Time to upgrade my Magico Q3

[TOGA]

As much as I happy with Q3 sound in every way during 2ch duty for music.

There is one problems with it that i need improvement.
When i watch movies in 5.1 set up which i don't have proper subwoofer for .1 channel.
I set all speakers to FULL RANGE, the tiny woofers of Q3 mechanically reach its movement limits
Many time during the infrasonic sound effect even at level lower than THX ref. level.
Mid also broken badly during moment of peak from sound of jet engine roaring or gun firing.
This is weird as there is no distortion at all during music no matter how loud.
Other than having proper sub to cross over low freq from Magico, i am also think of new
Speakers that has larger woofers. But having same high quality of q3.
What in mind are
Rockport Altair
Magico Q....
Tidal Agoria
Focal Stellar Utopia
YG Sonja 1.3
I just wish i could afford the Q7 .. Sigh..

Toga

[mdkim]

Would be cheaper to get a good sub no?

Nice choices for speakers...look forward to your final decision and impressions. Good luck.

[TOGA]

Adding sub is much much cheaper. But it will not help with distort broken sound from midrange driver.

I think speakers that have two midrange drivers or extra mid bass driver will work less hard
During high SPL movie sound effect.

This broken sound of Q3 in the mid is something I didn t experienced with Definitive BP2000, Revel Salon2
Or Wilson Sophia3.

Amplifier clipping is impossible as my amps is surely powerful enough at 1000watt/4 ohm load.
Or may be it was a clipping from ARC ref40 preamp in processor bypass mode. That cause this
Broken sound i don t know.

But a mega speakers is always what i am dream to have anyway.

Toga

[asiufy]

Is it possible the mid driver is already damaged?
I'd stick to the subwoofer, and cut at 120Hz or so.


alexandre

[Audioseduction]

Sounds like severe punishment on those Magico Q3 speakers. I have 4 NHT coaxial speakers that I use for fronts and rears for my home theater that I can crank louder than you can stand without any distortion. My cut off is at 80Hz. I run a pair of subs.

[chops-tube]

Something sounds fishy there.

No matter where I search, I can not find any specs on these speakers except for the basics. Depending on where the crossover frequency is of the three 7" woofers and 6" midrange, if that midrange runs down to 100Hz or so, it's quite possible to make it run past its limits with movies at high volumes.

Remember, no matter what music you listen to, movies always have more bass information in them, over-processed, over-emphasized, unrealistic bass. That's one reason why your Q3's don't distort with music.

Also keep in mind, those Q3's dip down to 2.8 ohms, where in the frequency range, I don't know. Again, a lack of info. And not knowing what amp you have, there's no telling what your amp is doing at 2.8 ohms at high volumes. Sure, it produces 1000 watts at 4 ohms, but at 2.8 ohms, it could be taxing out and causing clipping/distortion. It may not even be stable at 2.8 ohms.

Frankly, with that caliber of speaker, I wouldn't be wasting them in a HT system. But, since you have them in a multi-use system, I would just get a JL sub and throw it in there. At least those subs are built for that kind of abuse and will take the massive burden off of the Q3's.

Just my 2 cents...

[TOGA]

Hi,

What caused magico woofers to bottomed out was infrasonic rumbles in the movie.
What cause midrange to sound broken is loud gun fire, loud jet engine sound effect, which is not low bass.

An AVP feed to front channel via ARC REF40 tube pre amp Bypass mode.
Amplifier for front is Moon W7M. This sure never clipped or become unstable. It drove Salon2 with ease to any level.

Within its limit, I found Magico Q3 to be very good sounding for movie that s why I think good speakers still
Has place in multi channel set up.
One music that bottom out the woofer is cannon sound effect from TELARC 1812 music CD,
salon2 played this without bottoming out as well.

I might add dual subs such as F212s or SVS PB13 Ultras to share load of infrasonic out of Q3.

Toga
Oh and the midrange of Q3 is not yet damaged. Still wotking fine.

[chops-tube]

Originally Posted by TOGA

Hi,

What caused magico woofers to bottomed out was infrasonic rumbles in the movie.
What cause midrange to sound broken is loud gun fire, loud jet engine sound effect, which is not low bass.

An AVP feed to front channel via ARC REF40 tube pre amp Bypass mode.
Amplifier for front is Moon W7M. This sure never clipped or become unstable. It drove Salon2 with ease to any level.

Within its limit, I found Magico Q3 to be very good sounding for movie that s why I think good speakers still
Has place in multi channel set up.
One music that bottom out the woofer is cannon sound effect from TELARC 1812 music CD,
salon2 played this without bottoming out as well.

I might add dual subs such as F212s or SVS PB13 Ultras to share load of infrasonic out of Q3.

Toga
Oh and the midrange of Q3 is not yet damaged. Still wotking fine.

Yes, I know what caused the woofers to bottom out.

Gun fire, jet engines and the real live canons in that Telarc disc (I have the same disc), all have tremendous bass information in them as well as tremendous upper bass and midrange information, hence why the Q3's midrange bottomed out. It's not difficult to push a midrange driver past its limits with loads of upper bass material going through it at high volumes.

Of course, the immediate cheap fix would be to turn the volume down. Next course of action is adding a sub or two. Lastly, if you're so inclined for change, we could swap amps and speakers as your amps would match my CD player.

[TOGA]

I partly blame my AVP Marantz 8003 for not allow front ch. to set as small when there is no subwoofer.

I have large surround and center which considered true full range and can take some LFE signal.
So I wanted to set front ch to Small, but it just not allowed.

You are right that very low bass at high level could tax out midrange.e driver too depend on
Xover freq and slope. That is unknown .

I will still dreaming about the giant speakers I mentioned..
Toga

What a shame you've written off the S5's; they are virtually taylor-made for home theatre duties with equal aplomb to 2 channel audio