Equipment where reviews did NOT match your experience

I believe so. The ones I heard at the RMAF had the plasma supertweeters, and they looked like these:

Not sure if what is pictured here is a “new & improved” version, but pretty close, if it is.

There are quite a few, BUT, the worst of them all, and the biggest scammer and snake oil salesman I’ve seen was the CRAP the Synergistic Research folks were demoing at AXPONA. It was the worst thing I’ve ever seen, literally using psychological tricks to convince ppl they could hear a difference when there was none, placing some empty boxes around the room to magically do something (blackbox)!

It was so horrendous, that I promised myself to NEVER EVER give this company a dime of my hard earned money!

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For a time it was SAAB and,… well we all know what happened there. GM interferes with Viking Heritage.:grinning:

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I’m with you on Magico, literally THE MOST over-rated speaker I’ve ever heard! They’re good, but they’re NOT great, and definitely not as good as they’re reviewed or raved about. To me, it’s more of an engineering feat with aluminium enclosure than great sounding speakers!

I’ve tried at dealers, CES and AXPONA to like em, and everytime… meh… like I enjoyed the sound of WHARFEDALE Hertiage speakers at 1/10th the price more than Magico A3!

I agree, it’s a matter of taste. Not the greatest speakers, and maybe too harsh for some, but they sound heck of a lot better than let’s say Magico speakers at half the cost!

If you want to talk about aluminum speakers, YGs… ; )

But they told us last month that it takes a week of listening to get your head around hearing real, accurate reproduction, and that after that, you can’t go back.

I have no idea, as I will not be affording them for a week anytime soon.

Honestly, YGs at least sound good, detailed, good imaging! Still NOT worth the price by any means, but I enjoyed them. Magico was always, MEH…

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YG’s always sounded just OK at shows for me until RMAF a year or two ago. Tho the YG’s in the YG room still didn’t do it for me, down the hall there were some monstrous turntables with YG’s and the system sounded great.

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Interesting views on B&W and the Vivids … I used to have a pair of B&W Nautilus 802’s that I absolutely loved … then “upgraded” to the 802 Diamonds which sounded CRAPPY in my listening room (partly to blame, I’m sure). Took a chance on a pair of Vivid Giya 2’s and never looked back. They were extraordinary room-friendly - to the point of getting imaging by just more or less “plonking them down” into position and without experimenting further. Last year I upgraded to the Vivid Giya 1 Spirits and am very happy.
Though I must say:- I did not pay near retail for mine …

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Wow you lucky guy with the Vivid 1, you’ve got some of the best speakers around imo! I wonder how you had the B&W playing anywhere near its energy and involving sound.

The Diamonds were too bass-heavy in my then listening room - which was actually a school hostel! (too small; and other challenges). Subsequently moved to my own house … maybe the Diamonds would’ve worked here but hey, with Vivid’s who cares? :grin:

Yeah there are always synergy effects and I never heard both together, so I can’t tell anything about the combination which might be great.

When listening to the DM10, there were really strong characteristics, it was sounding very refined with great resolution and detail as well as an extremely transparent soundstage and very clean, neutral sound. Alone those characteristics paired with a speaker that supports the same will be fascinating in its own way I’m sure. What it lacked for me might not be so obvious when not comparing with different gear. So in case you have it for a long time and didn’t try a few others in your home, you might not notice. What it lacked for me was palpable, 3D, holographic objects within the soundstage (it had a great 3D soundstage but with 2D objects in it), it was quite conservative in reproducing tonal colors and had no dynamics, energy, pace, bloom, convincing me that there’s something alive. In my comparison it sounded like perfect hifi, but still hifi. Several years ago with less eyperience with other gear, especially tubed, I possibly wouldn’t have noticed so clearly.

My favorit reviewer (Fremer), who also listens to speakers (Wilson) I’d call a little uninvolving (unless you pair them with a perfectly matching power amp), reviewed the Q5. It was a rave review as any of Magico I just pasted below only the slightly negative comments between the lines, which give a hint of what I perceived when hearing the Magico’s so far (but it was not just missing impact in bass as it looks like when reading below, it was more missing involvement). Everything else in the review was more than positive…so I’m still trying hard to like the Magico’s whenever I have the chance to listen to them again!

++++++
“Some recordings are intended to punch you in the stomach. The Q5 can’t do that. It’s soft and polite. That works well for many recordings, but not all. The ability of other speakers to reproduce that visceral impact is not a hi-fi distortion caused by vented or powered woofers. It’s real. In this respect, both the [Wilson MAXX 3] and the [Vandersteen 7] have it all over the Q5.
…But the bottom-end weight and drive needed for hard rock is not there. I also felt that this paucity of weight sometimes affected the Q5’s ability to capture the growl of the cello’s lowest notes. When my stomach should have begun to churn, it did not.
…with the exception of the bottom octaves, where they lacked visceral punch.
… As a work of industrial art, the Magico Q5 is beautiful, though to some it might look cold and uninvolving. But that’s a more personal issue than the sound itself. When you first listen to it, the Q5 may also sound uninvolving because it has little or no personality of its own.”
++++++

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Speakers like the 801 depend on the quality of the input signal… Garbage in, garbage out. Good source material, good electronics & wires (very important!), a good room and they sound great. And they must not be floor standing! If they are not put on suitable stands, the bass is unlistenable. Same if the room is too small. My 2 cents…

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Agreed with this view, at Axpona, I was so impressed by Vandersteen in multiple rooms being a fraction of the cost of Magico, and no matter WHAT I did, and which room, or dealer I tried, Magico disappointed!

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I had a similar experience at AXPONA, Vandersteen Thumbs Up, Magico not impressed.

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Wilson Alexandria XLFs. God didn’t show up at 210k. In a good room. Great front end. Couldn’t find the mid bass.

The magicos just overpowered those little rooms and then the monsters they had out in the hallway with 3 walls of glass? Uggh.

Nah. Big room, small room, dealer room, someone’s living room. Always disappointing, always excuses, always over-hyped and always over priced. Magico is literally the most disappointing over hyped speaker in a decade, period!

On the exact opposite of the scale, is Wharfedale, Elac, Harbeth, Vandersteen and even Focal. Outperform their price to differing degrees.

And maggies for the planar folks. I listened to the harbeths at axpona. I just didnt hear the magic.

My experience at T.H.E. Show in Long Beach this year 100% matched what you described. I ran into Richard Vandersteen coming out of the elevator at the end of the expo on Sunday and made a point to stop him and describe my experience. Essentially his speakers (along with the Ayon room) were the most consistently impressive regardless of the room they were in. There were a few speaker vendors demoing their speakers in multiple rooms.