YG Hailey 2.2, Magico M2 or Avantgarde Duo XD ?

Hi all,


I am considering to upgrade my speakers and I would like this upgrade be “significant”.
I am currently using Avantgarde Zero TA XD that I am enjoying very much. It’s a fantastic value for money speakers ! Now I would like to keep their main strengths ( dynamics,transparency,difficult room “friendly”) and improve in terms of subtlety, decay and layering .
My room is small / medium , pretty “bright”, speakers will be relatively close from the front and rear walls and my listening is distance is pretty short (2.5m/3m).
So I am looking for a speaker with a “limited” footprint.
In terms of music, my taste is very eclectic so I am looking for speakers able to be very good “all rounder”.

I have preselected 3/4models :
- YG Hailey 2.2
- Magico M2
- Avantgarde Duo XD
- potentially TAD CR1 + subs

Duo XD would be the logical upgrade path but I feel those relatively big horns need space to breathe...
YG Hail 2.2 : was not considering them initially but after a superb (and totally random ) listening session I couldn’t exclude them any longer ! and I really like the possibility to upgrade further on ( but the 2.2 model is anyway just updated)

Also my current front gear is Accuphase C2850/A70 (have also a 300B SET amp ) and given the significant investment ahead of me, if those new speakers could be compatible with them ( even if not THE perfect match) it would help !

What do you think?

Thanks
Alex

PS : there are many other very good speakers/ brands but for many different reasons those 4models are my short list

 

LOL, 98 point for the Magico S3 in Stereo magazine, still better

you made my point for me - S3 is seriously not a great speaker.

 

Hi Peter I was not referring to efficiency, but towards Cantata's scoring.

OK thanks I misunderstood you. Regardless I was speaking about the two liquids not the speakers Nuance and innuendo. My daughters think some boys’ hair styles have good flow, LOL.

I look forward to reading more reports about listening comparisons between these speaker brands and it will be interesting if the OP ever uses the word ”flow” in his descriptions.

 

you made my point for me - S3 is seriously not a great speaker.[/QUOTE

Still seriously better then the AG

 

Stereoplay (Germany) conclusion:

The hORNS Universum 3 achieves 65 points for sound and 87 points for overall performance.

The S5 (Mk1), achieves 68 points for sound and 91 points for overall performance (and Mk2 is MUCH better).

That was the pre 2016 Uni.
Look out for the Uni test in the German mag Audio

 

Verity speakers are exellent, musical and blend in very well in most rooms. I have the Parsifal Anniversary, overall the best speakers I have owned. I had speakers that where more than twice as expensive, but not better. Price is not everything, metal cabinets as well.

 

(...) who cares. buy what amazes you, not a rating by so-called experts. the same "experts" have loved some seriously bad speakers like the old Watt Puppies. you can always find a review that loves your speakers- trust me.

No, IMHO all these point systems are meaningless, but we love when they rank our preferred in top positions!

And yes, we can always find someone who hates our loved speakers - I spent many enjoyable years listening to great sounding music in Wilson Watt Puppy System 5 and later with the System 7.

 

OK thanks I misunderstood you. Regardless I was speaking about the two liquids not the speakers Nuance and innuendo. My daughters think some boys’ hair styles have good flow, LOL.

I look forward to reading more reports about listening comparisons between these speaker brands and it will be interesting if the OP ever uses the word ”flow” in his descriptions.

My first listening session is planned for this Saturday. Looking forward to it !
I am already anticipating that it’s not gonna be a clear win and I will obviously have several listening sessions.

Ps : I am also using the term « flow » or « fluidity » but my analogy would be with sport and tennis more specifically. Federer has « fluid » shots, everything looks easy and natural. Nadal is definitely another style but both are great tennis players !

 

My first listening session is planned for this Saturday. Looking forward to it !
I am already anticipating that it’s not gonna be a clear win and I will obviously have several listening sessions.

Ps : I am also using the term « flow » or « fluidity » but my analogy would be with sport and tennis more specifically. Federer has « fluid » shots, everything looks easy and natural. Nadal is definitely another style but both are great tennis players !

What are you listening to on Saturday

 

Listening to Hailey 2.2 first then Magico M2.

 

My first listening session is planned for this Saturday. Looking forward to it !
I am already anticipating that it’s not gonna be a clear win and I will obviously have several listening sessions.

Ps : I am also using the term « flow » or « fluidity » but my analogy would be with sport and tennis more specifically. Federer has « fluid » shots, everything looks easy and natural. Nadal is definitely another style but both are great tennis players !

I was also looking in 2015/2016 for a "fluid"/"Liquid" audio reproduction. I ended-up with Rockport speakers !!!

Also Kaiser Kawero! are king in this domain ;-) By far the best small real-estate / footprint dynamic speaker that I know of... If you can stretch the budget, this is a real top of the world contender, trust me...

 

Listening to Hailey 2.2 first then Magico M2.

With those speakers positioning is quite important. My first question would be how they positioned the loudspeakers and whether they consider the speakers to be OPTIMALLY placed or GOOD ENOUGH placed (it should confirm what they said about their positioning process). If its the former you’ve a good chance to hear most of what these speakers can do but if its the latter, then you’ll know there’s more to come. These type of speakers reward precision when it comes to rooms and set-up.

 

Really refreshing to hear everyone's perspectives on this thread. Very excited to hear your impressions as well on how the Magicos compare to the YGs on a similar setup. Currently I have the Hailey 2.2s (in a 5m x 8m x 3m room) after previously owning the Carmel 2s (in a 5m x 4m x 3m room). I do pair the Hailey 2.2s with a JBL Fathom 112 v2. In my current room, the Haileys work very well with only ~9 inches from back of speaker to wall. Needless to say, I enjoy their sound.

 

My friend owns YG Sonja 2.3's and recently bought Magico M6's which are in his main system. They replaced a pair of Marten Coltrane Supreme 2's. He loves the sound on his Boulder 3000/2100 series amps. Though of course we all have different ears/tastes.

Wow...quite a set up. M6 are 1/3rd the price of the Marten Coltrane...what did he do with the marten coltranes? I have read you describe his amp system as 3000 series amp and 2100 series preamp...is that right? What do you think of the 3000 series amp?

 

Wow...quite a set up. M6 are 1/3rd the price of the Marten Coltrane...what did he do with the marten coltranes? I have read you describe his amp system as 3000 series amp and 2100 series preamp...is that right? What do you think of the 3000 series amp?

As far as I know he just crated them up & has them stored in his garage. I think for now he's just seeing which speakers he wants to keep long-term.

Re: this setup, he has the 3060 power amp, 2110 preamp & 2120 dac/streamer. I think his phono stage is a Vitus MP-P201. His sources are a Kronos Pro with SCPS-1 psu, Nagra R2R deck, 2120 dac/streamer & a Tandberg TCD-910. So yes a pretty sweet setup.

Re: the sound, I've sold my friend a pair of speakers, but haven't actually heard his system yet as he lives 1120 miles away! But he told me his Boulders work and sound like a Rolls Royce (which he also owns). Ie: Sounds pure, silky smooth, enormously powerful/effortless, 'right' and has fit/finish you'd expect of Boulder's flagship products. Personally i've owned a Boulder 1060 and heard the 1100 series separates. If the 1100 series is anything to go by, the 2100/3000 series must be very very good, but pretty much die neutral which is Boulder's signature.

 

Saturday listening session report !!

So I went listening to the Magico M2 and the YG Hailey 2.2 earlier today into two different showrooms with very different upstream gears and room dimensions.
So pls add a big pinch of salt into my summary. I am taking the shortcut that the differences are mainly coming from the speakers but it might be obviously not totally true...

1) Music used for testing ( mainly CD/SACD) :
Miles Davis, Ibrahim Maalouf,Norah Jones, London Grammar,Serge Gainsbourg, Michel Jonasz, Rokia Traore, Ali Farka Traore, Dead Can Dance, Santana, Harry Belafonte ,Rodrigo Y Gabriela ,Artur Rubinstein: Chopin, carmina Burana. Not enough time to go deeper into classical music, next week!

Unfortunately none of those dealers have decent servers ( and most of my favourite test tracks are on file...) only basic computers. No Innuos , Aurender,Melco, Lumin , let’s dream about SGM ...
They have pretty high end turntables however but my experience with analog is none so did not try.

2) Environment Setup
For Magico M2
600sq ft room. Speakers well positioned into the room far from any boundaries or gear. Listening distance around 3.5/4M.
Upstream gear: dCS Vivaldi full stack, Constellation Virgo preamp and Constellation big monoblocks
So all in all an “optimal” setup.

For YG Hailey 2.2 :
Compared to the previous setup much less optimal but closer from my home setup .
Room dim : 250 sqft. Speakers not close from boundaries but close from gears ( speakers a bit everywhere if you see what I mean...but still ok). Listening distance around 2.8m/3m and close from back wall.
Gear: Luxman m900u stereo,Luxman c900 preamp, Luxman D08U sacd player. After one hour we switched to Soulution series 5 sacd player and preamp but always kept Luxman m900u ( incredible power amp particularly for the price)

3) Listening session:
Sorry my writing skills particularly to describe music reproduction in English are “poor” so I am gonna keep it short and synthetic.
Both speakers are very good, I could easily live with each of them. Both are “pure”,neutral and very revealing speakers but never found them edgy or harsh .I can understand that people might not like them and in terms of “fluidity” and dynamics probably not as good as the best horns.

-Resolution: Magico . Every single detail of the recording is revealed on both speakers but still in a natural way. I found Magico going a bit further on that aspect.
-Bass : Magico ++. Excellent here for my taste. Fast and tight. And also the only and main disappointment for YG. I am pretty sure that the placement is explaining this factor. Also the dealer did not have the provided YG spikes so the YG speakers were directly sitting on top of a soft carpet.It probably didn’t help...
-Design/ look and feel: Magico. A bit disappointed by the YG. I never really paid attention to their design and build quality until today. I am obviously not saying it’s not top build quality but a bit below expectations.
-Soundstage: YG
-“Fluidity” : YG
-Dynamics: equal.
-Involvement in music : YG++. Like for bass, I am pretty sure that the liveliness of the room, the distance between the speakers, the listening distance are explaining this important difference.

Also two other points:
- I can have a good deal on both speakers but a more appealing one on the YG...
- WAF : my wife came with me. I am lucky, she likes listening music and she has pretty good ears ! She is also enjoying a veto right ... Luckily, she liked both in terms of design and sound but preferred the YG.

4) So in a nutshell:
Probability to
1) keep my existing speakers: 10%
2) go for M2 : 30%
3) Go for YG : 60%

5) Next week listening session :
Magico M2 are going to be moved in the smaller auditorium.
YG are going to be tested with full Soulution gear and with spikes.
And I will bring different CDs/SACDs as I could not test many of my favourite songs.

To be continued!!!

Alex

 

The lack of spikes could easily explain weaker than expected bass performance. Bass is where you always get the most immediately noticeable improvements with spikes in my experience.

 

One of YG's downsides is they are all very small speakers until you get to the Sonja... it is cool having a top quality driver made in the most expensive way possible, but there are physical limitations to a small woofer in a sealed box. At higher SPL you'll get more excursion than is ideal for low distortion operation and a hard limit on overall SPL the speaker is capable of.

Also, in your room the listening distance may not be large but the 11 meter dimension means it's fairly large as far as bass is concerned. IMO, the Magico is simply more speaker for the money, it's a larger speaker with more driver surface area and it's likely the bass will work better in the room you have vs YG.

Many other things you notice during your listening sessions may be due to the electronics, cables, AC power and room acoustics and separating those things out from the actual performance the speaker is capable of is almost impossible. If you didn't notice any coherence issues, didn't prefer one tweeter vs the other especially, then I'd strongly recommend going with the speaker that will offer you the best bass performance in your room.

 

The YGs had electronics and sources that were a fraction that were used on the Magicos.
The Luxman is a good amp, incredible value for money like you noticed, but no bass champs. I'd use a different preamp on them as well, to get the most bass impact.
And, of course, the spikes. Showing the speakers without the spikes is just wrong.
What other electronics/sources does the YG dealer have? Soulution is way down the list of (my) recommended components for YGs.

 

Personally I do think YG are quite better than Magico but yes bass is not the best, it is more of soundstage, mids, fluidity, as you pointed out. You will have to crossover to two subs

 

Great report (and your English is excellent!). I will be curious how your follow-up audition goes.

I've heard the M2 twice now at shows on Burmester and Vac tubes, YGs many times, and would take the latter between the two for the reasons you listed. YG does need a great ballsy amp to excel on it and the Luxman comes very highly regarded. To be fair, I don't think the dCS was helping the Magico - poor pairing imo.

I still prefer Rockport to YG in the bass, but the sealed bass of the YG is excellent in its own right.