Does Magico have a "house sound", and if so, how would you describe it?
- Thread starter PeterA
- Start date
It seems pretty clear to me that different speaker house sounds exist not so much for the artistic goals of the designer but because listeners have different tastes. Magico has always been polarizing and I get it. They are known for being analytical, but one person's analytical is 'natural' and another's is 'non-musical'.
Except that I like Magico, and I have also heard them sound plain awful. As far as "decent", I don't care about that either. I can get far, far better than "decent" at home
. Perhaps that's also why I usually don't care about shows. Why should I?Spectacular, well that's a different matter.
Except that on your M Project speakers you can get a similarly saturated tonality as I do on my Reference 3A speakers, and with more authority than those on, for example, piano or orchestra.
And I guess there is hardly anyone who would accuse Reference 3A as sounding "analytical".
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Just a note about shows
Shows have some of the worst, saggy, highly impedance, overloaded, noise polluted mains on the planet....way beyond what an average conditioner can fix
Shows are also literally EMI/RFI soup and who knows what the quality of network feeds are like given the amount of bandwidth being consumed.
The rooms are generally asymmetrical and the furniture is removed to make room for seated listeners, who come and go, changing the room’s RT from under-to over and occasionally perfectly damped.
Speakers are set up to allow the maximum number of listeners to get a reasonable impression of performance, so there really is no sweet spot and most seats will not enjoy proper channel balance and symmetry.
The partnering equipment is often loaned and may well include items not fully run in. In addition, all equipment has been packed, transported and only installed the day before the show. In some cases, speaker manufacturers may not really know the sound they are aiming for
Typically the hotel has very high levels of ambient noise...while this may not be heard directly it certainly masks a lot of ambient detail and subtlety .
Earthing at shows is probably both highly polluted and high impedance.
Foot traffic and multiple systems will massively increase floor borne vibration
So all in all, if any manufacturer or dealer can achieve even half decent sound at a show, it demonstrates an extraordinary level of skill, or a highly refined and stable process based on a carefully chosen set of ‘show components’ in order to make the set up as reproducible and stable as possible.
Shows have some of the worst, saggy, highly impedance, overloaded, noise polluted mains on the planet....way beyond what an average conditioner can fix
Shows are also literally EMI/RFI soup and who knows what the quality of network feeds are like given the amount of bandwidth being consumed.
The rooms are generally asymmetrical and the furniture is removed to make room for seated listeners, who come and go, changing the room’s RT from under-to over and occasionally perfectly damped.
Speakers are set up to allow the maximum number of listeners to get a reasonable impression of performance, so there really is no sweet spot and most seats will not enjoy proper channel balance and symmetry.
The partnering equipment is often loaned and may well include items not fully run in. In addition, all equipment has been packed, transported and only installed the day before the show. In some cases, speaker manufacturers may not really know the sound they are aiming for
Typically the hotel has very high levels of ambient noise...while this may not be heard directly it certainly masks a lot of ambient detail and subtlety .
Earthing at shows is probably both highly polluted and high impedance.
Foot traffic and multiple systems will massively increase floor borne vibration
So all in all, if any manufacturer or dealer can achieve even half decent sound at a show, it demonstrates an extraordinary level of skill, or a highly refined and stable process based on a carefully chosen set of ‘show components’ in order to make the set up as reproducible and stable as possible.
Nice summary. Additionally, there is a lot of sound leakage sometimes, especially at Munich, as walls are weak. Sometimes you can hear the neighboring rooms sound.
Many just match their components up with whatever the distributor advertising has at that point, or what the people sharing the room's cost bring to the table.
At Munich, some who rent the same room year after year sometimes have an improvement in sound due to past learnings, but they can implement the learnings only next year. I know two big brands who brought in smaller speakers the following year because they learned their flagship ones did not work in that room, there was no point.
What does irritate me though, is that fans of components go to these rooms where clearly their favored component is sounding sub par, yet come and report back it was one of the best rooms at the show. They are clearly being dishonest, or their own components must be set up pretty bad if they think this poor sounding show room is a reference
Thank you for expressing, much better than I could, what are also my concerns about show conditions. As for the AC mains quality, it might explain in part why at times some of the best sound at shows seems to be from small systems with smaller amps. Whereas big, power hungry amps, such as those typically needed to drive Magicos, just "die" on the miserable mains conditions.
IMHO they are not being dishonest, most of the time they are simply presenting us their surely biased opinion. Once you get used to a component you easily forgive some sins of the system in favor of the good things. My attitude at shows is looking for everything and mostly listening to the positive outstanding sonic aspects.
Sorry to say , but again IMHO inferring about other people audiophile behavior or character is extremely unfair and unfriendly.
Sorry, if you know a component well and what it can do, if it is sounding bad at a particular show due to improper set up, I expect you to tell me this is not representative. Not that wow, this is the best of the show. But you are right. Honesty can be unfriendly.
Listening for some positives has no relation to putting an unnecessary positive spin on the negatives
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All good points - and they only add to my belief that we should be thankful to the people who work hard to carry demos in such hostile conditions and respect their work. If we do not find anything good in it - and it happens some times - we also are the loser.
Except that I like Magico, and I have also heard them sound plain awful. As far as "decent", I don't care about that either. I can get far, far better than "decent" at home
Spectacular, well that's a different matter.
What is "plain awful" to you may be "decent" or even "spectacular" to others (and vice versa). All this subjective stuff is nothing but an ego war
Too bad objectivity is a bad word here.
I was told by industry insiders that WA is the most successful of the Hi-end speaker companies ...
Presenting a $1M system and not taking everything into consideration for those power hungry amps ..
Presenting a $1M system and not taking everything into consideration for those power hungry amps ..
These systems are rarely bought on sonics, so it doesn't make a difference.
