Magico Magic (and unrelated matters)

[Brodric]

It’s not very often I start a new topic in the PS Audio forums here. And I did run away from the forum recently after divesting myself of all my PS Audio gear, thus feeling I no longer had any credibility to remain here (and I know that made some of you happy). Firstly let me qualify that, I continue to own some minor peripheral PS Audio gear like interconnects, power cables, Dectet, Duet and the like. But, all discontinued stuff, I don’t own any current stuff any more. Well, I did up until yesterday when my DMP departed for somewhere else. I’m not out all-together, my P20 order will be placed when GlobalNet is back up and running, whenever that is.

I recently embarked on a major rejig of my music system. Not because I felt anything was lacking, for no other reason than a whim that blew through my window on a breeze. It’s no secret I’m a big fan boi of Magico speakers. When you buy a pair of Magico speakers you get, at no extra cost, a Magico branded micro-fibre cloth in standard issue Magico orange and black. The purpose of such thing I’m unsure, maybe like a toy a kid might collect out of a Wheeties pack with the aim of collecting a whole set. So, here is my toy set:

Those three humble pieces of cloth represent a significant investment (about $160K USD). Consistent with my mantra that I’ve expressed over many years when asked the question by a member of our community “what should I upgrade next”, to which my answer will always be “buy the best speakers you can’t afford”.

Following my own mantra I think I’ve ended up at the end of the upgrade road.

Magico M3. It’s the little brother of their flagship speaker, M6. 145kg of steel and carbon fiber and diamond and carbon nano-tubes and whatever else goes into making a pair of these things. If you didn’t know they were speakers you’d think they’d come out of the Lockheed Martin shunk works, a part off the latest generation top secret black ops stealth aircraft. And here they are, having joined the family 2 days ago:

Together with all the other bits and pieces that make the whole shooting match work.

Whilst there is an empty space on the table where DMP once was yesterday, the sound of the DMP in this system I might unreservedly classify in boxing lexicon as “punching way above its weight class”. The new Esoteric Grandioso P1X SACD Transport will be sitting there in 2 months, hopefully.

The M3 are sitting on casters. For 2 reasons, to make it easier to move the speakers for final voicing and in-room positioning. And secondly, because there was no 3/4" hex tool in the accessory kit to undo the outriggers! No major drama, they need 100-300 hours for the tightness in the drivers to loosen up. Time enough to buy said tool and do what is required. The speakers sit on a product that Magico call Mpods, which is a coupling device to anchor the speakers to the floor whilst at the same time decoupling them from whatever it is they need to be decoupled from. I have the new “spiked” Mpod. The first-gen Mpod don’t have spikes, instead they have an inverted stainless steel dome and a hand grenade pin that needs to be removed after final positioning. The Mpods were an optional extra and added almost $10K to the price. They look like this:

Anyway, to close-out on this initial post I’m on day 2 of the break-in journey and it’s a thoroughly enjoying experience. Here it is from another angle…you can see my Halcro and Esoteric stuff there as well, and the Kaleidescape GUI that is my digital source for the whole show. Until the P1X comes. And the snake pit of cables which are comprised of Crystal Cable Ultra Diamond, Acrolink Mexcel, Shunyata Sigma, and PS Audio AC-12 and others.

Thanks for reading.

[Veneet]

Wow, amazing set up. Thanks for sharing, really love the attention you spend to get things just right. Congratulations and happy listening!

[mark-d]

Very nice…I think your next investment should be a much larger room.

[Brodric]

The days of 20 primary school kids dancing to The Wiggles in that room, and their mums and dads drinking all my beer, are long gone…today the room only needs to be big enough for one. Me.

[jeffstarr]

I always get a kick out of room criticism, when you don’t see the whole room.
Very impressive, I hate being poor.
Have you considered going to HRS 2 shelf racks?

[netspecht-2]

Very nice indeed. I myself have homebuilt wheeled speaker platforms I made from Oak for twin sets of Monitor Audio GR 20s. It certainly makes things much easier to move the speakers around and adjust. Impressive setup you have @Brodric

[Brodric]

I have 3 sets of Critical Mass Center Stage 2 on order which will mechanically isolate the electronics on the table top. Which incidently is made out of rare native Wandoo timber that is almost as hard and as heavy as steel boiler plate, and stuffed my router bits in the process of making it (which is why many local carpenters and furniture makers won’t touch it). Try picking it up, I dare you. But that’s right, a proper rack wouldn’t go astray but first I want to try those CM footers.

[Brodric]

@jeffstarr

…I hate being poor.

Me too And I am just that.

[Brodric]

@jeffstarr

when you don’t see the whole room

It’s a dual purpose room. In addition to the music system there is also a projector and 7.1 surround system. The electronics for that fill a 42U server rack in the adjacent room. The projector is a JVC X9900, the screen is a Stewart Grayhawk RS Electriscreen and the electronics are Halcro mult-channel amps, Krell audio processor, Kaleidescape video server and blah blah blah the rest of it.

Networking is a heavy duty Pakedge system, and the control system is Philips Pronto Pro, and iPad which controls lighting, shutters and everything else.

Excuse the mess…I’ve been measuring stuff and marking stuff and moving stuff and there is a pair of Magico Q3 on the left there that I need to shift out of there, and an SVS subwoofer that I’m reconsidering the need for now. And the 3-seater couch isn’t normally there either. The room is very heavily acoustically treated to optimize the sonic experience, and isolated from the rest of the house with laminated double glazing and sound proof doors with drop down seals, etc. The surround speakers are Golden Ear Invisia.

When that 7.1 sound system is in full flight it can be terrifying.

With the lights out you lose most of the distraction of all those things in the room, except for the blue halo under the floating Halcro amp stands. The noise in that room is highly competitive with what Gene Simmons and friends might do for real.

[cudfoo]

Just wondering - how wide is the room?

[Brodric]

3.3m.

[silo]

Wow, amazing Man Cave.

[Dirk]

First thought on seeing your enviable collection of orange micro-fibre cloths – that’s a bloody expensive way of obtaining them, why didn’t you just buy them at Walmart when you bought your dac ?

Anyway - I must say that is quite a collection of equipment you have there Mr B. I see you are like me in the sense you don’t use sandboxes, coil springs, elliptical leaf springs or dangling the equipment from steel bowden cables like a suspension bridge…

One point, if I had your penchant for Magico I’d have bought the M6 speakers…….Microfibre Cloth the size of a duvet !

[Brodric]

Thanks. I had to trade-off some video fidelity in favor of the audio side. I had a Lumagen Radiance Pro video processor but it was a luxury that was sacrificed recently to help pay for the new speakers, and other things. The main aim within that room is ultra-low distortion stereo music. As far as I know the distortion of the system hardware is the lowest of anything currently available. Certainly with the power amps and pre-amp, by a long way.

[Brodric]

@Dirk

if I had your penchant for Magico I’d have bought the M6 speakers

M6. Cough…175 grand…cough again. Besides, my insurer wouldn’t wear it. They’re already sweating enough on it as it is. If the house burns down, I’m covered. If the crims try to knock it off, good luck. Bring Big Show and Brock Lesnar to help carry it out. And a screw driver to take off the front door so it fits through the hole.

[Brodric]

@Dirk

why didn’t you just buy them at Walmart when you bought your dac ?

Because the Walmart version doesn’t come with free Magico carbon fiber. And their M is upside down.

[Dirk]

What we will do the lengths we go to… Our home is a traditional built house built from engineering bricks with no stud or drylining… I built a dedicated listening room in the loft space just for my main system. Everything was great until we couldn’t manage to carry the speakers up the stair due to the twist near the top …

Not to be deterred. So, I stripped out a cupboard below the listening room and removed the ceiling then I cut through the listening room floor & joists, installed a hatch in the floor… I built a gantry and using a block and tackle I hauled the speakers into the room through the floor. I will look out a photo or two.

[Brodric]

Tip: Next time hire Brock Lesnar as your able transportational gorilla. Yep, no dry wall or stud construction at my place also. Double clay brick, laminated with two layers of soundcheck. Not worth the effort.

[jeffstarr]

@Brodric

Me too And I am just that.

Well, you may be now, but your speakers are worth more than my house. I would like to do a few upgrades, but the only thing I have that would get me the amps and the speakers I want, is a kidney.
As to the rack, I didn’t realize it was custom made.
If I recall correctly, you are located in the land of the kangaroo and koala? Was Halcro built there? They got great reviews, and a few years later, I don’t recall seeing anything. I thought they were going to become a very popular company. Are they still in business?

[Brodric]

Halcro is built in Adelaide, South Australia. I heard they now have a factory in Europe building some of the parts (doing the chassis metal work). They are still in business but, as far as I know, not actually selling any new products yet. They have a very strong connection with PS Audio via the owner of Magenta Audio who owns the Halcro brand and is also the Australian PS Audio distributor.