Magico Q7

[Roysen]

I hope to acquire a pair of Q7 with bi- or tri-wire option to drive them bi-amplified. One of the amplifiers would be the Dynaudio Arbiters, but what other amplifier would be a good match? I can not get another pair of Arbiter since they are no longer produced and impossible to find on the used market. The preamplifier will be the Connoisseur Definitions 3.0. My thoughts so far have been running in the direction of the darTZeel NHB-458 but now I am not so sure. I consider these my options:

- darTZeel NHB-458
- Constellation Audio Herkules
- Soulution 700
- Jeff Rowland 925
- Gryphon Colosseum Solo

Edit: Boulder 3050 was forgotten as an option when I wrote this, but should be on that list.

Any thoughts?

 

[LL21]

I hope to acquire a pair of Q7 with bi- or tri-wire option to drive them bi-amplified. One of the amplifiers would be the Dynaudio Arbiters, but what other amplifier would be a good match? I can not get another pair of Arbiter since they are no longer produced and impossible to find on the used market. The preamplifier will be the Connoisseur Definitions 3.0. My thoughts so far have been running in the direction of the darTZeel NHB-458 but now I am not so sure. I consider these my options:

- darTZeel NHB-458
- Constellation Audio Herkules
- Soulution 700
- Jeff Rowland 925
- Gryphon Colosseum Solo

Any thoughts?

Hi Roysen,

I am partial to the Colosseum for obvious reasons! However, i have briefly communicated with Flemming Rasmussen of Gryphon, and the Pandora/Mephisto combination are now formally on the website. He confirmed to me it is a new design (not some super-engineered Antileon Signature). It comes as the dual-mono single-chassis (all the way to two plug outlets)...and it also comes in monoblocks...with 1,000,000 microfarads of capacitance!!!

You may wish to look into these as well.

 

[andromedaaudio]

Why not try em all and write down your expiriences

I hope to acquire a pair of Q7 with bi- or tri-wire option to drive them bi-amplified. One of the amplifiers would be the Dynaudio Arbiters, but what other amplifier would be a good match? I can not get another pair of Arbiter since they are no longer produced and impossible to find on the used market. The preamplifier will be the Connoisseur Definitions 3.0. My thoughts so far have been running in the direction of the darTZeel NHB-458 but now I am not so sure. I consider these my options:

- darTZeel NHB-458
- Constellation Audio Herkules
- Soulution 700
- Jeff Rowland 925
- Gryphon Colosseum Solo

Any thoughts?

 

[Roysen]

If I could, I would. However these amplifiers are not available for home trial here.

 

[LL21]

Everything in the following below is my personal conjecture...nothing more, nothing less.

Purely from what i have read (other than owning Colosseum single chassis dual-mono), i would personally wish to audition the following in the following order (from most intrigued to least):

1. Constellation Audio Herkules...design by a group of some of the top designers could either be 'the best of all worlds' or 'amplifier by committee' (ie, powerful, not particularly magical, just a polyglot of great ideas but not driven by a singular designer's focus)

2. Gryphon Mephisto Monos: Flemming Rasmussen's design originally only for in-house no holds barred, cost no object design...similar in principle to Conrad Johnson's ART preamplifier which originally started life as their in-house cost no object reference which they never felt could possibly be economically viable for consumers...(wow, has the world changed, or what!)

3. Gryphon Colosseum Monos: Own the dual-mono so i know how good this is, and i just love it.

4. dartzeel nhb-458: I have read too many good things from Audiophiles who know their stuff, whose ears i can just about calibrate based on their own personal preferences and observations...true edge of the state of the art from what i read...univerally across the board

5. FM Acoustics 1811 or new monos. This is purely from descriptions from too many people who stopped looking after living with FMA. That often says something to me. Same with Shindo...and having heard it, i think it is wonderful though not enough to buy it. So again, this is just strong interest to hear it for myself if i were in this bracket.

While i have read tremendous things about the other two amps...there is something about what i've read just does not make me curious enough to go thru a lot of trouble to hear them in the context of this situation...could well be my loss. But i certainly would wish to hear the above amps first.

The other query is repairs and support. How long has Constellation been around? How long will any of these companies be around?...one must ask this of all companies today...but at least Gryphon, Dartzeel and FMA have been around for some time, and their products and their reliability is known.

 

[andromedaaudio]

Well i would make the list longer there are a number of brands which are not mentioned .
I do have my thoughts about transistor poweramplifiers .
I think most of them have gotten close enough to neutrality/sufficient power delivery that the differences become very small , a neutral design can not become more neutral, i have not heard all the designs i must say .
Same goes with speakers , to mention one characteristic ,freq response for example : a flat response cannot become more flat and there are a number of very neutral transducers magico being one of them
I think i would try to tune the system with the preamp of my choice as it leaves more of a sonic imprint

hj

 

[LL21]

there are a number of very neutral transducers magico being one of them
I think i would try to tune the system with the preamp of my choice as it leaves more of a sonic imprint hj

having 'tasted' Magico before, i would love to hear the Q7...i have always wished for more bass in the smaller Magico i have heard (V3)...but what it did was astonishing. The alacrity was remarkable, and i could see where Alon Wolf was driving his particular brand of 'magic'. An obsessive drive to deliver a cabinet with the inert solidity that the signal comes in and passes straight thru (almost) without vibration, distorting cabinet waves, slow drivers, etc...

...which should mean whatever signal one puts thru should come out the other side. which is nice...because it gives owners the ability to find the music that suits them, the electronics that suit them, and aside from power, impedance, etc...which are important...be able to truly hear those thru these speakers. And now with enormous weight and larger drivers, hopefully this includes endless bass. cool.

 

[andromedaaudio]

I unfortunately missed the opportunity to hear the Q3 on the new zanden integrated amp , but it looks like inert (aluminium)cabinet construction has moved another step up in the Q series ..


Best i have heard magico V3 was with zanden 9600 poweramps one of the best sounds ever , the M5 i didnt like so much

 

[Roysen]

Well,

Goldmund, FM Acoustics, Tube Reaearch Labs, Sovereign Audio, Tidal Audio and Krell are not likely candidates in this system because I plan to use these amplifiers in my other systems and want something different in this system.

I have heard both the darTZeels and the Soulutions with the Q5. Both combinations sounded stunning but in very different ways. Constellation Audio is now the name on the lips of everyone who has heard them as something new and outstanding. Jeff Rowland's 625 is also getting great feedback and I can imagine the 925 being even better. The Boulder 3050 is even faster, less distorted and more powerful than their 2050. That should be great. The Gryphons (Mephisto Solo and Gryphon Solo) are interesting but last on the list at the moment because the Gryphons I have heard were a little on the warm/slow/mellow side. However this can of course have been a speaker issue. The Colosseum Solo is from their feedback faster and more neutral than the older models. That is why I mentioned them.

The list could be extended to include a pair of internally bridged Burmester 909 Mk.V, a pair of Mark Levinson No.33 (don't want the No.53), a pair of Spectral Audio DMA-360 Series 2, Edge NL Reference, Pass Labs XS-300, Halcro dm88 and tube alternatives like the Conrad Johnson ART, Audio Research Ref. 750, VTL Siegfried Series 2, Jadis JA-800, Octave Research Jubilee, Joule Electra VZN-350 Destiny, CAT JL-3 Statement or Atma-Sphere MA-3, but I need to consider how to combine with the Dynaudio Arbiter and the Q7s in a way that matches well and bring out the sound I am looking for. I think Burmester is too warm, Spectral too thin, the Mark Levinsons too grainy, the earlier Pass Labs too warm, Edge as a company too uncertain future after Tom Maker left, Halcro too thin and all these tube amplifiers lacking a little bit in resolution compared to what at least the Magico Q5 can deliver with the most resolving SS amplifiers of today.

Smaller tube amplifiers like LAMM, Kondo, Wavac is out of the question. I have an addiction what a lot of power does to the sound and could never live without it even with high sensitivity speakers like the Q7.

Less known SS-amplifiers like Ypsilon, Master Audio Systems, Vitus Audio, GamuT Audio (with new designers after Ole Lund Christensen left), BAlabo, Technical Brain and Analog Domain I know too little about to really be able to consider.

 

[MylesBAstor]

Well,

Goldmund, FM Acoustics, Tube Reaearch Labs, Sovereign Audio, Tidal Audio and Krell are not likely candidates in this system because I plan to use these amplifiers in my other systems and want something different in this system.

I have heard both the darTZeels and the Soulutions with the Q5. Both combinations sounded stunning but in very different ways. Constellation Audio is now the name on the lips of everyone who has heard them as something new and outstanding. Jeff Rowland's 625 is also getting great feedback and I can imagine the 925 being even better. The Boulder 3050 is even faster, less distorted and more powerful than their 2050. That should be great. The Gryphons (Mephisto Solo and Gryphon Solo) are interesting but last on the list at the moment because the Gryphons I have heard were a little on the warm/slow/mellow side. However this can of course have been a speaker issue. The Colosseum Solo is from their feedback faster and more neutral than the older models. That is why I mentioned them.

The list could be extended to include a pair of internally bridged Burmester 909 Mk.V, a pair of Mark Levinson No.33 (don't want the No.53), a pair of Spectral Audio DMA-360 Series 2, Edge NL Reference, Pass Labs XS-300, Halcro dm88 and tube alternatives like the Conrad Johnson ART, Audio Research Ref. 750, VTL Siegfried Series 2, Jadis JA-800, Octave Research Jubilee, Joule Electra VZN-350 Destiny, CAT JL-3 Statement or Atma-Sphere MA-3, but I need to consider how to combine with the Dynaudio Arbiter and the Q7s in a way that matches well and bring out the sound I am looking for. I think Burmester is too warm, Spectral too thin, the Mark Levinsons too grainy, the earlier Pass Labs too warm, Edge as a company too uncertain future after Tom Maker left, Halcro too thin and all these tube amplifiers lacking a little bit in resolution compared to what at least the Magico Q5 can deliver with the most resolving SS amplifiers of today.

Smaller tube amplifiers like LAMM, Kondo, Wavac is out of the question. I have an addiction what a lot of power does to the sound and could never live without it even with high sensitivity speakers like the Q7.

Less known SS-amplifiers like Ypsilon, Master Audio Systems, Vitus Audio, GamuT Audio (with new designers after Ole Lund Christensen left), BAlabo, Technical Brain and Analog Domain I know too little about to really be able to consider.

I find it interesting that Alon has never demoed with tubes????? He definitely likes POWER; did hear the VIVA amps on the Q1s but they didn't have the balls to drive the speakers in this relatively large room; perhaps in a smaller room?

Also what about Dan's new Momentum amps?

 

[Roysen]

From what I understand, Alon is using Tube Research Labs Platinum Golden Triode Referrence Preamplifier and Tube Research Labs Platinum Golden Triode Reference 400 Mono Amplifiers in his studio at home.

 

[LL21]

From what I understand, Alon is using Tube Research Labs Platinum Golden Triode Referrence Preamplifier and Tube Research Labs Platinum Golden Triode Reference 400 Mono Amplifiers in his studio at home.

Interesting...

 

[KeithR]

I would just buy McIntosh 601s and pocket 50k+

SS at these levels just seems like very incremental gain for a lot of $.

 

[NorthStar]

Very conventional external design (rectangle black box enclosures).
...Even ugly (straight black boxes) for certain many people.

But it's what's inside, in the soul, that things truly matter: the Music it sings.
.... Dim the lights, close your eyes, and listen .... :b

* Thanx for sharing the pix wizard.

 

[LL21]

Anyone have specific views on how they sound? I have read some of the posts.

 

[Randall Smith]

Anyone have specific views on how they sound? I have read some of the posts.

The speaker is very balanced. It has great extension both in the highs and the lows. All the drivers integrate beautifully. In Jeff's room, the speakers are around 12' from the center seat. I could go on and on about how they disappear and how you cannot even detect their presence in the room, but you get the point. The bass has slam that sounds natural and mirrors what is on the recording. Those with different preferences, may still complain about the bass not being to their taste. But, to someone who hears a lot of different speakers, this sounds right to me. They are extremely revealing. If it is on the recording, it will be faithfully reproduced through the Q7's. That is what I look for from a speaker and in an audio system as a whole. Others will say that it is soulless. To that, I roll my eyes.

Others have asked how the Q7 sounded compared to the Arrakis. To me, they are both exceptional speakers. To my ears, the Rockport had a warmer sound to it. Both speakers are well designed and the measurements prove that. The Magico Q7's are more revealing. I could live with any speaker in either speaker line. I owned a pair of Mira's for several years and they are by far my favorite speaker that I have owned, so I may always be partial to Andy Payors designs. But, I will say, the Q3 and Q7 really opened my eyes to sealed designs. Magico is pushing everyone right now and I love that.

 

[LL21]

Others have asked how the Q7 sounded compared to the Arrakis. To me, they are both exceptional speakers. To my ears, the Rockport had a warmer sound to it. Both speakers are well designed and the measurements prove that. The Magico Q7's are more revealing. I could live with any speaker in either speaker line. I owned a pair of Mira's for several years and they are by far my favorite speaker that I have owned, so I may always be partial to Andy Payors designs. But, I will say, the Q3 and Q7 really opened my eyes to sealed designs. Magico is pushing everyone right now and I love that.

You read my mind... Thank you. That is very very interesting. Like with any component, it matters what you partner it with. In this case, being so utterly transparent simply allows one to find a 'voice' that they like further upstream and know they will hear it down thru the speakers with greater integrity.

 

[NorthStar]

Others will say that it is soulless. To that, I roll my eyes.

Nothing's wrong with a 'neutral', 'natural', 'accurate' soul. :b

 

[andromedaaudio]

A neutral loudspeaker will guide you through the waste lands suburbs and ghettos of the sometimes full of misleading financial interests high end world , and allow you to get further ahead , instead of moving in circles

THis damn factory were i work broke down again last night , missed a good chance to hear dartzeel /magico Q 1 Q3 at a dealer show
Well the money is good at weekends

 

[Jeff Fritz]

My full review will post on June 1.