Products of the Year

Loudspeaker of the Year

Magico S5 2024
($74,500/pair–$83,000/pair; reviewed by John Atkinson in Vol.48 No.8, August 2025 review)

FINALISTS (in alphabetical order)

AudioNote AN-E/SPx Ltd. Field Coil
($65,000/pair incl. power supplies; reviewed by Ken Micallef in Vol.48 No.7, July 2025 review)

Avantgarde Duo SD iTRON 3
($81,500/pair; reviewed by Brian Damkroger in Vol.47 No.11, November 2024 review)

Grimm Audio LS1c
($30,300/pair; SB1 subwoofers add $14,600/pair; reviewed by Rogier van Bakel in Vol.48 No.4, April 2025 review)

MoFi Electronics SourcePoint 888
($5495/pair; reviewed by John Atkinson in Vol.48 No.3, March 2025 review)

Voxativ Hagen2 Monitor
($7900/pair; reviewed by Herb Reichert in Vol.48 No.4, April 2025 review)

Wilson Audio Specialties The WATT/Puppy
($39,500/pair–$45,700/pair; reviewed by Martin Colloms in Vol.48 No.2, February 2025 review)

An evolutionary development of the original S5 Mk.II, which I reviewed in February 2017, the S5 2024 is still a three-way loudspeaker with a sealed enclosure. A design team led by Magico's Alon Wolf and Yair Tammam used three-dimensional modeling and simulation in combination with a Polytec laser Doppler vibrometer to optimize the design of the aluminum space-frame enclosure, maximizing stiffness while enabling optimal damping. The acoustic performance was realized with another iterative strategy using a Klippel Near Field Scanner.

The 1.1" diamond-coated beryllium-dome tweeter is very similar to the one used in Magico's M-Series speakers but with a slightly different neodymium-magnet motor system. The 6" midrange unit features a 3" titanium voice coil, two extra-large neodymium magnets, and Magico's latest Nano-Tec v.8 cone, which coats a curved aluminum-honeycomb core with a carbon-fiber layer covered with a graphene skin. The two 10" woofers also use a Nano-Tec v.8 cone with a 5" titanium voice coil.

"After many evenings of music, I realized that there was a clarity—a transparency—to the Magicos' presentation," I wrote in my review. "This wasn't because anything was being unnaturally emphasized. It was due to the fact that my system's noisefloor had been lowered so that recorded backgrounds seemed blacker." The midrange and treble were superbly uncolored, and the control and evenness of the Magico's low frequencies continued to impress me throughout the six weeks the speakers resided in my listening room. I concluded my review by writing that the S5 2024 is "a revelation of what can be achieved by an apparently conventional moving coil loudspeaker."

Notes on the vote
The contenders featured a wide range of loudspeaker technologies—horns, coaxial drive units, a single driver without a crossover, DSP-corrected active topologies, as well as conventional multiway designs—but it was a decisive win for the Magico. The Avantgarde, MoFi, and Voxativ loudspeakers tied for second place; notably, the last two are considerably less expensive than the other finalists.