PETER
Did you think the Spectral a good match with the magico ?
How do u think it compared with your magico and pass labs?
Interested as your a classical listener like me
That's a great question and one that may cause quite a bit of discussion or disagreement among Magico fans, so I will tread lightly. I have only heard Spectral amps with Magico speakers at Goodwin's High End. They sounded especially good with the V2, Q1, and most recently with the M3. However, fellow member Ack does not like the Spectral/M3 combination in the large room there. The Q3s sounded fantastic with the massive Boulder 1000W amps in that room. Alon Wolf did not think that Spectral had the power to drive the Q3 in that large room. And Ack recently mentioned that the Spectrals shut down driving the M3 on demanding music. You can find his comments somewhere on WBF, perhaps this thread. I did not like Spectral with the Q7, Q5, S5. However, my impressions may be based on something other than the specific amp/speaker combination. The MIT cable settings have strongly affected the sound, as has the speaker set up and source component, so it is really hard for me to make broad statements about the Spectral/Magico pairing.
It is clear that in my own system I really like Pass/Magico, at least certain combinations. With my Mini IIs, the XA100.5 was underpowered. The XA160.5 was superb. It is also great now with my Q3s. I preferred the 160.5 to the 160.8 on my Minis, but I preferred the 160.8 to the 160.5 on MadFloyd's M Pro. The Pass XS series was heavenly on the M Pros and the best Pass/Magico combination I've heard.
I don't know much about the different Spectral models, but I do know something about the Pass models. Each has a different sound and bias into Class A and will match better or worse with specific speakers depending on the room, speaker load, and preferences of the listener. I know better the Class A, (XA) line than the Class A/B (X) line. I suspect that the Pass X line sounds more like Spectral, but I'm not really sure.
In general, I would say that Magico speakers are very transparent, especially the Q and M series, and perhaps the S series mark II, though I have not heard many of those. They allow one to hear clearly the differences between upstream components like amplifiers. Spectral/MIT has a different sound than Pass Labs. I have heard both amps sound fantastic with particular Magico speakers and both combinations have sounded very convincing to me using live classical performances at the BSO as a reference. The only way to know which is more to your taste is to try to audition them in person with your own music. I suspect others may feel more strongly about Spectral versus Pass than I do.