Loudspeakers

This extends not only to the largely bespoke drivers but in particular to those famously inert cabinets, employing copious quantities of alloy, innovative scaffold-like internal bracing and constrained-layer damping.

The Magico S3 is a three-way, sealed-box design combining the same advanced MB30 beryllium tweeter and 6in M380 midrange unit seen in the S5 [HFN Dec ’12]. But it’s the implementation of the M380 that Alon Wolf describes as ‘the biggest deal of these loudspeakers’ – the driver working into its own specially shaped sub-enclosure fashioned from a polycarbonate resin. This elongated bubble enclosure provides the ideal acoustic termination, reducing distortion over a 200Hz-2kHz bandwidth by around 5dB.

The chamber also isolates the midrange unit from changes in pressure caused by the pair of newly-developed 8in woofers. These employ a hybrid ‘Nano-Tec’/aluminium cone material combined with a huge voice coil and underhung motor system.

All that noted, we consider the S3’s extruded contoured aluminium cabinet – claimed to be the world’s largest monocoque enclosure with ½in walls and having the potential to minimise diffraction effects, internal resonances and damping requirements – to represent the ‘far bigger deal’.

The tall structure is stabilised by matching alloy outriggers fitted with exquisitely-machined adjustable spikes. Cable connection is via a single set of 4mm lock-tight bananas per cabinet. Meanwhile, Magico’s standard satin-style powder-coat finish comes in a set range of colours for a £25,000 ticket, but the glossy automotive paint M-Coat finish commands figures closer to £29,000.

Just relax

The S3s took around two weeks to warm up and ‘relax’ before the music really flowed. Ah, but when it did, they sounded astonishingly quick, the bass utterly free of bloom or overhang, securing musical rhythms with the deadly authority of a nail gun.

The segue to Magico’s topmost drivers is subjectively seamless, its mid deliciously detailed, the treble sweet but so obviously extended beyond the grasp of the ear.

The S3 is analytical by design but sympathetic, musically, in its approach. Thus it revealed the layering of The Beatles’ ‘Back In The USSR’ [White Album] without tearing this vintage masterpiece to shreds. The drone of aircraft in the background remained as clear as day, setting the scene for McCartney’s slightly nasal vocals and enthusiastic percussion. The value of remastering this vintage recording was especially clear as the S3s rolled out the red carpet for the Fab Four, the boys performing with a clarity and energy that belied the tape’s humble origins.

Moreover, the S3s create a capacious and very transparent soundfield without the conspicuous presence of an archetypal ‘big box’. Like all Magicos we’ve heard, they vanish from the picture.

Verdict

A ‘tour de force’ is not an uncommon cry in the promotion of high-end audio, but this promise is not only realised in the materials and manufacture of Magico’s S3 but also in its exquisite delivery of the music. But you will need an amplifier of equivalent calibre.

Originally published in the 2014 Yearbook