CES 2013

At every CES, I seem to find out on the last day that there was something I should have checked out. And, sure enough, on Friday afternoon, I’m talking to Wayne Schuurman of the Audio Advisor, who mentions that Magico has a new speaker that’s about $13,000/pair.

Yikes! I’m supposed to be covering speakers under $15k, and I never bothered going into the Magico room, because I figured that all their speakers were above that price. I got to the Magico room when they were already in the process of packing up, but, although the systems had been taken apart, the new speaker, called the S1 ($12,600/pair), had not been packed up, so I was able to take a picture of it. Here is the picture of the S1 in different M-cast powder-coat finishes, with Irv Gross, Magico’s Director of Sales looking suitably pleased. The S1 is a two-way design, incorporating a new 7" Magico Nano-Tec mid-woofer and the same Beryllium tweeter as in the S5. Bass is claimed to be extended to 32Hz.—Robert Deutsch

John Atkinson comments: I auditioned the S1 earlier in the show, in a system that included Constellation amplification and a Pacific Microsonics DAC. Although the S1 continues Magico’s tradition of loading the woofer with a sealed enclosure (formed from an aluminum extrusion in the S1), the low frequencies sounded surprisingly full in the fairly large room. Kick drum and bass guitar both had believable weight and Jordi Savall’s recording of the Mozart Requiem was reproduced with smooth, airy highs and an uncoloured midrange.