Magico Q7 + Constellation Performance series

[stereo]

Everybody has there own expiriences , its more a preference thing i reckon there is no good or wrong.
Do you know the name of the store by the way , and what kind of dartzeel equipment are they using on the Q 7 , i was planning to pop over to london maybe for a weekend any way.

The store is Absolute Sounds in Wimbledon. Biggest high end dealer in the UK. They are driving the Q7 with a pair of NHB458.

 

[LL21]

The store is Absolute Sounds in Wimbledon. Biggest high end dealer in the UK. They are driving the Q7 with a pair of NHB458.

Great guys. Been around a long, long time...you can go back to some of the earliest journals of Stereophile and Martin Colloms would mention them quite often...and its the same people. Ricardo is the owner...stability is extremely important in distributorships.

Pedro the GM is probably one of the most respected guys in the business as well, and gets a ton of respect for his vast technical knowledge, experience and abilities from all the folks at Transparent Audio, Wilson Audio and others with whom i have spoken over the years.

If anyone is going to set up the Q7 well, it is going to be them. FWIW, i could believe that they have made magic out of that speaker. From my limited experience with Magico, they have clearly focused on transparency, linearity first at the expense in some cases of extreme frequency extension, fullness, etc (many complain about bass in other smaller speakers)...this much seemed clear to me as soon as i heard it. Now, with Magico's delivery of a 750-lb all-out speaker, one that can deliver dynamics at any level within most any range of room size...i am not surprised if, by getting the electronics right (CRUCIAL)...Absolute Sounds made magic in their Listening room with Q7.

 

[phillipK]

From my limited experience with Magico, they have clearly focused on transparency, linearity first at the expense in some cases of extreme frequency extension, fullness, etc ...

It is a myth. Audiophiles are simply conditioned to a mid-bass hump, confusing it with extension.

 

[andromedaaudio]

It is a myth. Audiophiles are simply conditioned to a mid-bass hump, confusing it with extension.[/QUOTE

There are also flat response speakers with no BODY

 

[caesar]

From my humble point of view of a music lover who goes to more than 50 concerts a year and as an amateur musician, Magico is for me the speaker brand which approaches the most the sound of live music... In particular, compared to the Q7, all other speakers I have listened to (big Tidal, big MBL, XLF, the sonus faber, the MM3...) have their own sonic character... which I grow tired of over time . The Q7 is the perfect speaker for me because it is invisible, it doesn't have a sound in itself, it just delivers a flat frequency response, with transient speed out of this world and with exceptional quality of timbre.

A lot of people hear it at shows driven by Spectral, and complain that it is too cold, with a too prominent tweeter: I agree, but what you hear is the Spectral sound, and I wouldn't match them with Spectral in my own system. I had the chance to listen to a pair of Q7 on the same day in a good room driven by very different electronics: they are so transparent that they completely disappear, you hear very easily the contribution of the source used and amp, whereas most other speakers add their own sonic character on the top, like a veil masking upstream components. With the right amp, they are pure magic: transparency of an electrostat with the weight of the best dynamic speaker.

This is why it is extremely important to listen to them with the electronic which fits your taste. Personally, I find DCS too dry as a source, and as an amp I would rather match them with the big Dartzeel: sound would be as transparent, but with an amazing quality of note decay, and zero aggressiveness. If you are in London, you can listen there to the Q7 with the Dartzeel.

Jeff Fritz wrote it much better than me:
"In my room, for the first time in my audiophile life, I was unable to get a handle on where the stops were. What I mean is that the more I pushed the Q7s, in every direction, the more they kept exceeding all my prior experiences. This is not just in terms of frequency extension, loudness capability, resolving power, speed and dynamic impact -- though those were areas in which the Q7 was the best I've heard. The amazing part was that the speaker was so chameleon-like that I really could not nail down its character. It was that complete lack of sonic character that led me to make the statement about it being the first "unlimited performance" loudspeaker".

So if you don't like what you heard, question the source, the cables, the amp... because it is the only speaker as transparent to let you hear all of upstream contributions so easily.
Last, it surprises me always how many people on this forum cannot stand that numerous reviewer fall in love with Magico. I suggest you stop imagining secret plots in which reviewers "sold themselves to Magico" and go to listen for yourself, paired with electronics you like: you would realize that there is a reason behind the buzz.

And yes, if what you want is a speaker which always sound nice, even with a crappy recording, sorry, the Magico sound is not for you. Sonus Faber is occupying this market segment very well. It is question of personal taste, but I prefer to have to throw away 1/3 of my CDs and have an unique experience on the remaining ones.

PS: I don't own yet a pair of Magico, but have one on order.

Stereo, you have cut out the parts of my quote that discuss why and how people perceive things differently. I even quoted Shakespeare and Winston Churchill in the summarizing the psychology theory, probably a first and last time on an Internet audio board anyone will do something like this. But as for reviewer incentives, it is very clear where they stand. IMHO, the benchmark for reviews that put love of music above audio vocabulary is Peter Breuninger's MBL review:

http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showt...euninger-Is-the-speaker-as-good-as-the-review

but this is a subject for another thread...

Regardless, I am sincerely happy for you that you have found your bliss speaker. I am confident that as you are anticipating the new speaker to arrive, you are imagining sonic nirvana. Psychologically, imagining anything is a source of great joy. I hope you are in the same state of love with your speaker 10 years from now as you are right now.

Cheers!

 

[FrantzM]

whenever a manufacturer is getting so criticized while people are lining up to buy their ware, they must be doing something very right .. I need to audition the Q7 ...

 

[LL21]

It is a myth. Audiophiles are simply conditioned to a mid-bass hump, confusing it with extension.

Yes and no. Magico V3 did avoid the fuller extension of its bigger brother which you can hear on deep house and electronic music. Specs are 32Hz–40kHz vs another 10hz or more in the bigger speakers.

That said, i admit that i push the bass response from 20hz-38hz up around 3db with my sub...when i move around the room, kick drums feel more like they do when i am near one. I prefer it that way.

 

[FrantzM]

Yes and no. <snip>

That said, i admit that i push the bass response from 20hz-38hz up around 3db with my sub...when i move around the room, kick drums feel more like they do when i am near one. I prefer it that way.

LLoyd

20 to 38 Hz is not considered "mid-bass" .. more like low bass.

Many who criticize the Q7 have not yet heard it ... Anyway .. Too bad there is no dealer around me in Florida, maybe when I go to NY or the West Coast...
I am somewhat confused by the configuration of the Q7 though does it allow bi-amping , I suspect so but am not sure.. What is recommended by Magico itself?

 

[LL21]

LLoyd

20 to 38 Hz is not considered "mid-bass" .. more like low bass.

Many who criticize the Q7 have not yet heard it ... Anyway .. Too bad there is no dealer around me in Florida, maybe when I go to NY or the West Coast...
I am somewhat confused by the configuration of the Q7 though does it allow bi-amping , I suspect so but am not sure.. What is recommended by Magico itself?

Thanks, yes...was just illustrating the point that i admit that i have added a few db in bass rather than go strictly linear. If you do hear it, pls post your impressions!

 

[stereo]

I am somewhat confused by the configuration of the Q7 though does it allow bi-amping , I suspect so but am not sure.. What is recommended by Magico itself?

Hi Frantz,
You can have them configured at your request: with a single amp, or bi-amped, or tri-amped... There is not a clear recommendation. For sure, you will gain even more dynamic headroom with bi-amp, but that may be at the expense of a very slight decrease of homogeneity as both amps can never be exactly identical. both ways... you will be happy!
If you go to listen to them, make sure you listen to different upstream configurations. As many mentioned before, they are real chameleons, their unmatched level of transparency and dynamic let you hear everything upstream. I heard them with 6 different amps in 3 different rooms, and each time the sound was very different.
Last, it is unlikely they will ever be the weak element of the sound chain, whatever you use to feed them with.... which is very surprising for a speaker!
yes, they are THAT good. No surprise Magico generates so much hate from some people on forums, I don't think that incumbents are happy to get marginalized by a 8 years old company which is revolutionizing speakers design ;-)

 

[FrantzM]

Hi

In the Multi-amp configuration is the crossover taken out of the signal path or are they delivered without any crossover relying on an active crossover?

 

[Worldcat]

From my humble point of view of a music lover who goes to more than 50 concerts a year and as an amateur musician, Magico is for me the speaker brand which approaches the most the sound of live music... In particular, compared to the Q7, all other speakers I have listened to (big Tidal, big MBL, XLF, the sonus faber, the MM3...) have their own sonic character... which I grow tired of over time . The Q7 is the perfect speaker for me because it is invisible, it doesn't have a sound in itself, it just delivers a flat frequency response, with transient speed out of this world and with exceptional quality of timbre.

A lot of people hear it at shows driven by Spectral, and complain that it is too cold, with a too prominent tweeter: I agree, but what you hear is the Spectral sound, and I wouldn't match them with Spectral in my own system. I had the chance to listen to a pair of Q7 on the same day in a good room driven by very different electronics: they are so transparent that they completely disappear, you hear very easily the contribution of the source used and amp, whereas most other speakers add their own sonic character on the top, like a veil masking upstream components. With the right amp, they are pure magic: transparency of an electrostat with the weight of the best dynamic speaker.

This is why it is extremely important to listen to them with the electronic which fits your taste. Personally, I find DCS too dry as a source, and as an amp I would rather match them with the big Dartzeel: sound would be as transparent, but with an amazing quality of note decay, and zero aggressiveness. If you are in London, you can listen there to the Q7 with the Dartzeel.

Jeff Fritz wrote it much better than me:
"In my room, for the first time in my audiophile life, I was unable to get a handle on where the stops were. What I mean is that the more I pushed the Q7s, in every direction, the more they kept exceeding all my prior experiences. This is not just in terms of frequency extension, loudness capability, resolving power, speed and dynamic impact -- though those were areas in which the Q7 was the best I've heard. The amazing part was that the speaker was so chameleon-like that I really could not nail down its character. It was that complete lack of sonic character that led me to make the statement about it being the first "unlimited performance" loudspeaker".

So if you don't like what you heard, question the source, the cables, the amp... because it is the only speaker as transparent to let you hear all of upstream contributions so easily.
Last, it surprises me always how many people on this forum cannot stand that numerous reviewer fall in love with Magico. I suggest you stop imagining secret plots in which reviewers "sold themselves to Magico" and go to listen for yourself, paired with electronics you like: you would realize that there is a reason behind the buzz.

And yes, if what you want is a speaker which always sound nice, even with a crappy recording, sorry, the Magico sound is not for you. Sonus Faber is occupying this market segment very well. It is question of personal taste, but I prefer to have to throw away 1/3 of my CDs and have an unique experience on the remaining ones.

PS: I don't own yet a pair of Magico, but have one on order.

I have never heard a Magico that sounded good. They have a manufactured sound to me. I like speakers to sound like live music.

 

[ack]

Hi

In the Multi-amp configuration is the crossover taken out of the signal path or are they delivered without any crossover relying on an active crossover?

My understanding is the crossover stays put, you just plug in two amps

 

[stereo]

My understanding is the crossover stays put, you just plug in two amps

correct, the 2 amps will be connected to two different sections of the passive crossover (actually to two different crossovers, because the Q7 crossover is so big that its bass and medium-tweeter sections are mounted on 2 different boards, each of them probably 10 times larger than the crossover of any other brand on the market....). You must see the size of the coils... crazy!

 

[ack]

An update on my original post. I revisited the dealer and he told me the Q7s have gone through wild and unexpectedly long break-in. So much so that they now sound extra-ordinary and can be properly driven by the Spectral 360 monos. I trust their judgement and will be listening to the Q7 again soon, this time with the truly world-class Spectrals.

 

[nirodha]

I like speakers to sound like live music.

The Q7 is exactly that! Heard it 3 times now and it is as close to live music as possible

 

[PeterA]

An update on my original post. I revisited the dealer and he told me the Q7s have gone through wild and unexpectedly long break-in. So much so that they now sound extra-ordinary and can be properly driven by the Spectral 360 monos. I trust their judgement and will be listening to the Q7 again soon, this time with the truly world-class Spectrals.

Ack, Have you had a chance to go back and listen to the Q7 with the Spectrals? Goodwins now has the 400 monos.

 

[ack]

Wait, this is another negative audio experience I had, and this thread hasn't been shut down yet?

I wrote up on the 360 S2 driving the Q7s here http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?8993-Magico-Q7-Spectral-monos

But yes I have listened to the 400s as well, last with Frantz this past summer, and Frantz wrote all about it. I intend to bring the 400s home for evaluation, soon.

 

[stereo]

Wait, this is another negative audio experience I had, and this thread hasn't been shut down yet?

I wrote up on the 360 S2 driving the Q7s here http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?8993-Magico-Q7-Spectral-monos

But yes I have listened to the 400s as well, last with Frantz this past summer, and Frantz wrote all about it. I intend to bring the 400s home for evaluation, soon.

I have not seen Frantz view on the 400s, was it on Spectral forum?

 

[ack]

I have not seen Frantz view on the 400s, was it on Spectral forum?

http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?11649-My-Impressions-of-the-Q7-Q3-aand-TAD-Ref