About four months ago, having fully retired and having much more time to devote to this fascinating hobby and to listen my stereo, I decided to upgrade. At the time I had Magico A3 speakers and ARC electronics. I set out to listen to what was available which I could afford. I was fortunate enough to be able to travel and visited quite a few high end audio shops. Along the way, among others, I listened to Wilson Benesch ACT 3Zero and Resolution 3Zero speakers, to Wilson Sasha V's, Alexia V's and Alex V speakers, to Sonus Faber Amati G5 (which I did not like at all) and Il Cremonese EX3ME speakers, Dynaudio Confidence 50's and 60's, MBL 120 speakers and Magico S3 2023, M2, M3 and M6 speakers. Other than the Amati G5's, all of these speakers sounded at least good or better to much better.
I liked the ACT 3Zero but came away thinking that they were too expensive for what you get, and frankly, too few dealers. The Resolution 3Zero's sounded even better, but were not only too expensive, but too tall and would never be accepted by my wife. The Wilson speakers were nice, but too sugary for my tastes, too forgiving of the material and not detailed enough and I found the bass to be a bit flabby. The Dynaudios were also nice, but did not seem to me to be truly serious speakers. The MBL's were very interesting, but to get them to really sound like they should you have to go to at least the 111 F's or higher and use very expensive MBL electronics. After many hours, which I really enjoyed, I found that I liked the Magico speakers the best as long as you fed them a lot of good clean power with plenty in reserve. In reverse order, the M6's are just too much money for my budget and, in my opinion, need a large dedicated listening room with the highest quality, and therefor also expensive, electronics. The bass on these speakers is simply amazing. With sufficient power and good source material I found that I could even identify the make, and sometimes even the model, of the basses being played in some of the music I listened to. I did find that I agree with some who say that these speakers do show the warts on poorly recorded material. But hell, there is an awful lot of finely recorded material out there. These speakers sounded great from whisper quiet to the concert levels such as those levels which the Who played at back in the 70's. I can only imagine what the new M7's or the M9's sound like. M2's and M3's were tremendous as well, throwing huge, deep three dimensional soundstages. They both connected with me on an emotional basis, perhaps more so than the M6's. Neither was a clinical as the M6's, but there was still fine detail. And despite the smallish bass drivers they both played loud when you wanted them to be loud with plenty of bass. But the S3 2023's were remarkably close in performance to the M2 and M3 speakers, at tens of thousands of dollars less. Compared to what is out there of similar quality, I agree that at $45,500 the S3 2023 is a relative bargain. So in March I ordered a pair of the S3 2023 speakers from the nearest dealer and am now waiting for them to arrive, with an expected ETA of late May or early June barring unforeseen circumstances.
I also quickly realized that I needed to upgrade my amp and pre amp if I was going to get the sound I was looking for out of the Magico speakers. I listened to a number of amp and preamp combinations, including Vinnie Rossi (very nice), large McIntosh amps (mid fi at best), Burmester (very nice also), D'Agostino (a seemingly good match for the Wilson speakers as they must be voiced in a similar fashion, but I did not find them to be a good match in my opinion with the Magico speakers), MBL (too expensive and really requiring an all MBL system, far to expensive for me), CH Precision (a very good match with the Magico speakers, but the amp/psu/preamp/psu combination I liked was just too expensive and I was really hoping to get something made from a solid company in the US), Luxman (nice but two are needed and just not the level of grit, grunt and detail of the better amps) and Boulder. Considering everything, including price I decided to go with the Boulder 1160/1110 combination. I really liked this combination with the Magico S3 2023, M2 and M3 speakers (IMO more amp, such as the Boulder 2150's or the CH Precision M10's in mono configuration, is needed for the M6 no matter what Magico says about recommended power). The speed and the power of Boulder amp pairs well with the Magicos.
I understand that some find this combination of Magico and Boulder to be clinical, and perhaps it is, a bit. But when the recording is right, they do not sound clinical at all, they sound real, without the sugar that ends up be tiring in the long run and which some speaker/amp combinations seem to add to the mix. I just found the honesty, the realness of the Magico/Boulder combination to really be to my liking and what I am looking for in a very good stereo system (I understand that with a dedicated room and yacht like funds that you can get to audio nirvana, but for most of us that is there to dream about, just like we can dream about winning the lottery).
So, as far as this topic goes, anyone in the market for a speaker in the Magico S3 2023 price range is really encouraged to find a way to get out there and listen, listen and listen again to what is out there. I went to quite a few dealers over a pretty large geographical area and all dealers and staff were very, very pleasant to deal with and happy to show what they had and take time with me, as they will no doubt will with you. Educate yourself and find what works best for you given your parameters/circumstances. I did and it is the Magico S3 2023.
I liked the ACT 3Zero but came away thinking that they were too expensive for what you get, and frankly, too few dealers. The Resolution 3Zero's sounded even better, but were not only too expensive, but too tall and would never be accepted by my wife. The Wilson speakers were nice, but too sugary for my tastes, too forgiving of the material and not detailed enough and I found the bass to be a bit flabby. The Dynaudios were also nice, but did not seem to me to be truly serious speakers. The MBL's were very interesting, but to get them to really sound like they should you have to go to at least the 111 F's or higher and use very expensive MBL electronics. After many hours, which I really enjoyed, I found that I liked the Magico speakers the best as long as you fed them a lot of good clean power with plenty in reserve. In reverse order, the M6's are just too much money for my budget and, in my opinion, need a large dedicated listening room with the highest quality, and therefor also expensive, electronics. The bass on these speakers is simply amazing. With sufficient power and good source material I found that I could even identify the make, and sometimes even the model, of the basses being played in some of the music I listened to. I did find that I agree with some who say that these speakers do show the warts on poorly recorded material. But hell, there is an awful lot of finely recorded material out there. These speakers sounded great from whisper quiet to the concert levels such as those levels which the Who played at back in the 70's. I can only imagine what the new M7's or the M9's sound like. M2's and M3's were tremendous as well, throwing huge, deep three dimensional soundstages. They both connected with me on an emotional basis, perhaps more so than the M6's. Neither was a clinical as the M6's, but there was still fine detail. And despite the smallish bass drivers they both played loud when you wanted them to be loud with plenty of bass. But the S3 2023's were remarkably close in performance to the M2 and M3 speakers, at tens of thousands of dollars less. Compared to what is out there of similar quality, I agree that at $45,500 the S3 2023 is a relative bargain. So in March I ordered a pair of the S3 2023 speakers from the nearest dealer and am now waiting for them to arrive, with an expected ETA of late May or early June barring unforeseen circumstances.
I also quickly realized that I needed to upgrade my amp and pre amp if I was going to get the sound I was looking for out of the Magico speakers. I listened to a number of amp and preamp combinations, including Vinnie Rossi (very nice), large McIntosh amps (mid fi at best), Burmester (very nice also), D'Agostino (a seemingly good match for the Wilson speakers as they must be voiced in a similar fashion, but I did not find them to be a good match in my opinion with the Magico speakers), MBL (too expensive and really requiring an all MBL system, far to expensive for me), CH Precision (a very good match with the Magico speakers, but the amp/psu/preamp/psu combination I liked was just too expensive and I was really hoping to get something made from a solid company in the US), Luxman (nice but two are needed and just not the level of grit, grunt and detail of the better amps) and Boulder. Considering everything, including price I decided to go with the Boulder 1160/1110 combination. I really liked this combination with the Magico S3 2023, M2 and M3 speakers (IMO more amp, such as the Boulder 2150's or the CH Precision M10's in mono configuration, is needed for the M6 no matter what Magico says about recommended power). The speed and the power of Boulder amp pairs well with the Magicos.
I understand that some find this combination of Magico and Boulder to be clinical, and perhaps it is, a bit. But when the recording is right, they do not sound clinical at all, they sound real, without the sugar that ends up be tiring in the long run and which some speaker/amp combinations seem to add to the mix. I just found the honesty, the realness of the Magico/Boulder combination to really be to my liking and what I am looking for in a very good stereo system (I understand that with a dedicated room and yacht like funds that you can get to audio nirvana, but for most of us that is there to dream about, just like we can dream about winning the lottery).
So, as far as this topic goes, anyone in the market for a speaker in the Magico S3 2023 price range is really encouraged to find a way to get out there and listen, listen and listen again to what is out there. I went to quite a few dealers over a pretty large geographical area and all dealers and staff were very, very pleasant to deal with and happy to show what they had and take time with me, as they will no doubt will with you. Educate yourself and find what works best for you given your parameters/circumstances. I did and it is the Magico S3 2023.
