Magico S5 2024

I have lost track of how many loudspeakers I have measured with DRA Labs' MLSSA system since Stereophile started accompanying its reviews with measurements in the late 1980s, but it must be close to 1000.

- 

Most of those speakers have long since faded from my memory, but there are some whose excellent measurements stick in my mind. One such is the Magico S5 Mk.II I reviewed in February 2017.¹ That large, heavy, expensive three-way tower featured an enclosure built on an aluminum space frame with extruded aluminum walls. I was impressed not only by how it measured but also by its lack of coloration and how effortlessly transparent it sounded.

I concluded my review of the S5 Mk.II writing that "it joins those speakers as ones I could live with when I'm done with this reviewing business." Well, I am not done with this reviewing business, so when Editor Jim Austin asked if I would like to review a new incarnation of the S5, the S5 2024, which was introduced last year to celebrate the California company's 20th anniversary, I enthusiastically agreed.

The S5 2024

The S5 2024 costs $82,000/pair in "Softec" finishes, or $91,300/pair in High Gloss finishes. While it shares the name and some of the technology of its predecessor and is still a dual-woofer three-way in a sealed enclosure, the S5 2024 is otherwise a completely new design. Most obvious is that while the earlier speaker had a flat front baffle, the 2024's aluminum baffle is gently curved. In a Zoom interview, Magico founder Alon Wolf2 told me that this optimizes diffraction. In addition, the new speaker is 5" deeper than the 2017 version, which increases the internal volume by 31%. This lowers the response by 5Hz; Magico specifies the 2024's low frequencies as extending to 20Hz in-room.