When reading about Magico, I always hear Constellation as an amp of choice. But I haven’t read McIntosh, and I don’t understand why. It seems like they should pair well. Doc seems to have paired them well.

I had Berkeley Reference DAC into Ayre KX-R 20 preamp into Constellation Centaur monoblocks into Magico M Project speakers for about 6 months. Midrange sounded great, very smooth, but the bass was a bit light. I haven’t heard McIntosh paired with Magico, but McIntosh seems kinda dark to my ears and seems to pair very well with B&W speakers. My business partner runs Scarlotti into McIntosh tube preamp into McIntosh 501s into B&W 800D and they are very musical and fun, if not exactly the most accurate. Piano sounds particularly nice. BTW I moved to all Boulder electronics for my system since then ....

I heard the new Magico A3 speakers this weekend at Axpona.

The first day I heard them they were paired with the constellation integrated amp and second day was with Dan D Agostino progression pre and stereo amp. These were connected with mid level MIT cables and a NAIM music server and dac.

The sound coming out of those speakers was incredible. I thought that the constellation integrated paired better.

A very transparent clean sound. I would go far to say that these are the best speakers money can buy under 10k, and possibly even under 15k.


I magico speakers and have paired them with Mcintosh. It’s a nice sounding system but the speakers are capable and should be paired with better electronics such as Soulution, Dartzeel, CH precision, D Agostino, or Boulder.

... Or Spectral?

Yah I have heard this combo.

Problem I have with spectral is customer service. Talked to a dealer recently and they are dropping the spectral line because they are taking greater than 12 months to fill orders.

Also, you have to use MIT cables to keep the warranty.

Not my bag.

I recall reading several places that early Constellation amps were as you describe, superb mids and highs but light on bass. The bass seemed to improve dramatically with their Inspiration series and later. My local Magico dealer has an Inspiration 1.0 Stereo (front ended by a Constellation Revelation Pictor) driving S3 Mk2s. Sounds superb, including bass. To my ears Constellation amps are characterized by transparent high definition sound.

Wonder if they will build an A5 and A7? Maybe they should call it an A6 so as to not offend Altec and Snell owners.

I've mated my M3's with D'Agostino mono blocks, my all time favorite amps. Balanced, clean, articulate across the spectrum. I added subs to make up for some room issues I have but the D'Ag's are an excellent match IMO.

Cincy

Impressive system!!

Lets see two 7" woofers equal one 10 " woofer. Do that make an A# half an S5? Probably not. But its just away. to compare. Lets see at 10 ft that would be 116 db -10 10 db for distance or 106 db maybe another 2 db for peaks thats 108 db, thats pretty strong with two speakers maybe 110 db. Thats more than enough for me, but I listen at 16 ft so Thats why I would want S7