To Jeff Fritz,
I loved reading your Magico Q7 review, and your proclamation that it is the "best loudspeaker available today."
Have you listened to the Focal Grande Utopia EM? I have yet to hear any Magico loudspeaker, but have listened to the B&W 802 Diamond, Revel Ultima Studio2, Quad 2905, Focal Scala Utopia and Focal Grande Utopia EM. Of the bunch, the 802 sounded the most hyper-detailed, the Revel the most pop and synthetic like, the Scala the most chamber-music like, and the Grande Utopia EM the most musical overall.
On the big Focal, I could hear trumpets sounding like actual live trumpets, tenor sax like a real in-room tenor sax (I'm a sax player), and percussion, including tympani, also clear as live in a good room. A first. Luxuriously, old-style big-band recordings transported me to a better-than-jazz dinner-club experience: I could imagine Birdland in its heyday not being so fine, acoustically.
In October, I'm heading to New York with a friend to hear more. How superior is the Q7 to the Focal Grande Utopia EM?
John
The flagship Focals are very good speakers. They play very big, with full, powerful bass, and throw a huge soundstage. They are very dense-sounding speakers that will fill a large space easily. I do think you'd be happy with the Focals if that is the speaker you choose.
The Magico Q7s are on a higher plane, though. They lead a new generation of ultra-high-fidelity superspeakers that take transparency and resolving capability to the extremes. They can also play big, easily filling large spaces with full-range sound, but they do so in a manner that drills down deeper into recordings, shining light on every corner of the recorded event. The Q7s will simply let you hear more, so if that's what you want I certainly recommend an audition. . . . Jeff Fritz
