Loudspeakers

Magico’s 28mm diamond-coated beryllium dome tweeter includes a shallow waveguide, allowing the chassis plate to be mounted flush with the speaker’s gently curved, one-piece alloy baffle
Magical Sounds
The Espen Eriksen Trio/Andy Sheppard’s recording of ‘In The Mountains’, from the album of the same title [Rune Grammophon RCD2227] was a perfect choice for Magico’s S3 2023 to set out its stall – the immediate impression being of presence and three-dimensionality, along with fine instrumental timbres, especially in Sheppard’s sax. Similarly, Anaïs Reno’s atmospheric Live At Pizza Express, on the venue’s own PX Records label [PXRCD1008], arrived with all its ambience intact. It was a real ‘you are there’ experience, with Reno’s voice almost tangible.
The recent Lang Lang Saint-Saëns album [Deutsche Grammophon 4875019] is so deceptively easy to listen to via these speakers that it’s easy to overlook the sheer amount of information on offer, from the scale and delicacy of the soloist’s piano to the accompanying orchestra. There was a lovely light airiness to the woodwind in the ‘Aviary’ section, plus tight control of the plucked strings, while the ‘Fossils’ section proved joyous with its xylophone and exuberant finale.
Without doubt, the S3 2023 can ‘do bass’ – as much as you could ever want, but ruthlessly controlled while it’s shaking the room. Play Dizzee Rascal’s ‘What You Know Bout That’, from his Don’t Take It Personal album [Big Dirte3 Records BDR1CD], and the low-end is simply thunderous, but with unstoppable drive and Mr Rascal’s chatty vocals entirely intelligible. Change tack to Anna Lapwood’s magnificent take on Britten’s ‘Sea Interludes’ [Images; Signum Classics SIGCD688], and the delicate ‘Moonlight’ section has a real sense of the air moving in the pipes of the Ely Cathedral organ. The S3 2023 unleashed the tumultuous ‘Storm’ interlude with real sonic power, pressurising the air in the listening room and mimicking the instrument itself inside the huge acoustic.
Sticking with keyboards, and the immaculate sound – for a live event – of Jean-Michel Jarre’s Versailles 400 (Live) [Columbia 48kHz/24-bit download] sounded hyper-realistic, in true Jarre style, through the Magico speakers. The sound of matches being struck and the panned effects at the beginning of ‘Oxygene 2’ appeared to come from all round the listening room, not just the plane of the loudspeakers. And as the music swells and the bass kicks in, it does so in a truly chest-thumping manner – even at ‘sensible’ listening levels – while still leaving plenty of space for Jarre’s synth lead.
As the set segues into movements from ‘Equinoxe’, that feeling of a full, rich sound continues: the bass fills the room, effects cannon and whoosh about the space, and the rapid rhythms are tight and crisp. So is the solidity of image between and way beyond the speakers.