2. speakers
  3. 136873-45461

Auditioned Magico A3 - VERY DARK...

So today after waiting for months to try and listen to the Magico A3, I went to Scott Walker audio at Anaheim and listened to the Magico A3, connected to some VAC Tube amp, being fed from a Sony audio streamer, here are my impressions:

- They look fantastic, I wish they made them in silver too, but they are just great in brush black aluminum
- They're quite small and could fit everywhere
- Fit and finish is impecable
- The bass they generated was nothing but amazing for such a small cabinet, you could hear the drums, the down beats and incredible depth of bass at an amazing level
- Imaging was INSANE, you could literally place everyone and everything...
- Sound was VERY VERY DARK!!! This was a bit of a surprise, the top end lacked for my taste to a quite a degree
- I felt like the combo of the Tube amp and Magico lacked resolution, while bass and mid was great, the top end absolutely lacked resolution
- The sound was extremely laid back, again dark
- It does NEED POWER, like he had to crank the volume up, to get good sound out of this, so be aware of that

Overall, I "personally" did NOT like the sound, it lacked details and resolution at the top end, while it was great at the bottom end.  Now, the rep and I think this is mostly due to Tube amp, and connecting it to a solid state amp would bring back resolution, but we simply didn't have time to do that today.  I look forward to listen to these at another time with some decent solid-state amp, but as-is, I was NOT as impressed as I expected and wouldn't have purchased one and I strongly believe Tube and Magico A3 do NOT go well together! 

Anyone else with similar impressions?! Curious to know what others may think, or maybe there was something else in play?

Thoughts?
alexb76

Showing 2 responses by almarg

almarg's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
almarg
8,673 posts
 
Impedance curves I've seen in Stereophile's measurements of several other Magico speakers all show a peak of 9 to 12 ohms or so in the area of 2.5 kHz, followed by a rapid descent to 3 to 5 ohms throughout almost all of the treble region.

Currently produced VAC amps provide three output taps, designated as either 2, 4, and 8 ohms, or 1-2, 2-4, and 4-8 ohms.

Given the 4 ohm nominal impedance of the speaker my guess is that the dealer was not using the lowest of those three taps. And, assuming the A3 has an impedance variation that is similar to the other models I referred to, if he had been using the lowest of those three taps the darkness would have been significantly reduced.

Regards,
-- Al
almarg's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
almarg
8,673 posts
 
To add to my and Erik's previous comments, I suspect that an Audio Research amp would have presented the speaker in a better light than the VAC amp that was used. ARC amps have significantly lower output impedances than most other high quality tube amps.

I say that as a happy owner of a VAC amp, used in conjunction with speakers having a particularly flat impedance curve.

Regards,
-- Al
More to discover