Magico S5 vs Tannoy Westminster Royal SE

Quad-man speaks the truth.

Bitstream, how do you like the Marantz MA-9S2 monos + SC-7S2 pre?
I have the Marantz SA1 CD player which is an amazing cd player.

How do the top Vandersteen's compare?

Aldavis, Kingdom Royal are certainly a very good speaker. But not quite as much my cup of tea as the Westminster. I like the mid-to-top area better on Westminster, the Kingdoms are not as natural to me. This is not due to the fact that they are extended and I somehow prefer rolled off speakers. Far from it, I have other speakers flat to 50khz whose upper mids and highs I prefer to the Kingdom. Rather, for me, something is lost in going to the Kingdom. Just my preference, I like the presentation of the Westminsters better.

Stringreen, the Vandy 7 is a better speaker than most on this thead, they are truly a state of the art speaker. That's coming from a guy with lots of speakers but not a Vandy owner, so no bias toward them here. I was not really familiar with their sound when I bought most of my speakers and I don't prefer them so I won't be switching out. Since then, I have heard them for extended periods. If my gear was stolen I would very strongly consider them. They are fantastically pure, very true to life in tonal color, and amazingly dynamic (if you feed them plenty of watts) for a speaker this size and this inefficient. The Vandy 7s are one of the best in the world IMO. They do suffer from the fact that Richard does not tell tall stories about being a NASA designer, a rocket scientist, a Bell labs researcher, or any other of the mostly fabricated stories used by many in this industry. He does not do the mystique thing, or luxury goods marketing. They are just real, honest, great sounding, and refined.

Again, I'm not connected in any way, I am not a retailer, I just love great equipment.