Magico M9

[Lagonda]

i think when assessing this ultimate Magico design, you have to consider what makes Magico......Magico. elegance, and fitting into a particular vibe trumps other criteria. how to make it the most Magico it can be. not that it won't perform really well.

ponder who chooses to actually buy a particular $750k speaker? someone who has his/her/their interior designer accessorize the room......mostly. not us mouth-breathing mono-brows with open top gear cases sitting around, listening in our underwear.

making a business case for the design, it does connect the dots.

walking into a really high class residence, would you be more impressed with the WAMM or the M9? i think the M9 wins going away. and an M9 sitting in a dealer showroom will be a magnet.

this is eye candy for the whole line-up. and i think good for the hifi industry.

I vastly prefer the look of your speakers Mike.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Re surface area of drivers comparisons, how does this M9 compare to the Alsyvox Caravaggio, 2-panel and 4-panel?

 

[bonzo75]

Re surface area of drivers comparisons, how does this M9 compare to the Alsyvox Caravaggio, 2-panel and 4-panel?

Panels will always be tall and broad. Totally different to having a cabinet built around a driver

 

[spiritofmusic]

Yes, but others incl Emile have made comparisons on cm2.

 

[bonzo75]

A a music lover and audiophile, how can you not be impressed?

No. Just more sh*t. I want quality stuff. I haven't seen a change in quality from old to new magico. Slight change in sound that people with lack of exposure consider an upgrade, yes. So if I can't see a justification of 2k for Q7 mk2 (which don't stand up to Martin Logan hybrids, apogee scintilla, vintage tannoy, or devore orangutans, all substantially cheaper, we are not even taking SoTA territory), why should I see 750k as impressive given the speaker history. A marketing student should be impressed, for sure. This is just ratcheting up of price tickets by a company with impressive marketing record but not a sonics record

 

[Duke LeJeune]

But I feel empirically that doubling the driver surface in the all-important midrange is critical to increasing transparency resolution and overall realism...

With a cost-no-object speaker, and a size-no-object design brief, I just have in my head that I want more midrange driver surface area. With giant dynamic driver speakers I just don't like the idea that such a small part of the real estate of the speaker is being used to squirt out so much of the all-important middle frequency range.

I agree with you! I should have mentioned the flip side of the trade-off, which is what you're describing here.

In general my preferred solution is, one big cone instead of two small ones. And there are tradeoffs with that as well.

 

[morricab]

Re surface area of drivers comparisons, how does this M9 compare to the Alsyvox Caravaggio, 2-panel and 4-panel?

No comparison on surface area...the panel wins

 

[morricab]

No. Just more sh*t. I want quality stuff. I haven't seen a change in quality from old to new magico. Slight change in sound that people with lack of exposure consider an upgrade, yes. So if I can't see a justification of 2k for Q7 mk2 (which don't stand up to Martin Logan hybrids, apogee scintilla, vintage tannoy, or devore orangutans, all substantially cheaper, we are not even taking SoTA territory), why should I see 750k as impressive given the speaker history. A marketing student should be impressed, for sure. This is just ratcheting up of price tickets by a company with impressive marketing record but not a sonics record

I find it shocking that this speaker cost as much as their previous horn Ultimate, which had hugely expensive ALE compression drivers and probably crazy expensive horns.

 

[morricab]

Fair enough. I am not familiar with the height perception differences.

But I feel empirically that doubling the driver surface in the all-important midrange is critical to increasing transparency resolution and overall realism.

When I compared the YG Haley 2 to the Sonja I felt the biggest sonic improvement with the Sonja -- accruing, I believe, from the doubling of the midrange driver surface area -- was greater transparency, resolution and overall realism.

With a cost-no-object speaker, and a size-no-object design brief, I just have in my head that I want more midrange driver surface area. With giant dynamic driver speakers I just don't like the idea that such a small part of tne real estate of the speaker is being used to squirt out so much of the all-important middle frequency range.

Use a bigger midrange driver. I have 8 inch and 10 inch mids in my systems...effortless. Our Dynamikks use up to 12 inch mids...again effortless. Of course a big panel does the same...

 

[bonzo75]

I find it shocking that this speaker cost as much as their previous horn Ultimate, which had hugely expensive ALE compression drivers and probably crazy expensive horns.

ChristensenLeif and his friends owned and compared the ALE 7500 DE with many other drivers. They found them poor both sonically and in terms of production quality. And they know their stuff

 

[morricab]

I find the driver placement choices very interesting. With a cost-no-object design, and now that Alon is placing larger drivers above the midrange driver and the tweeter, he must have considered a full D'Appolito configuration (e.g., Rockport Arrakis, VSA Ultra 11) or at least an M-T-M configuration (e.g., Rockport Lyra, YG Sonja) but affirmatively rejected it. I wonder why?

Maybe splitting up the self-powered woofers, with one up on top, was not an appealing prospect. That would have precluded the inverted complete speaker-on-woofer-module theory which TLi advanced above.

I just find it surprising the mid is a puny little thing...

 

[morricab]

ChristensenLeif and his friends owned and compared the ALE 7500 DE with many other drivers. They found them poor both sonically and in terms of production quality. And they know their stuff

Ok, they still cost a fortune and that is only a single data point. Maybe they suck but you pay for the experience...

 

[thomask]

I just find it surprising the mid is a puny little thing...

I have yet to assemble my Scaena 3.2 speakers which has Twelve 4 inch midrange drivers.

 

[marty]

No. Just more sh*t. I want quality stuff. I haven't seen a change in quality from old to new magico. Slight change in sound that people with lack of exposure consider an upgrade, yes. So if I can't see a justification of 2k for Q7 mk2 (which don't stand up to Martin Logan hybrids, apogee scintilla, vintage tannoy, or devore orangutans, all substantially cheaper, we are not even taking SoTA territory), why should I see 750k as impressive given the speaker history. A marketing student should be impressed, for sure. This is just ratcheting up of price tickets by a company with impressive marketing record but not a sonics record

Let me guess...Alon is not going to include your comments in the next Magico ad in TAS or Stereophile

 

[spiritofmusic]

Well, Zu won't use Ked either.

 

[bonzo75]

Well, Zu won't use Ked either.

Zu doesn't need anyone else. You against the world

 

[XV-1]

Maybe before Lloyd picks up THAT pair of used Rockport Arrakis?

Not gonna happen

 

[dcathro]

It's funny how things have changed. I remember when I had the Alon Phalanx/Poseidon system in the late 90's (one of the most expensive speakers you could buy), I felt almost guilty for having such an expensive, indulgent and ostentatious speaker system. I never thought we would see speakers at 20 times that mark.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Well, once MDs were at no more than 20x the salary of their secretaries.
Now it, what, 2000x.
Nothing ethical in that. And nothing in these prices.

 

[Duke LeJeune]

Nothing ethical... in these prices.

I'm not really comfortable calling out Magico or its customers over "ethics" when the difference between them and me is at most a matter of degree.