Desktop/bookshelf/standmount two-way loudspeaker Made by: Magico Loudspeakers LLC, Hayward CA, USA Supplied by: Absolute Sounds Ltd Telephone: 0208 971 3909 Web: www.magico.net; www.absolutesounds.com LOUDSPEAKER Price: £9998

LEFT: The A1’s any metal. Roll this sheet into a cylinder sealed aluminium and you have a Graphene nanotube [see cabinet hosts a 28mm Opinion, HFN Sept ’14]. beryllium dome Magico A1 tweeter allied to a A LITTLE MAGIC 165mm mid/bass All good little loudspeakers have the unit. This composite capacity to shrink further from view as the carbon fibre cone music takes over, but only the great ones, More than a chip off the Magico block, the A1 includes a layer of ‘XG the Magico A1 included, positively vanish. sets the standard for pint-sized standmounts Nanographene’ to So as the sound of Carman Lundy’s voice enhance its stiffness filled the room [Self Portrait, rip from a Review: Paul Miller Lab: Keith Howard JVC K2 CD; VICJ-5152] I knew I was in for a treat. Here the piano, percussion and halk and cheese. Night and day. positioning. Furthermore, string section blended in a way that was Or perhaps David and Goliath... while the A1 is the most both insightful and subtle, every little twist Call it what you will, but the affordable Magico, it’s not of vocal and splash or brush of cymbal transition between Avantgarde’s lacking in sophistication or punctuated by ivory to exquisite effect. huge,C horn-loaded Duo Primo XDs [p36] stripped of all the brand’s Frankly, you know the moment you departing my listening room, and the signature features. walk into a room where the Magico A1s diminutive A1s arriving, demanded a Nevertheless, to achieve are playing that these little boxes are recalibration of reality. Just 20kg versus the necessary economy of something special. Not in-your-face special 185kg per enclosure and a drop of 20dB in scale, the A series is not built but offering such an easy-going, open and sensitivity – so the volume control on our in-house but at an approved relaxed sound, infused with details large resident dCS Vivaldi One DAC/preamp also facility with significantly and small, that you are immediately put in needed a reset from 500mV output to 6V. greater anodising, grinding the mood for a long and immersive listen. In truth, Alon Wolf, Magico’s CEO and and CNC capacity. Wherever In this instance, the A1s were aided guiding light, is partial to high-end horns they are built – ‘not California’ and abetted by the pair of Constellation himself, as the brand’s all-alloy, all-active, says Alon Wolf – the standard Inspiration Monos still in residence – the five-way Ultimate served to illustrate. This of construction and finish high value point of the Constellation family statement piece is now discontinued, remains truly exceptional. [HFN Oct ’19]. At audio shows around the but those who experienced the Ultimate The A1’s cabinet is not world, including our own Hi-Fi Show Live will not easily forget its ‘presence’. Yet a tubular extrusion but at Ascot, there’s a good reason for Magico this review is devoted to another all- comprises six machined loudspeakers typically being accompanied aluminium speaker that’s arguably closer aluminium panels bolted by a Constellation amp. They are one of to Magico’s core design ideals and, at together from within (the high-end audio’s symbiotic pairings. 395x216x268mm (hwd), also somewhat final panel afixed through the more practical to unpack, install and enjoy. baffle before the mid/bass MEN IN TIGHTS driver is installed). These are That’s not to say the A1s are amplifier- HIGH-END GATEWAY 9.5mm-thick slabs of 6061 fussy, beyond their limited sensitivity [see This small but dense little loudspeaker T6 ‘aircraft grade’ aluminium KH’s Lab Report, p63], because they are marks the gateway to Magico’s A-series and braced and reinforced by not. Team them up with any solid amp – I to the brand as a whole. It was inspired by three additional aluminium had models from Simaudio (p42), Audio the Q1 standmount (the Q7 floorstander sections connected to the top and bottom dome as the high frequency drivers in Rohacell filling. Only once the laminate atom-thick lattice of carbon, a 2D structure Analogue and Audio Research to hand – and partnering subs are the only Qs still panels and midway up the enclosure. its M-series, albeit without the ‘diamond is assembled is a further layer of ‘XG that’s claimed to be 100x stronger than and they sing just as sweetly, all the while in production) but at a fiver under ten These extra panels are clearly visible in the coating’. The motor system is slightly Nanographene’ embedded into its steel with the ability to conduct telling you much about grand, is rather more accessible than its cutaway shot [p61]. simpler, but is still based on a neodymium surface, contributing significantly to the both heat and electricity the colour and dynamic £35,000 mentor. The latter did come with Magico’s costlier enclosures employ magnet assembly and 28mm voice coil, stiffness of the cone. Graphene is a one with greater efficiency than potential of the system a matching stand while the A1 is supplied constrained-layer damping – a sandwich and the driver as whole is now loaded into as a whole. with four turned alloy feet of aluminium and a an improved absorptive rear chamber. ELLIPTICAL CROSSOVER As a rule, the A1s and mere suggestions lossy polymer layer that will vividly open up the of specialist stands or ‘Oldfield spasms converts vibration to GRAPHENE GALORE In mathematics, an ellipse is a plane curve surrounding two focal music at hand, including desktop plinths you might between jazz, heat. As one concession The 165mm bass/mid driver is specific to points, a term also used by Magico to describe the symmetry of its what are ostensibly consider. For the purposes to cost, none of the A the A1. It employs an overhanging 39mm crossover design. Its ‘Elliptical Symmetry Crossover’ (ESXO) boasts tough, dense mixes like of my listening, I used a rock, fusion and series has these layers, titanium voice coil equipped with a copper ‘greatly accelerated roll-off slopes’ – up to 4th-order in the 2kHz Mike Oldfield’s ‘Taurus set of lead shot and sand- but with panel sizes as shorting ring (reducing coil inductance crossover used for the A1. However, high-order slopes typically mean II’ [from the deluxe filled Partingtons that are olde Robin Hood’ small and (relatively) at HF), within a double-ferrite magnet more components, and increased losses, which is hardly ideal in a edition of Five Miles nearly as old as my career thick as the A1, any such system. However, the real star of the show compact, sealed box enclosure of already limited sensitivity. Magico Out, Universal Music/ in hi-fi, but they are no less sturdy now than additional damping is rather less critical. is the composite design of the driver itself has squared this circle, sorry, ellipse by placing a capacitor in series Mercury]. The sound they were over 35 years ago. Unlike me... The A1’s drivers and crossover [see – a ‘multi-wall carbon fibre cone’ that with the bass/midrange inductor [visible within the inset picture]. of the Uilleann pipes All Magico designs are infinite baffle/ boxout, p61] are all culled from Magico’s promises the ideal combination of very The value of the capacitor is precisely matched to the resonance and Maggie Reilly’s sealed box types, but the absence of a reflex development of its costlier ranges. That light weight with maximum stiffness. frequency of the driver creating an electrical/acoustical filter that atmospheric vocals almost port in this compact enclosure not only extremely lightweight and rigid beryllium The cone is a sandwich of two carbon yields a 24dB/octave slope with only ‘12dB-worth’ of components. Hence the always sound stunning on a half-decent improves its transient behaviour but also tweeter – shared across the A1, A3 and fibre layers in front and a single layer custom Mundorf gold and oil capacitors made to Magico’s specification... system but, as Oldfield spasms between ensures it’s all but agnostic about room forthcoming A5 – uses the same 28mm behind, separated by a vibration-killing splices of jazz-rock, fusion and ye olde

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HFN Jan Magico A1 Reprint.indd 61 17/12/2019 15:27 LAB REPORT MAGICO A1

Magico’s miniature claims a sensitivity of 85dB and nominal LEFT: Magico’s proprietary impedance of 4ohm but neither figure quite squares with our measurements. Measuring at 1m on the tweeter axis we ‘elliptical’ crossover [see recorded a pink noise sensitivity of 82.4dB SPL for 2.83V input, boxout, p61] is addressed about 2.5dB shy of the spec – which is not surprising given via WBT nextgen 4mm the A1’s compact size and closed box bass loading. Minimum terminals. Neither bi-wiring impedance modulus was measured at 2.7ohm (20Hz-20kHz), which islow for a nominal 4ohm design. To be fair, though, this nor bi-amping is supported occurred at 20kHz and the minimum EPDR (equivalent peak dissipation resistance, which takes into account impedance more listeners in more phase angle as well as modulus) – also low at 1.3ohm – likewise varied listening spaces. occurs at high frequency (5.1kHz), where it is less likely to be But how do the A1s troublesome. Otherwise the EPDR dips to a low of 2.2ohm at 91Hz, which is much more amplifier-friendly. fare with demanding Also contributing to the low sensitivity is the A1’s excellent dynamics and bass that bass extension of 47Hz (–6dB re. 200Hz), determined by goes way down deep? diffraction-corrected nearfield measurement. Some small The short answer ‘in speakers flatter to deceive at low frequencies by having a peak in the upper bass but not the A1, whose LF roll-off is monotonic. their stride...’. By way The forward frequency response [again at 1m on the tweeter axis of illustration I cued – see Graph 1] is tightly controlled to within ±2.4dB, for both up the ‘volle dynamik’ speakers of the pair, although there is a distinct shelving down in 2009 remix of Yello’s output above 1kHz. Pair matching over the same 200Hz-20kHz frequency range is also tight at ±0.8dB. The cumulative spectral ‘Oh Yeah’ [The Race; decay waterfall [see Graph 2, below] shows fast initial treble Mercury Records] and energy decay but despite Magico’s advanced cone materials was positively startled there is evidence of cone breakup in the resonances visible by the attack of the between 1.5kHz-5kHz. KH synthesised percussion as it rattled right through Dieter Mieir’s deep and rumbling vocals (another Fairlight effect, if memory serves). Robin Hood music through this Once again, all the elements of side-long saga, there are sequences the set were in balance, the bass of Fairlight-processed strings and delivered with slick attack and no keyboards that can sound crushed, artifical bloom or boom. Indeed, its thickening and coarsening the clarity bass just descends very smoothly of the multi-tracked mix. and quietly exits – so you are barely Here, however, the A1’s cut aware of the missing octave nor, in ABOVE: Response is very uniform with good extension through what might have descended the modestly-sized rooms likely to albeit with a slight downturn through mid and treble into murk to expose a level of play host to the A1s, will you miss it. detail, of structured edginess and Neither, I might add, will you complexity that typically escapes likely want for level because, many larger but no less costly insensitive though they are, the A1s loudspeakers. For once I could listen soak up power and push out those

through all 25 minutes and relish SPLs as if the drivers were possessed. dB 0.0 the transitions between the acoustic So if you are short on space but deep - 6 1.0 and the synthesised, between the of pocket, the Magico A1s are - 12 2.0 elegant simplicity of a solo bell and Hobson’s choice. Simple as that. - 18 3.0 the dynamically-challenged Vocoder. - 24 HI-FI NEWS VERDICT - 30 4.0 IN GOOD VOICE 5.0 msec For the A1 Magico has leveraged 200 1000 10000 Also like all good pint-sized boxes, Frequency in Hz >> its years of engineering know- the A1 is a supreme vocal performer, ABOVE: As expected, the cabinet is well controlled how, made sensible concessions though not, in this case, because the but there are driver modes visible between 1.5-5kHz to the bill of materials, and midband is emphasised while bass condensed the lot into a HI-FI NEWS SPECIFICATIONS and treble are in recession. While remarkably solid little speaker. Its HI-FI NEWS SPECIFICATIONS the A1 might not quite manage the design allows for great flexibility ‘in-your-head’ acoustic trick of the Sensitivity (SPL/1m/2.83V – Mean/IEC/Music) 81.6dB / 82.4dB / 82.3dB in placement, in-room, on-table or aforementioned Avantgarde horns Impedance modulus: minimum 2.7ohm @ 20kHz classic ‘bookshelf’ locations. And & maximum (20Hz–20kHz) 39.4ohm @ 56Hz with demo quality vocals – Richard its sound is so smoothly extended Impedance phase: minimum –62o @ 2.1kHz Burton’s preface to Jeff Wayne’s o and integrated that many an & maximum (20Hz–20kHz) 53 @ 46Hz War Of The Worlds [Columbia, DPCD intermediate-sized floorstander Pair matching/Resp. error (200Hz–20kHz) ±0.8dB/ ±2.4dB/±2.4dB 96000; DSD64] or ‘Hey Laura’ by will be put out to pasture. Gregory Porter [Liquid Spirit, Deluxe LF/HF extension (–6dB ref 400Hz/10kHz) 47Hz / >40kHz/>40kHz Edition; Blue Note 374173-4] spring Sound Quality: 90% THD 100Hz/1kHz/10kHz (for 90dB SPL/1m) 0.7% / 0.1% / 0.1% to mind – its seamless, all-of-a-piece 0 ------100 Dimensions (HWD) / Weight (each) 395x216x268mm / 20kg integration will undoubtedly serve

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HFN Jan Magico A1 Reprint.indd 63 17/12/2019 15:27