Magico M9

Hmm, really thought this review of the M9s would have sparked at least a little bit of conversation? Is the M9 just so far out of reach people choose to ignore it? Even if it breaks new ground in many areas?
 
For me I know M9 is outstanding. I don't need to see or hear it for myself, or read about it. I just know. I didn't read the RH piece.
 
The new ground was the cone and cabinet construction using aluminium honeycomb lattice construction. The external crossover is also new, and that is now available as a new product you can buy alone and use with any other speaker. The new cone construction has already trickled down into the A5 drivers.
 
thx!
i do like the external crossover, seems to be a marvel on the market.
if i remember correct, the point is fixed at 55hz, otherwise it would be on my dreamlist.

are they still using the senseless graphene?
 
M9 MXO is 120Hz fixed, the purpose built version is 55Hz fixed. MXO is a modular card to motherboard design so enables additional filter topologies as an upgrade in the future. If the customer demand was there I'm sure they could build whatever XO point suits your purpose.
 
Bobvin said:
Hmm, really thought this review of the M9s would have sparked at least a little bit of conversation? Is the M9 just so far out of reach people choose to ignore it? Even if it breaks new ground in many areas?
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I suspect a $750K price, and two amps required for each speaker, eliminates a lot of buyers. No matter how good it is.
 
BlueFox said:
I suspect a $750K price, and two amps required for each speaker, eliminates a lot of buyers. No matter how good it is.
Click to expand...

Yes, but audiophiles comment endlessly on lots of very high price gear. (A pair of stereo amps will suffice, you don’t need four monos.) I suppose maybe the fact these haven’t been debut’d at a major show hasn’t helped create chatter. I’ve heard them and they are amazing — just thought the Harley review would’ve sparked more curiosity.
 
Bobvin said:
Hmm, really thought this review of the M9s would have sparked at least a little bit of conversation? Is the M9 just so far out of reach people choose to ignore it? Even if it breaks new ground in many areas?
Click to expand...

before i knew much about the M9 i was low test that it would be that great. and i had not had a really positive Magico listening experience ever where i loved them. i had liked them a few times but never connected. then last November i heard the Magico S5 Mk2's with a Q-Sub at a local audio show and was very impressed. and this event did open my mind to where the M9 might go. so maybe lack of serious Magico love holds back some from M9 excitement. Magico is a polarizing brand.

another factor is the marketplace is trending away from cones and boxes to some degree.

thirdly is, of course, the price of the M9 and what it requires to feed it, and the space it requires to be happy.

fourthly is no one has heard it. not been at shows. only at a few dealers. forum posters have not heard it, only serious customers. which sounds like is the plan going forward. so this situation is not likely to change......it's the plan.

right now how i feel is that the M9 is the top of the heap for cones and box speakers. and while the big Wilson Wamm and XVX are likely pretty good too, they don't interest me really, while if i could afford the M9 it might be my choice. it's likely doing things nothing else can do.

Harley getting excited by any product is never news. when did he not??? your expectation for "that" moving the needle is wishful thinking. what might move the needle would be for Alon to expose the M9 more. but i think their approach is right. the issue is sales, not hype. and most M9 intenders like that it is a bit mysterious, and hard to demo and acquire.

if they do another smaller model with all the same tech at half the price, that model will need to be widely exposed to get the higher sales volume.
 
I just got back from listening to the M9 speakers at Magico's headquarters, in their newly rebuilt listening room. I was really interested in hearing the M9 but also in finding out more about their new room's design.

In my opinion the room is a big improvement over their previous already outstanding room. The new design more closely aligns with what we've done in our own dedicated room, with acoustic treatments along all the walls and ceiling, and what are essentially two foot air gaps behind the surface you see in order to capture bass. They even "upgraded" the rug. The result is significantly reduced room interactions all the way down into the low bass region, so that what you are hearing is almost completely the speakers and electronics, instead of the other way around like it is in many rooms.

We listened to several tracks, some of them the same as what I had heard there before but in the previous room and with the Magico S5 MkII or A5 speakers. I remember one of these tracks from before, and on the M9 speakers the upper mid-range and treble sounded more realistic, crisper, and cleaner while also being very, very smooth. (I know, old memory and all that, but still.) The bass was super clean and articulate, and the full spectrum sounded exactly like what you imagine when you describe a speaker as effortless.

I also thought I would have needed to sit farther away than I actually was. But the drivers all blended perfectly well, and I was not hearing bass from below or the mid-range from above. The speakers completely disappeared and the soundstage was outstanding. I'm sure the room helped with some of that.

I also got a chance to see their Klippel NFS measurement rig. This automated device rotates a microphone 360° around the speaker, while also moving up and down, taking a burst measurement at both a near-field distance and then slightly farther away, in order to approximate the anechoic frequency response on-axis, off-axis, and the sound power. It's a very impressive piece of kit, that takes about 24 hours to complete a full measurement. You might have already seen the video they posted showing the M9 being measured.

Things will look kind of weird if I just dump all the photos into this post, so here's a link to the Imgur gallery: Magico M9 and Klippel NFS images.
 
NekoAudio said:
I just got back from listening to the M9 speakers at Magico's headquarters, in their newly rebuilt listening room. I was really interested in hearing the M9 but also in finding out more about their new room's design.

In my opinion the room is a big improvement over their previous already outstanding room. The new design more closely aligns with what we've done in our own dedicated room, with acoustic treatments along all the walls and ceiling, and what are essentially two foot air gaps behind the surface you see in order to capture bass. They even "upgraded" the rug. The result is significantly reduced room interactions all the way down into the low bass region, so that what you are hearing is almost completely the speakers and electronics, instead of the other way around like it is in many rooms.

We listened to several tracks, some of them the same as what I had heard there before but in the previous room and with the Magico S5 MkII or A5 speakers. I remember one of these tracks from before, and on the M9 speakers the upper mid-range and treble sounded more realistic, crisper, and cleaner while also being very, very smooth. (I know, old memory and all that, but still.) The bass was super clean and articulate, and the full spectrum sounded exactly like what you imagine when you describe a speaker as effortless.

I also thought I would have needed to sit farther away than I actually was. But the drivers all blended perfectly well, and I was not hearing bass from below or the mid-range from above. The speakers completely disappeared and the soundstage was outstanding. I'm sure the room helped with some of that.

I also got a chance to see their Klippel NFS measurement rig. This automated device rotates a microphone 360° around the speaker, while also moving up and down, taking a burst measurement at both a near-field distance and then slightly farther away, in order to approximate the anechoic frequency response on-axis, off-axis, and the sound power. It's a very impressive piece of kit, that takes about 24 hours to complete a full measurement. You might have already seen the video they posted showing the M9 being measured.

Things will look kind of weird if I just dump all the photos into this post, so here's a link to the Imgur gallery: Magico M9 and Klippel NFS images.
Click to expand...

Very cool! Thanks for sharing. I need to make a trip out there.


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Mike Lavigne said:
...another factor is the marketplace is trending away from cones and boxes to some degree.
Click to expand...

Can you talk a little more about this?
What is happening to the box speakers and conventional drivers?
What are the new trends?
 
Hi, well, NekoAudio, you don't seem to be blown away with the M9, with your report, how far from the speakers were you, and what tracks were you playing,

Also when you can buy a Pagani Zonda for the same price, the M9s look extremely over priced, as other people have voiced, then you need about $400,000, worth of amps to drive them, there will be a price for speakers, which is so high and crazy, that people will just not be bothered about them, especially when HiFi mark-up raises its head again, as it will, not just hifi, Lamborghini has a car for $6,000,000, and no-one really cares,
 
Spock said:
Can you talk a little more about this?
What is happening to the box speakers and conventional drivers?
What are the new trends?
Click to expand...

understand i also wrote.....

right now how i feel is that the M9 is the top of the heap for cones and box speakers. and while the big Wilson Wamm and XVX are likely pretty good too, they don't interest me really, while if i could afford the M9 it might be my choice. it's likely doing things nothing else can do.
Click to expand...
so i am very, very high on the M9's.

the trends i see are the horn (Deisis Roma, Aries Cerat, Tobian, new G3 Avante Garde, etc.) and field coil (WolfVonLanga) choices along with Omni's (Bayz) and Planars (Alsyvox). compared to 10-15 years ago these are the comers in the marketplace. some need much less amplifier power and are less room dependant than cones and boxes so open up more options....in more varied living spaces.

i think vintage horn attention has influenced new speaker design trends. maybe not much of that on this forum, but i read lots of it elsewhere.

my mind has seriously considered changing, but right now not likely for me. it takes a great room and lots of work, to get cones and box speakers to be fully natural and seamless. i have that great room and have done the work, so unless that changes i'm not changing. but many don't have that type of advantage and those other tech types of speakers have advantages.
 
greystoke4 said:
Hi, well, NekoAudio, you don't seem to be blown away with the M9, with your report, how far from the speakers were you, and what tracks were you playing,
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I tend to word things in a more informational and factual manner than other people, which I can understand might be taken as a lack of enthusiasm. If you look at my older review of the A5 compared to the A3 (or pretty much any of my posts), you'll see I wrote in a similar fashion but we all know how good the A5 is and how much of a technological and sonic improvement it provided. Personally I get the most value out of reviews that provide factual information and points of comparison, because other aspects are so subjective.

To be clear, the M9 is the best speaker I've heard. When I wrote about how the M9 sounded, I was comparing to the other Magico speakers as well as other speakers I have heard. In other words, the M9 produces music better than all the others. The M9's are expensive, but what Magico is doing in terms of R&D in the speaker world is something I don't see anyone else doing. I think the results of those efforts can clearly be seen in how many people love Magico speakers, and how many reviewers consider them the best speakers you can buy. If someone can afford it, and can accommodate the physical size, then they're the speakers I would recommend. I listen to Magico speakers pretty much every day for my own personal pleasure, and I'd be doing so on the M9 if I could.

With respect to your other questions, I don't remember the exact distance I was sitting from the speakers, but I think it was probably about 15' from the tweeter to my head. We played a selection of vocal and instrumental tracks that I think are good choices for evaluating speakers.
 
Mike Lavigne said:
understand i also wrote.....


so i am very, very high on the M9's.

the trends i see are the horn (Deisis Roma, Aries Cerat, Tobian, new G3 Avante Garde, etc.) and field coil (WolfVonLanga) choices along with Omni's (Bayz) and Planars (Alsyvox). compared to 10-15 years ago these are the comers in the marketplace. some need much less amplifier power and are less room dependant than cones and boxes so open up more options....in more varied living spaces.

i think vintage horn attention has influenced new speaker design trends. maybe not much of that on this forum, but i read lots of it elsewhere.

my mind has seriously considered changing, but right now not likely for me. it takes a great room and lots of work, to get cones and box speakers to be fully natural and seamless. i have that great room and have done the work, so unless that changes i'm not changing. but many don't have that type of advantage and those other tech types of speakers have advantages.
Click to expand...

I think the only ones who believe vintage horn speakers can compete with today’s offerings are as delusional as the ones proclaiming this “natural sound” nonsense or maybe they’re the same ones? Vintage horns are colored beyond belief both from cabinet resonances, driver breakup and horn coloration. Personally, I see nothing appealing. That’s why there is little discussion of vintage horn speakers on any other forum, magazine, YouTube channel, etc.

True Omni pioneers like MBL, horn giants like Avantgarde and new panel ribbon speakers from Clarisys Audio offer a variety of alternatives to the wonderful world of dynamic loud speakers, which through modern materials, state of the art driver technology and a variety of measuring tools like the Klippel NFS utilized by Magico are keeping pace with other speaker topologies offered.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
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