The latest high-tech materials, full 3-way configuration, and an 80-kilogram aluminum housing—Magico’s new A5 is a speaker statement. Its sound is neither technical nor cool but is exemplary of musicality and transparency, as close to perfection as any passive speaker before it at 7Review.
Malte Ruhnke
Brothers in Spirit
Wait a moment: Does the story sound familiar? Yes, the A3 already had a similar approach. Nevertheless, Alon Wolf believed he needed to pull out all the stops once again in the A series.
What accounts for the price difference? Well, first of all, the effort in fundamental research. While the A3 still leaned on existing chassis geometries, the A5 is a 3-way speaker of the old school. Especially a smaller midrange driver, which can sit closer to the tweeter, promised the Magico team more stable imaging even in typical living room environments and listening distances. That this had to be developed specifically for the speaker and that only the best material combination of the company—with the miracle material graphene—was used hardly needs to be mentioned.
Tech Specs
| PRODUCT | Magico A5 |
| ORIGIN | USA |
| TYPE | Floorstanding loudspeaker |
| WEIGHT | 82kg |
| DIMENSIONS (HxWxD) | 1137x267x378mm |
| FEATURES | • 28mm beryllium dome tweeter • 105mm midrange and 3x 175mm sandwiched-coned bass drivers • Quoted sensitivity: 88dB/1W/1m (8ohm) |
| DISTRIBUTOR | Absolutesounds.com |
| WEBSITE | magicoaudio.com |
Aluminum Dominance
The housing follows the construction principles highly valued at Magico: massive aluminum plates, according to aircraft specifications, are screwed together with an internal skeleton. Because aluminum plates themselves can have unpleasant resonance properties, which can manifest in a bell-like ringing if they are not extensively dampened. In the A5, this is managed by a matrix skeleton that holds each outer wall, including the baffle, bombproof together in asymmetrical partial proportions with an enormous number of screws.
Conveniently, two of the braces can be designed as massive plates, thereby partitioning the partial volume for the midrange driver. Since both acoustically relevant chambers are designed as closed and the membranes themselves are resistant to parasitic sound due to their hardness, no classic damping of the internal volume is necessary anymore.
Material Legends
There are probably more theories and assumptions about the advantages, disadvantages, and inherent sound of various diaphragm materials than about any other question in high fidelity. Magico’s boss, Alon Wolf, is both a sober technician and a sound-loving perfectionist. Beryllium has proven itself so well for him in the high-frequency range that it is now used in all newer designs, including the even more expensive ones. Accordingly, the A5 is equipped with the beryllium dome that was already a guarantee for the finest resolution and silkiness in the A3.
It plays from 2200 Hz with the help of a sound guide machined from aluminum, achieving a harmonious transition to the midrange driver also in the radiation angle. The star of the new ensemble is a significantly smaller specimen than Magico is accustomed to. Alon Wolf indicates 5 inches, that is, 12.5 cm, as the diameter, but the active membrane does not exceed 10 centimeters. Thus, this new chassis is a pure midrange driver without ambitions in the bass, which experiences a high-pass filtering at 250 Hz.
So, if the midrange has been slimmed down, the bass and lower fundamental tone are piled on—yes, easily doubled! Three 9-inch drivers are the maximum that fit on the 26.5-centimeter narrow baffle. These ultra-power basses have the same high-tech material combination as the midrange driver but are designed for extreme excursions and high power. This is necessary because Magico consistently dispenses with bass reflex support in favor of impulse processing and therefore forces the bass drivers to larger excursions. Gigantic voice coils of 12.5 cm diameter process the high power on a titanium carrier; the resulting large centering and coil acting far out on the membrane also make the oscillating construct, stiffened by the matrix in sandwich construction, insensitive to wobble movements and mechanically induced distortion. At the same time, the magnetic drive has been perfected to the last detail: the field is available linearly over a wide stroke range with completely symmetrical field lines; a pole cap made of pure copper reduces unwanted inductions and parasitic magnetic fields caused by compensating currents.
One for All
Could this armada cause too much bass? The answer is clear: No. In the classic free-standing setup, the A5 presented itself as precise to lean. However, it required a longer optimization of the positioning, especially the distance to the rear wall. As little as the closed principle struggles with booming and fat bass, the overall system reacted sensitively to room acoustics and requires care here. Peter Gabriel’s quite controversially mixed “US” could open the listening test series. And how! Contrary to its heavyweight appearance, the A5 proved to be a lightning-fast, agile, ultra-dynamic impulse talent. The bass attacks of “Steam” snapped into the listening room; the energy of the impulses was present in all registers and perfectly balanced, without any excessive bass bloom. The real sensation showed when you turned up the volume a bit: no trace of harshness; even this track sounded ultra-transparent without compromises in microdynamics—yes, audiophile—without losing dynamics. The same can be said for the current soundtrack of “A Star is Born” (Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper). Intimate live atmosphere, quite a bit of raw production, but wonderful voices from start to finish!
Let’s stay with that: The Eagles intoned “Seven Bridges Road” (“Hell Freezes Over”) in the style of barbershop singing. Reverent silence spread. The clarity, this impression of total cleanliness, was already worth the verdict “world-class,” but here the voices were also served with maximum articulation and the typical live pressure with the close-miking effect of the microphones.
Smetana’s “The Moldau” (Süsskind, MFSL) was performed with special swing in the strings and pressure in the brass. With the best will, the listeners could not tell whether it was a historical or modern recording, because here the best of both worlds seemed to unite (answer: from 1975).
Revelation for Choir
Although all questions were answered after the obligatory round, some philosophical reflections remained. Is there still a difference between maximum impulse dynamics and silky resolution after the A5? No, because it masters both in perfection. Also, the question of audiophile recordings or preferred music genres no longer arises. Unless there are awful recording errors, the metallic American always managed to coax the best out of every recording from an audiophile point of view, without beautifying or slowing down. In this respect, it fits perfectly into the modern era with streaming services and library software, where the user is guided only by their taste in music, not by sonic limitations.
Nevertheless, the special fascination unfolds most with complex passages; you best amaze unsuspecting listeners with choirs, big bands, and brass-heavy orchestral movements—which the A5 handles completely without noise effects. Natalie Cole’s “My Baby Just Cares for Me” is such a fascination, always exactly on the border between intimate vocal jazz and punchy big-band interjections. This balanced state between meditative and dynamic was captured by the Magico simply perfectly. The voice stood with dreamlike security, quite close to the listener in the room; the wall of brass instruments surrounded her like a large holographic backdrop you wanted to reach into.
In similarly trance-like states, we were transported by Bruckner’s 8th Symphony in the excellent MDG recording (Blunier): whispering string carpets, elegiac melodies, crashing brass. On the Magico, the tension held through 88 minutes, and the fortissimo entries never sounded noisy but only led the magic of the music to new heights. After the final chorus from Wagner’s “Tannhäuser” (Solti, Decca) in all its intoxicating complexity, only one question remained: Has the A5 achieved perfection in the sum of all sound aspects? Yes!
Wonder Material: Graphene
Magico always develops all drivers themselves. The Californians use materials at the edge of what is physically possible in all three ways of the A5—but not for their own sake, rather with a clear acoustic goal in each case. The tweeter dome consists of beryllium, the lightest of all light metals, which is difficult and complex to process but shows amazingly good acoustic properties due to its natural characteristics, especially with smaller diaphragm areas.
The cone drivers, on the other hand, are three-layer sandwich diaphragms, whose construction focused on the lowest possible weight while simultaneously achieving high tensile strength, torsional stiffness, and frequency-independent internal damping. All together is almost naturally contradictory in larger diaphragms, and accordingly high is the effort. The result was a sandwich whose outer layers consist of a braid of carbon fiber nanotubes with a surface coating of graphene. This material is unbeatable in two dimensions in terms of tensile strength and thus ideal for stabilizing the carbon fibers. These are baked together with a stabilizing internal structure (see top right) after a secret and patented process, which uses the hexagonal structure of graphene in coarse dimensions.
Wonder Material: Graphene
The Magico A5 Loudspeaker Review
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Mr Magico is the best magician for any kids party. We absolutely loved him!