About a year ago I was invited by Alon Wolf—founder, CEO, and pulse of Magico—to visit his 30,000 square-foot, state-of-the art research, design, and manufacturing facility in Hayward, CA. On that occasion I was lucky enough to be the first member of the audio press to audition Magico’s flagship speaker, the $750,000 per pair, nearly 7* tall, thousand pounds apiece (in weight, not British currency) M9.
Proximity has its advantages, and so it was that Wolf recently invited me to visit again, this time to listen to Magico’s latest incarnation of its S-series, the S3.
As anyone familiar with Magico and Wolf well knows, the man is fanatical about all he approaches (I apply that word as a compliment). So before even getting into his company’s latest design, he proudly led me into the company’s lunchroom to show off his recently arrived, direct-from-Italy La-Marzocco Leva espresso machine, a sexy beast of a thing if there ever was one. But I’d have to wait until after the audition to enjoy my shot.
The S3 is Magico’s first design to incorporate technologies developed for the M9. The drivers, for example, are the fruits of three years of research that resulted in the M9. The 5** midrange driver “features an advanced cone material formed of a honeycomb aluminum core sandwiched with outer and inner layers of graphene and carbon fiber.”
The newly developed 9** bass drivers benefit greatly from Finite Element Analysis (FEA), which “provides Magico engineers a single platform to assess acoustical, mechanical, electromagnetic, and thermal properties. This meticulous testing helps minimize distortions in the frequency and time domains.” The cone is an enhanced version of Magico’s Graphene Nano-Tec, “a hexagonal lattice of carbon achieves 50 times the tensile strength of high carbon steel…formed using a honeycomb aluminum core sandwiched by outer and inner layers of CF Graphene…”
FEA also helped to optimize geometry for the S3’s newly designed 28mm diamond-coated beryllium diaphragm tweeter, allowing Magico “to increase the dome diameter from 26mm to 28mm, improving many aspects of performance and allowing even greater power handling and vanishingly low distortion.”
The S3’s new enclosure is a beauty to behold. Measuring 44**H x 17** x 12**W (17** with outrigger base) and weighing in at 222 lbs., it’s fabricated from four separate extruded aluminum panels ranging in thickness from ½** to 2**, and measures thirty percent quieter than that of the previous model.
These brief descriptions aren’t intended to touch on all that’s gone into the intense design work behind the S3. For a thorough look I encourage readers to visit Magico’s website: https://www.magicoaudio.com/s-series-s3.
When it came time to listen Alon and I settled into the company’s custom built, no holds barred listening room where he played me a series of tracks including the gorgeous Hands, a duet featuring bassist Dave Holland and flamenco guitarist Pepe Habichuela; Bach’s Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue from pianist Christian Grøvlen’s Inside Polyphony; a jazz duet from Impromptu, Live at Rhapsody, with Tony Overwater (bass) and Bert van den Brink (piano), and “Autumn Leaves” from Rickie Lee Jones’ live Naked Songs.
As it was with M9, it doesn’t take long to hear what the S3 delivers. One immediately senses the design’s purity, remarkable lack of smearing or mechanical noise, its top-to-bottom coherence and completeness of presentation, and with eyes closed no audible evidence that the music is emanating from two relatively large enclosures, but rather simply there.
Moreover, there’s an exceptional ease to the sound, a kind of poetic delicacy combined with power I rarely hear from any speaker; an amazing sense of detail and interplay between musicians—nicely illustrated by Alon’s musical selections—that never sounded analytical or cold. Indeed, at least in this setup on this day, I would say the sound was beautifully warm without sounding colored, just natural. As we were discussing this Wolf suggested the word “sweet” to describe the S3’s sound, and I wouldn’t disagree.
After listening, over a perfect macchiato made by his new La-Marzocco, Wolf proffered opinions on everything from the state of the audio press to his relentless drive for greater and greater technical innovation. But one thing is inarguable: In the nearly twenty years since founding Magico, “standing still” is something one could never say about Alon Wolf.
MAGICO
3170 Corporate Place
Hayward, California 94545
(510) 649-9700
magicoaudio.com
Price: $45,500 (M-Cast finish), $52,500 (M-Coat)
Associated Equipment
Antipodes Oladra server
MSB DAC
Pilium pre/amps
VYDA and Stealth cables
By Wayne Garcia
Although I’ve been a wine merchant for the past decade, my career in audio was triggered at age 12 when I heard the Stones’ Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! blasting from my future brother-in-law’s giant home-built horn speakers. The sound certainly wasn’t sophisticated, but, man, it sure was exciting.
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