Wilson Maxx 2. vs. Magico S5 mk2

Like everything in audio, it depends. It depends on the room and treatments and ancillary gear. It depends on your own subjective tastes in music reproduction. It depends on source material. It depends on the cables.
 
I’m afraid this is a little of a Superman vs. Batman question [emoji3].


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slowgeezr said:
Like everything in audio, it depends. It depends on the room and treatments and ancillary gear. It depends on your own subjective tastes in music reproduction. It depends on source material. It depends on the cables.
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In this case it does not depend on anything, I'm affraid. No bad / mismatched equipment will make the S5 mk 2 sound as unnatural as the Wilsons Maxx II.

Two of my close friends used to own those and I used to have the Magico S5 mk 2 (and Wilson Sasha mk 1 and Sophia mk 2 of the Maxx 2/3 era), so I know all those speakers inside and out.

Magico S5 mk 2, no contest, as this is a trully great speaker, head and shoulders above the Maxx 2.
 
Elberoth said:
In this case it does not depend on anything, I'm affraid. No bad / mismatched equipment will make the S5 mk 2 sound as unnatural as the Wilsons Maxx II.

Two of my close friends used to own those and I used to have the Magico S5 mk 2 (and Wilson Sasha mk 1 and Sophia mk 2 of the Maxx 2/3 era), so I know all those speakers inside and out.

Magico S5 mk 2, no contest, as this is a trully great speaker, head and shoulders above the Maxx 2.
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To the statement above. I've never heard or read of a Magico owner selling their speakers for Wilsons. Always the opposite.

In addition, that metal dome tweeter in the older Wilson is IMHO not in the same league as the tweeter in the Magico SMK2 line. A more fair comparison would be the Sasha series 2 to the S5 MK2.
 
mdp632 said:
To the statement above. I've never heard or read of a Magico owner selling their speakers for Wilsons. Always the opposite.

In addition, that metal dome tweeter in the older Wilson is IMHO not in the same league as the tweeter in the Magico SMK2 line. A more fair comparison would be the Sasha series 2 to the S5 MK2.
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Hello,

I sold my Magico Q3 for Wilson Alexias.

I was fed up with how transparent, lifeless my system became powered with Gryphon Pandora+Mephisto. I could only listen for 3-4 songs before I'm bored.

With my Alexias I feel like I am in the club. So musical and engaging.

I would clearly choose Maxx 2 over S5 mk2. The only Magico I'll chose over my Aliexias is M5. I listened to S1, S3, S3 mk2, S5, S5 mk2, S7, Q3 and M5. M5 was the only Magico that gave me the dynamic, musical "you are there in the club" feeling. While all of these Magico models are great speakers with technical wonders but personally I could never got lost in the music with them. They are acting likes microscopes so you hear the music as it is in the recording studio. I know this is infact the exact meaning of hifi but again in my humble opinion I don't care if I listen to the perfect reconstruction of the recording. I like to feel like I am "there" in the jazz club near the stage, on the stage. Even if that means loss of resolutiona and imaging.

my 2 cents.
 
Definitely a, Ford vs Chevy type question, however, some good responses.

The only Wilson audition I thought I could sit and listen for more than a couple songs was the Sasha driven by Doshi. I liked all the Magico and hated to leave. Many Wilson owners here so I will leave it at that, just not my type of sound. I do like the dynamics and presence that would bring you closer to live though.
 
Mr Peabody said:
Definitely a, Ford vs Chevy type question, however, some good responses.

The only Wilson audition I thought I could sit and listen for more than a couple songs was the Sasha driven by Doshi. I liked all the Magico and hated to leave. Many Wilson owners here so I will leave it at that, just not my type of sound. I do like the dynamics and presence that would bring you closer to live though.
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You are right. :wave:

These 2 companies represent two different ends in the spectrum. Both companies have enough long term followers/investors to justify that they produce SOTA products. They are way over being trendy. Alon and Dave both are geniuses.

So to sum it up from my perspective, on bass, dynamics, presence, stage size Maxx wins. On (crystal) midrange, resolution, tranparency, high fidelity, focus S5 wins.

You can’t go wrong with both speakers if you know what you are looking for.

Love and respect,

Cagdas
 
Regardless of which one's the better speaker, the comparison is really odd... One is several generations removed from the manufacturer's current offering, while the other is brand new, with all the new shiny stuff... Strikes me as an apples x oranges kind of thing, no?
 
mdp632 said:
To the statement above. I've never heard or read of a Magico owner selling their speakers for Wilsons. Always the opposite.

In addition, that metal dome tweeter in the older Wilson is IMHO not in the same league as the tweeter in the Magico SMK2 line. A more fair comparison would be the Sasha series 2 to the S5 MK2.
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To help quantify mdp632's point and add a little emphasis to the apples to oranges aspect, the Wilson Maxx2 became available 2004, the Magico S5 Mk II in 2016.
 
asiufy said:
Regardless of which one's the better speaker, the comparison is really odd... One is several generations removed from the manufacturer's current offering, while the other is brand new, with all the new shiny stuff... Strikes me as an apples x oranges kind of thing, no?
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Might be that there's a used Maxx 2 available to the original poster for about the same price as the new S5 mk2?
 
GSOphile said:
To help quantify mdp632's point and add a little emphasis to the apples to oranges aspect, the Wilson Maxx2 became available 2004, the Magico S5 Mk II in 2016.
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Yes but this would make sense if we were comparing a 2004 and a 2016 product from the same company and same line. Like Maxx 2 vs Alexx.

But when you are choosing between Maxx 2 and S5 which are world apart in design philosophy dates do not really matter.

If you have a big room and want room shaking scale of music S5 has no chance with Maxx 2. A timpani will literally move your furniture with Maxx 2.

Also with Magico you really need very very good amps and source electronics. Magico just likes quality on front end. They shine with hiend stuff. With average electronics Magicos just gives you pain in the **s. But you can get away with about any electronics with Maxx 2. Ofcourse the better front end you have it will play better but I heard 2K Chinese amps with Wilsons and they were not playing bad.:)

It's like 2017 Mercedes S class vs 1986 Porsche Targa. Yes the Mercedes is space age in technology comparing to 86 Targa but still it depends on what you are looking for. :wave:

Love and respect,

Çağdaş
 
parkcaka said:
It's like 2017 Mercedes S class vs 1986 Porsche Targa. Yes the Mercedes is space age in technology comparing to 86 Targa but still it depends on what you are looking for. :wave:

Love and respect,

Çağdaş
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I think Magico is more like Porsche and Wilson is Merc. [emoji848]
 
I'm curious on the bass comments regarding Wilson. Most of my auditions have been with D'Agostino amplification and equally level digital sources. Bass is one area I find the Wilson, in general, lacking. The midrange seems always prominent.

1. Do today's Wilson compare to the Max is bass or did Wilson back off in that area?

2. Perhaps, though the two brands are typically together, maybe there's better synergy amplification for Wilson?

One demo was playing Patricia Barber's Modern Cool, an album I'm very familiar with and on all high end systems I've heard the album the bass reproduction is very good, on the Wilson/Agostino combo this album didn't sound that way. The bass was almost nonexistent When we left we all sort of agreed there must have been a problem, hard to guess as to what it could have been without knowing more about the system in that room.

I'm sincerely looking for Wilson user/dealer comments. I've never heard Wilson do much in bass. And, regarding live, they don't even come close to something like MBL. So if Wilson users are getting room shaking bass from timpani, how are you doing it?
 
kzhtoo said:
I think Magico is more like Porsche and Wilson is Merc. [emoji848]
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If we are talking about a vintage Porsche, not really:)

Wilson is all about fun with its flaws. All music sounds nice with Wilsons with a nice tube amp. Just like how even a trip to work is fun with a Targa.

Magico is just perfection with its graphene carbon aluminum beryllium diamond all aerospace stuff materials, closed zero resonance cabinet, 800 screws, tightening bars and near perfect frequency response drivers. Even Magico feet are science in itself.

Wilson is still using some version of paper for drivers and metal spikes for feet.:)

:hey:
 
parkcaka said:
If we are talking about a vintage Porsche, not really:)

Wilson is all about fun with its flaws. All music sounds nice with Wilsons with a nice tube amp. Just like how even a trip to work is fun with a Targa.

Magico is just perfection with its graphene carbon aluminum beryllium diamond all aerospace stuff materials, closed zero resonance cabinet, 800 screws, tightening bars and near perfect frequency response drivers. Even Magico feet are science in itself.

Wilson is still using some version of paper for drivers and metal spikes for feet.:)

:hey:
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Merc is more about "perfection" than Porsche? We have vastly differing opinions.
 
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