Maggie versus Magico

Had a chance to hear the Magico mini system again recently.

Still one of the most striking sounding systems I've heard out there. Fantastic transient attack and detail!

The price did go way up since a year ago, over $30000 now. Yikes!

I suppose these are the cream of the creme though if you are looking for a no holds barred monitor design for use in tight quarters.

I had various maggies for many years. All the ones I owned were very musical straight out the box. I got into tweaking them and found a whole new level of performance. The maggie suffers from a diffuse and soft presentation unless tweaked to death. Even then it can be dynamically challenged compared to some. They are a lovely speaker.

The Magicos I have heard have been extremely good and have more to offer. They were very detailed with enormous punch and impressive bass. But are they worth the huge difference in price?

I heard some Magico $30k floor standers which were beautifully finished (with ARC CD8/ ARC Ref3 pre/ DarTZeel amp/ transparent cables) they were very impressive as they should be. The Magnepans stereo image size, woody sweetness and romance is heard to beat though. You could buy 3 pairs of MG20s for the price of the Magico floor stander... I know what I would rather have.

I don't know about the older Maggies, but my new 3.6R's with vertical crossovers are more dynamic and play loud and huge. In fact, they compare favorably to even my previous W/P 6's, Sophias and Dynausio C4's. They simply need an amp that doubles down from 8 to 4 to 2ohms. I use Cardas jumpers, MIT cables and HiFi Tuning fuses for maximum splendiferousness:O)

Hi Dave,
I had the 3.6r as well as older maggies. Lovely they were too. But you have to bare in mind the 3.6 is 85db/watt sensitivity. Even with huge doubling into 4 ohm type amps they are incapable of true dynamic swings. They are great with smaller swings and intricate timbre changes, but loud big bangs like bass drums get "contained" or softened. You will never jump out of your skin with a maggie. I got used to it and soon forgot that side of things because it did everything else extremely well. I felt the full range Apogees had the legs on the maggie by quite a margin. Though they were a little more zingy and less woody sounding.

I was surprised by the Magicos dynamics. I think it was about 93 or 94 db/watt. The bass was very full and controlled. Not sure if it had the quality the 3.6r can have down there, but easily as deep. The cabinet seemed to be silent. No hint of joining in with the music. But again look at the price! In a contest I think I would lean towards the maggie, but I would doff my cap to the magico with the extra 20k in my wallet. I would love to hear the really big Magicos...

Chadeffect, that is what I expected as well. For the life of me I cannot understand why I am getting BETTER dynamic swing , presence and slam aka punch that is equal to or better than most of the box speakers I've owned which included Wilson W/P6's, Sophias, Dynaudio C4's etc.. Now I'm not talking sub 25hz slam, which is mostly artifactual and not what you hear in the hall (except on pipe organs), but real world mid bass/bass dynamics that go almost unnoticed by most conventional box speakers. For the lowest lows I have 2 subs which go down to 18hz:O)