David Wilson must be a little annoyed...


the Absolute Sound has pronounced the relative new-comer Magico as having designed the least-flawed loudspeaker in the world (the Q7). the Wison XLF is described as the best "cost-no-object" speaker, and while "flawed" in some respects, is the company's best effort yet. given the lengthy history of attempts at making a perfect transducer, Wilson and its many devotees might take all this as a funny way of saying "better luck next time" instead of "this by far exceeds all that has come before which was already pretty darn good".
i have little doubt that, for $180,000 (or name another huge number) the Q7 is very VERY good. the cabinet is "inert", the drivers weigh next to nothing, and the crossovers are made from premium parts arranged as carefully as technology allows. But once upon a time, the B&W 801 Matrix ($5500) was
called the "audio end of the road" by Stereophile. so ACCURATE was this loudspeaker that you could tell what kind of bassoon the guy in the orchestra was playing, and on what row, completely distinct from every other instrument being played. you needed a chain of superior components upstream of course. but i will never forget personally auditioning this speaker and thinking "WOW"
as the music was clearer and cleaner with the best bass extension than anything i had ever heard before.
of course better speakers HAVE since been designed and the bass i was so impressed with turned out to lag behind the other drivers and needed a better design, better parts, etc. to catch up. but the Kevlar midrange unit is still with us in various forms, and the isolation of the "head unit" from the low-bass is also still a common technique. but how many multiples of $5500 (even allowing for inflation) does it take to clean up the sound of a loudspeaker, and also keep it from "shaking and baking" if you really crank up the volume?
I think everyone knows that probably $20K, maybe $30K, should give the speaker manufacturer a lot to work with. And for $50K you could wrap it in the most attractive materials on the planet Earth.
After 60 some odd years of reading about "OMG" components in the audio press, I would love to congradulate Magico on the one hand, and express my annoyance from another (and another ad.infinitum) article about the new greatest hi-fi thing for [you can't afford it]. personally i just happen to like the shape and appearance of the Q7 a lot, very clean, very uncomplicated. i do favor using grill coverings however, and feel that should always be an option
lest someone comes along "poking" the drivers to see how they move. there might even be some "contour" controls on the back turning up or down the tweeter or attenuating the bass to allow for a less than perfect room (although how could one place a "perfect" speaker in an imperfect environment?)
if this entire argument is exciting, or conversely tiresome, i just would like other persons' reactions to these pronouncements in the audio press.
and WHAT IF the Wilson XLF was placed side by side with the Q7 and you asked pro reviewers as well as music lovers to decide which speaker was better and/or which would be easier to live with long run?
while you're at it bring in a Rockport, MBL, Kharma, Nola, etc. set of speakers and try to decide all over again. Make it even more fun, and limit
the selling price to $50K or below, and see just how close you can come.
Just some random thoughts as we enter into the Audio Cliff....
french_fries
Have we reached "the absolute sound" yet?

If not how will we know it when we hear it?

IS it better than sex?
Perhaps as an adjunct to reviews about almost-perfect speakers, amps, etc.
would be a blue-print of a room to set up this equipment in, with a full set
of specifications on materials needed, including wiring, and all other household appliances taken into consideration in minimizing intereferences (especially when the air-conditioner kicks in)., then come up with an approximate price range to build such a room.
i would still have a problem with a room without comfortable furniture, pictures and other art-works to look at, etc. I have been to many auditions where there is literally nothing in the room besides an equipment rack and a chair.
SO you would have to contemplate perhaps building a house from scratch with a special area in which strict control over noise and other distractions is a priority, and a separate living area to hang out in for everything else.
Would that be Weird, or the only way to enjoy a $150,000 turntable, a similarly priced pair of amplifiers, and so on down the line? Wouldn't you HAVE TO do it after attending an audio show with scores of components that can run up a total of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and voices that keep whispering in your ear that THIS is what you need to experience total immersion in fully-realistic sound? I have to confess to having such thoughts over the years (and then shrugging the whole ridiculous notion off- even if i had the money, etc. i still wouldn't do it. Would I?
And i wouldn't have a 25 car garage like Jay Leno either....

"even if i had the money, etc. i still wouldn't do it. Would I?"

I'd like to think I would not in that I like to keep things simple (having been born and raised in AMish country after all), but I'll let you know for sure after I maybe hit the lottery someday.
Of course, the guy listing his Q7s on audiogon at the moment begs to differ and found himself something he likes better (the Evolution Acoustics MM7 to be precise). And then there is a pair of Evolution Acoustics MM3 listed. The seller of these is in the market of a pair of ....Wilsons! So now we are full circle. Sonics aside, I like the aesthetix of the Magico's and find the Wilsons butt ugly.
The point of SOTA speakers like the Magico and Wilson is to push the limits of what we can do to reproduce live music at home. Even their designers will admit that they have not reached that point, and so they continue to tweak. At their level, those tweaks are increasingly expensive. I mean, you can design an enclosure, but you still have to build one to see how it actually will sound, and after milling out tons of aluminum, you find no improvement? Well, back to the drawing board. I wonder how many expensive prototypes Magico went through before finalizing their design and building the first one. For a comparatively new company, they have certainly stepped up and taken a run at the best. Whether they are, I will never know, since I have neither the funds nor the inclination to make that evaluation. But I do appreciate the effort being made, and the risks taken and hope to see the downstream results of their research and development to more affordable products, either by Magico or others.
I think companies like PSB have used some of their concepts in speaker enclosures to make better speakers at reasonable prices, ie syncrony and imagine series, with layered enclosures and curved sides.