Magico M3

FrantzM

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the main towers have a fixed roll off from the high 30hz region, down 3db at 25hz and down 6db at 20 hz.

the bass towers have an adjustment range for the crossover dial up to 60hz.....but the highest I've tried it is 37hz, right now it's at 35hz. I don't know how steep the roll off is exactly for the bass towers or what the settings co-relate to exactly. I do it by ear.

there are also bass gain, 'Q' and extension adjustments, as well as a low filter too which I turn off.

every adjustment is quite audible with the smallest change.

Do you realize these numbers are as "full-range" as it can be ? -3 dB down at 25 Hz is FULL RANGE.. There is no other qualifier for it .. and yet the bass towers do add something ... Full range speakers with subs is what you have :)
 

Mike Lavigne

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Do you realize these numbers are as "full-range" as it can be ? -3 dB down at 25 Hz is FULL RANGE.. There is no other qualifier for it .. and yet the bass towers do add something ... Full range speakers with subs is what you have :)

well; lots of 2 ways extend into the 30hz range.

and just having some output into the 20hz range to my way of thinking is not full range. its full range when it sounds 'complete' by itself.

reality is how the main towers of the MM7's don't sound 'full' enough on 1/3rd of the music to be stand alone. how you might express that technically is beyond my understanding.

true integration of separate bass towers/subwoofers to my way of thinking involves some sort of restriction to bottom octave fullness in the main towers. just my 2 cents from where I stand.

and I suppose there are many degrees of seamless bass performance, and different perspectives on what might be acceptable.
 
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andromedaaudio

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Hearing range describes the range of frequencies that can be heard by humans or other animals, though it can also refer to the range of levels. The human range is commonly given as 20 to 20,000 Hz, though there is considerable variation between individuals, especially at high frequencies, and a gradual loss of sensitivity to higher frequencies with age is considered normal. Sensitivity also varies with frequency, as shown by equal-loudness contours. Routine investigation for hearing loss usually involves an audiogram which shows threshold levels relative to a normal.

Several animal species are able to hear frequencies well beyond the human hearing range. Some dolphins and bats, for example, can hear frequencies up to 100 kHz. Elephants can hear sounds at 14–16 Hz, while some whales can hear subsonic sounds as low as 7 Hz (in water).


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearing_range


Do you realize these numbers are as "full-range" as it can be ? -3 dB down at 25 Hz is FULL RANGE.. There is no other qualifier for it .. and yet the bass towers do add something ... Full range speakers with subs is what you have :)
 

slcaudiophile

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Nov 6, 2014
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Um ... SLC?
I have decided to replace my somewhat problematic Raidho D-3's with Magico M3's. Ordering a new design speaker without an audition or a review was breaking new ground for me. I have to wait until October for delivery. The dealer is helping ease the pain by loaning me a pair of Magico S1 Mk II's. I'm going to pick them up next Saturday. There were some very good conversations on the Magico line of speakers here on this forum. I joined just now to continue the dialogue. Hopefully my experiences with the S1's and the M3's will be of value to other members.

Cincy

what does problematic mean? that is strange to hear. magico stuff is probably some the best sounding (hifi sound) stuff on the planet (and i own YGs) so im sure you will be happy.
 

Cincy2

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what does problematic mean? that is strange to hear. magico stuff is probably some the best sounding (hifi sound) stuff on the planet (and i own YGs) so im sure you will be happy.

I had issues with the Raidho D3 bass. I couldn't get it flat in my room. The bump cased resonances on some of my favorite tracks. The M3's which don't have a port like the Raidho's integrated easily and I am one happy camper.

Cincy
 

slcaudiophile

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Nov 6, 2014
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Um ... SLC?
My M3's are in place and singing. I wanted to share a few thoughts on them. First.... a huge thanks to Mike B at Suncoast Audio in Bradenton Florida for the assistance he provided in getting these into the house and set up properly. Changing speaker brands is as stressful as divorce and remarriage...maybe more so. While I was waiting for the M3's Mike lent me his S1s for three months to keep me occupied during the build process. This act went above and beyond the call of duty and the generosity is unmatched by any dealer in my 25 years with this obsession. Having that experience made the exchange of massive amounts of coin of the realm for M3's much easier to endure. I developed faith in the Magico brand and their marketing and grew excited to hear the M3's after the extremely positive experience with Magico's "entry level" model.

Packing. Each speaker comes in its own crate standing upright. One side of the crate converts to a ramp to permit the speaker, when it's restraints are removed, to be wheeled off the elevated platform. From there it is an easy trip to the music room where the wheels are removed and replaced with Mpods. This is a three person task. Two to tip and hold the speaker and the third to manipulate the wheels / Mpods. We managed to get this done without any medical or pharmaceutical assistance. Very cleverly thought out packaging. If they got this right, what about the speakers?

The S1Mk2s are a sealed design and were easy to place in my room. They threw a wide and deep soundstage once I got the wall treatments right. The trebles were rich, saturated and natural. Bass was tight and substantial for a single driver speaker. They amazed me. I went to the Magico plant and listened to the M3's in their room. They were impressive but there are so many variables you just never know until they are in your room with your front end and cables and your butt is in the sweet spot.

Right from the first track I could hear the improvements over the S1. The S1 trebles that I already loved were more relaxed and dense from the M3's. The percussion on several tracks was more lifelike (a feat believe me). One track from a Mapleshade Redbook file with a harmonica and "bones" was so startlingly realistic I got chills. My xylophone jazz tracks and solo piano defined "percussion" instrument. Bass heavy tracks produced more bass volume than the S1's but it was not intrusive or out of context with the rest of the presentation. I know the "correct" volume for my critical listening tracks and I had to crank it down for the M3's. Very efficient design.

Soundstage: Even wider (I didn't think that was possible) than the S1's. Where the S1's appeared to be wider than the speaker placement, the M3 stage appeared to me to be wider than the room boundaries. The individual images (voice or instrument) had more air around them and were larger within the soundstage than the S1 presentation. I heard that in Magico's room at their factory when I visited which was understandable in a room the size of a warehouse. I wasn't expecting it in my 14 X 19 foot room. Very nice.

Bottom line. Best speaker I've owned by a mile. They are fullly up to the task of handling my front end and amps. A lot of the credit for the rich sounding presentation goes to the D'Agostino amps. The speakers perform nicely by getting out of the way. There were times with my previous ported speakers where I was ready to give up the hobby forever I was so discouraged. Not any more my friends.



Cincy


that is impressive for sure.
 

slcaudiophile

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Nov 6, 2014
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Um ... SLC?
I had issues with the Raidho D3 bass. I couldn't get it flat in my room. The bump cased resonances on some of my favorite tracks. The M3's which don't have a port like the Raidho's integrated easily and I am one happy camper.

Cincy

ah ... ok. i just saw your system. well done. seriously ... that is incredible.
 

Elberoth

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A fellow audiophile also bought the M3s. His past speakers were B&W 800D3, which he bought last year. He drives them with Dag Momentum M400 monos in a mid sized room (14'x20'). He said the improvement he got was 'across the board'. They sound fuller and more natural, with great resolution AND extremely smooth top end. He was affraid that the bass may be lacking in weight & slam (afterall, the M3 has three 7" woofers compared to two 10" woofers in the 800D3), but it turned out not to be the case.

Another happy M3 owner.
 
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Narayan

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Oct 6, 2015
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How do you Magico owners feel the sealed designs adapt to your rooms vs ported speakers? Can they be placed closer to the back wall and still shine?
 

Elberoth

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How do you Magico owners feel the sealed designs adapt to your rooms vs ported speakers? Can they be placed closer to the back wall and still shine?

Definately. The bass is less problematic. It is faster, more articulate, more defined, with less boom. I have switched over from a quality ported design and the difference in bass quality was literally shocking.
 

Narayan

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Oct 6, 2015
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Thanks Adam, I will have to make a point of listening to Magico speakers some time and listen for myself what all the (good) fuss is about. The fact the sealed designs are easier to integrate makes them all the more attractive.
 

ksalno

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I found the best place to listen to them is at the factory in Hayward, CA (just south of Oakland). Very few dealers stock them and even if you go to the audio shows, Magico may not have them there, esp. now the M6 is out. I recently completed the conversion of a former bedroom into a dedicated listening room with M3's and a pair of Q-Subs. The bass was actually too much for the room. I ended up using an analog crossover at 110 Hz to prevent over-powering the room. Even then, the room is heavily treated, you can see the 17x17 bass traps in the corners in the picture below. There are other 5" absorbers on all 4 walls and the ceiling but they are harder to see in the picture because they are covered by an acoustically transparent vinyl that is the same color as the wall paint. My room is roughly 14x22x8.5 and M3's by themselves can over drive the room if the door is closed. They are not lacking bass, at all. In fact, they are so resolving that it will make you want to start upgrading cables, power conditioners, and everything else because you WILL hear the improvements.

IMG-0734.JPG
 

Elberoth

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Wow, a great looking room.

My room is 14x19 and I don't feel I'm overpowering the room at all. My former speakers - the S5 mk 2 (and S5 mk 1 before them) were also perfectly fine in my room. I found them (i.e. all Magicos - M3, S5 mk1/2) perform much better than my previous reference, which was a highly regarded 3-way, dual 8" woofers design.

My room is also fully treated (with concrete floors), with bass peaks around 30 and 80Hz (from the top of my head).
 

BMCG

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I found the best place to listen to them is at the factory in Hayward, CA (just south of Oakland). Very few dealers stock them and even if you go to the audio shows, Magico may not have them there, esp. now the M6 is out. I recently completed the conversion of a former bedroom into a dedicated listening room with M3's and a pair of Q-Subs. The bass was actually too much for the room. I ended up using an analog crossover at 110 Hz to prevent over-powering the room. Even then, the room is heavily treated, you can see the 17x17 bass traps in the corners in the picture below. There are other 5" absorbers on all 4 walls and the ceiling but they are harder to see in the picture because they are covered by an acoustically transparent vinyl that is the same color as the wall paint. My room is roughly 14x22x8.5 and M3's by themselves can over drive the room if the door is closed. They are not lacking bass, at all. In fact, they are so resolving that it will make you want to start upgrading cables, power conditioners, and everything else because you WILL hear the improvements.

View attachment 38437

Am curious as to what dual Q Subs bring....given the size of your room would have intuited that maybe the M3's standalone or at most 1 sub would have been sufficient.

Gather...my intuition does not accord with your experience
 

Narayan

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Oct 6, 2015
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You have a fantastic system Ksalno! I see you have the Ansuz Mainz8 DT-C installed and would love to read your impressions about its performance. TIA.
 

ksalno

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Mar 29, 2015
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Am curious as to what dual Q Subs bring....given the size of your room would have intuited that maybe the M3's standalone or at most 1 sub would have been sufficient.

Gather...my intuition does not accord with your experience

Your intuition is better than my judgement - one sub would have been enough. In fact, I mute one of the subs at times, especially if I am doing critical listening or trying to A:B test other devices. With the room tuning and crossover, two subs works in my listening position but it is boomy when I stand up to flip a record or do something at the equipment rack, which is behind my chair. I also am waiting for a visit from Peter (Magico) to fine tune the subs and determine final position, which is why they are still on the casters. Putting them down on their footers may tighten things up a bit.
 

Pb Blimp

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Your intuition is better than my judgement - one sub would have been enough. In fact, I mute one of the subs at times, especially if I am doing critical listening or trying to A:B test other devices. With the room tuning and crossover, two subs works in my listening position but it is boomy when I stand up to flip a record or do something at the equipment rack, which is behind my chair. I also am waiting for a visit from Peter (Magico) to fine tune the subs and determine final position, which is why they are still on the casters. Putting them down on their footers may tighten things up a bit.

Awesome set-up. I think you did it right. Two subs are never about volume but rather about evening out the room modes. If you get things dialed in two should definitely be less boomy than one.
 

ksalno

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Mar 29, 2015
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You have a fantastic system Ksalno! I see you have the Ansuz Mainz8 DT-C installed and would love to read your impressions about its performance. TIA.

Thanks, Narayan. The Mainz8 D-TC recently replaced a Mainz8 I've had for a couple of years. I wasn't expecting much, in fact this was a demo unit. I have a separate sub-panel for my room and the power to the panel is run through a Eaton UPS and a very large transformer to clean it up and maintain the voltage level (street power fluctuates wildly here). So I didn't think the new D-TC would have any impact. Being a demo unit the D-TC was already broken in, so as soon as I swapped it in, I could hear a difference on the first song I listened to. I was the MoFi 45rpm UltraDisc recording of Bill Evans at the Village Vanguard - acoustic piano, bass, and drums. I thought it sounded great on my system as is, but adding the D-TC took it up a level and was very noticeable. There were two other people in the room with me and we all heard it immediately. And it wasn't in tighter bass, where everyone talks about improvement - probably because the amps for the subs are run on their own dedicated 20A circuits to the panel and don't go through any power conditioning. Where I heard it was the in the drums. The brush work on the snare and cymbals, formerly in the background behind the bass and piano were now front and center, on an equal plane. It was almost like someone turned up the volume (which I checked with a meter to ensure it hadn't changed). I ran through a bunch of my other reference tracks and confirmed that everything sounded cleaner, the instruments more distinct, and a smidge more clarity in the highs with cymbals, triangles, etc. My dealer had several other similarly priced conditioners from other manufacturers that we listened to and the only one that I could hear a positive difference with was the D-TC. I went from a skeptic to buying the demo model!
 

Elberoth

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A fellow member from Audio Shark forum hired Jim Smith from http://getbettersound.com to dial in his M3s and subs. He said the results were really impressive and well worth the money.
 

ksalno

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Mar 29, 2015
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Thanks, Adam. I spoke with Jim early on in the room tuning process and he basically said he didn't think he could help me. I'm not sure what I said or did that caused that reaction. In any case, I've been working with a bunch of different people and am very happy with the current sound at my chair. 2' in any direction is a different story. That's why I have only one chair in the room, I guess ;-)
 

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