Quandry: Used Magico V2 vs. new S1

It's no quandry, go listen and decide for yourself. Ultimately it's your $$ and have to live with them unless you want Bol to move in. I'm surprise you haven't got a recommendation for Vandersteen, JBL 1400 or Monitor Audio yet. LOL!!!

When I was in the market for speakers ~7 months ago, I demoed Magico Q3 for 5+ hrs at Goodwin High End in 2 systems. One all Spectral and the other MSB Dac, Constellation amp and EAR pre. Spectral system gave me a headache after 30 minutes. Overall I found Q3 is a bit lean in the mid bass region but a nice speaker. It's high resolution, detail and very transparent but just not for me.

I did not say slow, I prefer a faster response in the low freq. Other Magico's were better in response.

@Bol, most high end speakers have some level of compromise, unless you're as rich as you apparently are.

Nothing is perfect, and we are not perfect either. Money often does not garantee you the best sound. It is all about making the right combination of stuff. The art of sound! Audio becomes more clear wenn you know the properties of an amp, source, cable or speaker etc. Wenn you did hundreds of tests you can give every single part the properties it owns. Properties together can create the sound you are looking for. For example: Pass Labs gives a very deep and wide stage. But the individual focus of instruments and voices is not sharp enough. I talked many times about this to the people of Pass labs. So you need sources and cables to solve this. Many times people use stuff with the wrong properties. Wenn a client sends a list with all the parts of his set I know how it wil sound and how the stage will be build. ( wenn I auditioned the things he owns)

@Bol, that's true. No loudspeaker can claim to be capable of faithfully reproducing the live event. I also agree throwing money at audio along does not guarantee good sound. I think what you were trying to say is the secret to great sounding audio is system synergy. We're on the same page here. The S5's for example due to their resolving nature and tonality can sound rank with some amps and haunting with others (eg: Vitus). Cables also make a difference. Siltech and Jorma both have great synergy with Magico. In the end it's all about personal taste.