Magico S3
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You are not alone, unfortunately. That is how interior designers becomes loudspeaker manufactures. Glad you like them.
Garth, I would be a bit wary of judging a pair of speakers which you've heard in notoriously sub-optimal show conditions. Speakers normally sound better in a treated showroom, but even then you'll only get a rough idea how the speakers will couple to your own room.
FWIW, and simply because I already paid for the tuitions, Estalon takes pride in stating it uses “minimalist” 2nd order XO in their design. However, just like 90% of the rest of the, so called, high-end loudspeakers on the market, they uses ceramic Accuton drivers. These drivers have notorious breakup that unless aggressively and meticulously treated in the XO are detrimental to sound quality. What many people mistake for detail and transparency is the sound of these breakup. Listen long enough and you will identify it as well. It gets old pretty fast and no tube amp or soft cables will ever mask it. The funny (well rather sad) thing is that the folks at Estalon think that using a 2nd order XO with ceramic drivers, is something to be proud of. But hey, who cares right? 
Wizard,
glad you posted that as it reminds me to also link the review for S3 this month at HiFiNews.
http://www.absolutesounds.com/pdf/main/press/S3_HFN_NOV2014.pdf
Cheers
Orb
glad you posted that as it reminds me to also link the review for S3 this month at HiFiNews.
http://www.absolutesounds.com/pdf/main/press/S3_HFN_NOV2014.pdf
Cheers
Orb
Funny, my subjective opinion has often been that audiophiles err on the side of speakers that are way too large for their room, rather than the opposite problem. If your bass is messing up my hair at normal listening volume, are you making music or just making bass?
Heard the S3s for the first time today at the Hifi News and Record Review 2014 show.
Impressive but heard afterwards that they may not have been at their best because of room limitations. Were firing down a rectangular room about 12ft by 26 or more ft, Apparently it had taken them 4 hours to set up which might support that report.
At my request they also played a pair of S1s from cold and placed near the S3s. Despite those limitations I found them very impressive indeed. Tremendous soundstage, imaging and dynamics and didn't fall short on bass to the S3s by very much at all. They were undoubtedly better value for money in my opinion and a really serious contender to replace my YG Carmels.
In a larger room than mine the S3s would probably beat them but they would probably be a bit too intrusive visually for me and the S1s at about half the price over here certainly made a compelling case.
Impressive but heard afterwards that they may not have been at their best because of room limitations. Were firing down a rectangular room about 12ft by 26 or more ft, Apparently it had taken them 4 hours to set up which might support that report.
At my request they also played a pair of S1s from cold and placed near the S3s. Despite those limitations I found them very impressive indeed. Tremendous soundstage, imaging and dynamics and didn't fall short on bass to the S3s by very much at all. They were undoubtedly better value for money in my opinion and a really serious contender to replace my YG Carmels.
In a larger room than mine the S3s would probably beat them but they would probably be a bit too intrusive visually for me and the S1s at about half the price over here certainly made a compelling case.
I have to say the S1 really does improve when it has had time to settle as well.
I think much of the early over time improvement one hears with the S1 relates to ambient temperature acclimatisation.
Appreciate though when you say from cold does not necessarily mean that but time with music-equipment.
Just a shame there is no S2 (would be the equivalent to the old V2 2.5 way), would seriously love to hear something like that rather than S3, but then maybe there was not enough of an improvement from S1 to such a design.
Would be great to know if they did look at designing an S2 and whether it made sense or not in terms of performance/model position between S1 and S3.
Cheers
Orb
If they made an S2 then people would start asking for an S4.
Magico and Wilson never make models with the number 4.
Thanks Orb.
I can readily believe what you say about the S1.
It seems that its bigger brothers and the Q1 have rather overshadowed the S1 which is a pity because it is clearly such a good speaker sound and loungewise.
It is a really outstanding contemporary example of the virtues of a simple two way design well executed and as you say a 2.5 S2 might not have bettered it to any real extent.
Cheers
If they made an S2 then people would start asking for an S4.
As Jap says no number 4s.
But I get what your saying
That said they would not need an S4 equivalent; the previous V3 model is in a basic way comparable to the S3.
So the model currently missing is a new one comparable to the V2 speaker.
And the new materials/design would be a big improvement over the older V2, so would be great to know why the S2 does not exist (possibly performance/model range position/price when compared to S3 and S1 *shrug*).
Anyone ever chatted to Alon about this?
Thanks
Orb
Yeah I really enjoy mine, and for the price (ok outside audiophile circles many probably complain about its price as being high) I think it is pretty amazing; one of the best for clarity and improving sibilance/"splash" cymbal/etc type sounds (more concise,clear,focused and less aggravating IMO) that many normal-average recordings can suffer with and be exacerbated by electronics/speakers.
Cheers
Orb
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