Has anyone heard the Magico Mini?

And how did you get the impression that I said "ANYTHING" will sound better on the big ARC? All I said was that the big ARC will make many other speakers sound good too.

Btw, what amps are you using with your MM now?

Merry Christmas,

Roy

Magico Mini are the 2nd best monitors i'v heard.
The best are the Sonus Faber Extremas.
The Extremas were incredible sounding.

My question was: how did you get the impression that the MM are hard to drive? They are not. They MM are not very efficient but they are easier to driver then many other world class speakers. I am using the CAT JL2 to drive the MM as loud as I will ever need two. I also heard them with the darTZeel, the ARC 210 and the Pass 150.5. All of these amps are under 200W and had no problems running the MM.

Alexc,
you say you heard the Mini with a pair of Torus: can you elaborate on the difference with the mini alone? does it justify the 19k additional investment?
thanks

I am a little late to the discussion, but would still like to add my 2 cents.

Much of the discussion so far surround the Mini and the SF Guarneri.

I currently own and use the Mini, and I used to own the Guarneri. (the original)

To compare the Guarneri to the Magico Mini, imho, is not very appropriate. Of course they are both fine loudspeakers, but they are based on completely different design goals. I have also owned the SF Amati, so I am quite familiar with the SF approach. The Magico Mini is imo, a level, if not two, above the Guarneri. Yes, the Guarneri can be more 'relaxing', but whatever characters or adjectives one manages to use to describe the Guarneri sound, it is because SF designs their speakers after a *certain* sound. I have spoken with Mr. Alon Wolf. His approach is very much different from SF. AW prefers to designs his speakers from a scientific angle... just like if you feed an amplifier a square wave, the resulting signal should also be a square wave. So the Magico Mini are designed to be hi fidelity transducer that attempts to convert the electrical signal into a mechanical motion -> acoustic energy.

The G has a sound. In the long run, every CD you play through the G will have the G characteristic. The Magico Mini is imo much more successful as a transducer to deliver what the signal truly are with very very low distortion and little to no 'coloring' (the room will become the biggest variable).

The resolving power, the lightning fast transients attack (start and stop), the tuneful and VERY extended bass from the sealed enclosure are truly steps above any SF model.

Also, the build quality, I should mention... I used to think SF are gorgeous, but they are nowhere close to the way Magico constructs their speakers. What you see on the Mini is the actual stacked plywood pattern with no veneer masking what is underneath. The woodwork quality, plus the aluminum CNC work are all top notch.

These are not speakers that you will be impressed with with casual listenings. Speakers like the WP8 (pretty yucky to me) can often grab someone's attention by their exaggerated midbass. The Magico Mini, on the other hand, are so linear, so distortion free, they could take some time to use to. It took me only 10 mins to realize how good they are. But if you have been 'suffering' from poorly ported design for years, the linear, extended and tuneful bass from the Mini could really take some getting used to. But trust me, once you get used to it, there's no going back.