparently endless power and current reserves. I forgot the source appliance, but it streamed through the Berkeley Reference DAC, another Bay Area manufacturer.  I find the Berkeleys a bit too cool for my tastes, but I don't think they'll affect my comments here.  This was also my first time listening to CATs in any situation, so if you are familiar with them, apply your own adjustments to my comments accordingly.

The listening room itself was heavily treated, with large, integral bass traps in each corner as can be seen in this Stereophile article. 

When we listened to the S1 MK IIs the paint had not even been applied. It actually occured to me the S1 would be just as beautiful in polished aluminum with a lacquer clear-coat instead of painted but according to Magico, the cost could easily double or more due to the expense in polishing the aluminum to the standards needed to be presentable. Still, I couldn't help but remember how sexy an Audi R8 in polished aluminum looks while we began to listen.

The Good

The S1/IIs shows tremendous energy and the ability to fill up the room we were in down to the low registers of all the music we listened to.  They also showed great horizontal dispersion, listening far off center you could still hear a good image and when recordings had it, with plenty of air and space appearing between the speakers.

In terms of music listening, they seemed to have nothing missing between the treble and bass and played loudly and convincingly without distortion. In my too-brief audition I thought the treble in particular was very smooth, extended and complete, the better of the B&W 802D's or Wilson Sasha's I have heard.

The Not so Perfect

Before you go on, keep in mind I do think these are very good speakers, but taking full advantage of them requires the right setting. What the S1/MK IIs won't be is all things to all people.  Please think seriously about how you really spend time listening to speakers before reading more. The S1/Mk IIs have some distinct characteristics a buyer should consider before purchasing.

The Room

Despite their relatively small foot print these speakers needed quite a lot of room to sound their best.  They need lots of room behind them, and to the sides.  Cramp them in any way and you'll end up with a muddled mess of sound.  They will hate corners and being backed up against a wall.

The Timbre 

To my ears, and where I was sitting, these are not neutral speakers.  I heard excess bass in the lower parts of a male voice, as well as in piano recordings. The treble also had extra sparkle, if not scintillation that, while fun and exciting, is not what I would call neutral.  My guess is they would measure closer to this other Magico Q5 speakers as reviewed in Stereophile.  These characteristics will make these fantastic background music speakers as well. Even at low levels you'll be able to hear the full range of music.

On the positive note, the extra treble also had more treble.  That is, it wasn't just a matter of being tilted upwards, but octave by octave the Magico's displayed no gaps at all, especially when compared to the latest Wilson's and the B&W 802D. Give me the same smoothness, coverage and dynamic range with a more neutral presentation and I'd have nothing to complain about at all in terms of the performance. As a heretic, I might say that these plus a digital equalizer could very well be the best small footprint speakers (but not small space) available.

The Amplifiers

While listed at 4 ohm speakers, Magico is no stranger to low impedance designs, and I fear that is how they are getting their output, by creating low impedance, high current drivers that demand a lot from the amplifiers.  This is what some reviewers charitably call "discriminating" speaker design.  I call it cost-saving.  Anyway, I have not seen the impedance graphs, but my gut, and only my gut, warn me these speakers may need some pretty stiff amps to sound well.  

The Bottom Line

While these speakers show an incredible amount of craftsmanship, unique designs and high tech cabinetry resulting in small speakers with really amazing output they are not for long term critical music listening.  If you truly need speakers to act as transparent windows into a recorded environment that can be listened to for hours and never tire of I think you'll find these speakers too hot and seasoned for your needs unless you have matching hearing loss in which case they may actually be perfect. This is a subtle thing though, other speakers currently in vogue are far worse. They would however lend themselves very well to a little digital EQ before your DAC, if you aren't averse to a transparent sounding tone altering.

I think these speakers are going to be great as part of an entertainment system where you host guests to watch movies, play games, or in a home where you would like to have music playing in the background without being forced to sit in the throne or use with a subwoofer.

The amplifier demands could also be challenging.  If you aren't going to use the speakers for critical listening, and are going to hide the electronics it makes no sense in my mind to go crazy with spending money here, but you will want to make sure any amp is up to the challenge.  Fortunately there are good, and good value, amplifiers that will have ample power reserves such as the Parasound Halo A21. 

Lastly, as mentioned before, the speaker's small footprint belies it's need for space. For an apartment dweller dreaming of high-end speakers to place in the corners and do critical listening with for hours-on-end these are just not going to be your speakers.  For a well-heeled executive who needs a small foot print, beautiful speaker to enjoy with friends in a medium to large den or living room and at times put out seemingly limitless amounts of clear sound, my friends and oligarchs, your ideal speakers may very well have arrived.

Measurements

Thanks to the good people at Soundstage Network we have been able to examine the test results produced by the National Research Council of Canada, and have a follow up discussions here. 

Your Next Steps

Of course, if you are at all interested in these speakers, go give them a listen, and get an in-room audition before committing.  Lots of things may be different between this author and your situation, so at the end of the day it's your wallet and therefore your tastes that should rule all.  I do hope however that I've given you some pointers as to what to pay attention to so that if you buy these speakers you'll end up completely satisfied with your choice. I look forward to your own comments and impressions.