Several years ago before RMAF moved away from the Marriott, Magico had the Presidential Suite at the DTC Hyatt Regency (a few blocks away). This was the year that Magico had introduced the M3 and they had combined it with Solution 701 monoblocks, the 725 preamp, the 755 phono preamplifier, a Kronos Sparta turntable, and Nordost cabling (not sure if it was Valhalla, Odin might not have been introduced yet). They had dialed in the speaker location perfectly. The combo of the large room, the selection and assembly of the components and source and the effort that went into the set-up – well, it’s a sound I will never forget. They nailed every part of the presentation.
Did it fully replicate a "live" sound? Probably not in the very sense of what is "real", and yes we were listening to “audiophile” records (Dean, SVR, Oscar Peterson, etc.) but the magic of that sound was superior to anything I’d heard in more than 30 years of this hobby. After two-plus hours my wife had to drag me back to the regular RMAF show (something about being beyond hungry . . .) But I went back to Magico’s suite the next day to hear more, and it was just as sublime as the prior day.