Magico S5 vs Tannoy Westminster Royal SE

Good point Charles about sales volumes. It just gets a bit exasperating when comparison threads get disproportionate commentary purely because one manufacturer has been around longer and gained more supporters. In a sense, now I can understand why "Brand names" like Nike get such a large market share. Bigger doesn't always mean better however. But to be clear I think Tannoy make some great speakers. The Westminster Royal SE are tremeandous speakers, but are extremely large and for many audiophiles impractical. Magico speakers are so transparent to source, they demand a lot of upstream equipment and on owners achieving system synergy. That is not for everyone. No doubt Tannoy are more forgiving. There are pro's and con's to both approaches.

Mel,
My very first post on this thread I said these are vastly different speakers. I was interested in the responses the OP would generate, so I've followed it out of genuine curiosity.

I find conversations about about the pointlessness of threads to be more pointless...

I find posts about the pointlessness of meta-conversations about pointless threads to be more pointless still...

Eek...would someone please pull me out of this pointless infinite regress...? :^)

A poster wrote: "Magico speakers are so transparent to source, they demand a lot of upstream equipment"

I will add, after much experience with them, "or, they are edgy enough, due to some particular distortions, that one has to be careful about mating equipment to not push them futher and over the edge."

Nearly all products that have gained reputations for being "so neutral you have to be careful not to use the wrong equipment with them" are in retrospect generally agreed upon to have had their own edginess (which is a very nice word or distortions) which made them so sensitive.

Are Magicos more transparent than the new Maggies, which are so much more trnasparent than they ever were, and lower in distortion than they ever were? NO, the new Maggies are more transparent, more detailed, but the lower distortion makes them far easier with mating equpment. The same can be said for the Martin Logan CLX. Now, you don't need to point out the loudness, bass, dynamic advantages of the Magico. That's not the point. The point is that the assertion about products like them that are "so transparent that you need to be ultra careful about what you hook them up with" is flawed. If they get the tweeter/mid crossover solved at some iteration level, and the tweeter fully under control, everyone will be saying "Wow, now they are so much smoother". But it's always after the fact that folks admit the flaws of their pets products.

I now own none of the above, and have no affiliation with any of them, so this is not about favoritism.

I think you may have missed my point Kiddman, I was simply saying the S5's are transparent and revealing of upstream equipment, therefore time should be taken auditioning different amps to see what has good synergy to your ears. Obviously most good ESL's, ribbon or quasi ribbon speakers would have an edge in transparency over a dynamic speaker, but that is only one aspect of it's sound. Tone, timbre, smoothness, balance/coherency, imaging & the ability to scale and realistically convey the full impact of an orchestra (without the need for a sub) are important considerations also.

In general, fast, smooth, tube-like amps sound best with Magico imho. I've had great success running a Vitus amp in Class a which suits my tastes.