It is just amazing how my Axiom speakers continue to sound frigggin awesome ehhhh! No need to upgrade even though I'm explored this option a few times over the years with Ian and Debbie.
ps: Miss Amie
My ALFRs sound better than B&W 801D4s.
They also sound better than the Focal Stella Utopia EVOs.
With the recent plethora of speaker measurement sites, it's been eye opening how excellent sound is still a rarity in the loudspeaker market. I commend Axiom and Bryston for having the gall to publicly publish the two measurements that matter (TL;DR, they're Genelec/Dutch & Dutch/Perlisten rivaling at a fraction of the price).
The ALFRs are similarly good to the Magico M9.
It's been years since I've stepped into a high end audio store, so I haven't listened to $$$ hardware lately.
Here in Edmonton, there's Audio Ark (the nicest audio store in Western Canada for the last 3 decades), Audio 5.1, National Music, and the Gramophone. Calgary has K&W Audio, the others I used to go have all gone belly up.
I care about marginal utility and ROI, so I was never a part of the total addressable market for high end audio. I was too poor to get ripped off by snake oil. I would have been happy with a pair of Waveform Mach 17's though, but you can exceed its measured performance with today's 3 way Axiom tower speaker and a DSP sub.
https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/magico-swings-for-the-fences-the-m9-loudspeaker/That’s a big statement Mojo!! And at $750k the Magico M9 are a touch more expensive. Only a real blind a/b could tell for sure. That would be so fun!!
Hambrabi, I haven’t been in a stereo or audio shop in years. My dad and I would go peruse at the mall all the usual consumer brands. I loved it!! The sales guys juicing up the systems to lure people in. Always Phil Collins playing!!! ( it was the late 80s after all!).
I listened to them. On YouTube. Through my actives. Similarly good.
How do they sound through your M2s?
If you send me a video of your actives playing the magicos, then I’ll know how the magicos sound on your actives. I’ll play the video on my m2s as a reference.
That’s how I’ll know if they sound good.
Ha ha!!!
Now you're getting the hang of this audio thing. You'll be giving factual advice to all in no time.
I'm always amazed at how good YouTube videos sound using nothing more than a smartphone or mirrorless camera for recording. Even if it's not a binaural recording, I can recreate the bass and much of the room ambience if I'm playing through a DD or DTS:X setup.
A smartphone? Really? Mine only records in mono and I'd be surprised if it operates any wider than a couple of hundred Hz to 10KHz. As for dynamics, it saturates quickly.
I've been listening to room recordings on YouTube. I don't know what the room, mic and other recording characteristics are but some recordings sound huge and wide and others sound very narrow. This could be because some are recorded in far-field vs. near-field. The ones that sound huge and wide also sound like that when I play the same tune off YouTube. As for the ones that sound narrow, they sound wide and deep in my room and some are absolutely huge.
These, virtualized through my system, sound 18 feet wide. My ALFRs are 12 feet apart. CRYSTAL clear but the bass has no 'nads. Then I play the real song and the bass is so textured and mellifluous through my subs it is absolutely sinful! I also hear depth not evident in the virtualized rendition.
That bass...oh that bass would melt Ebeneezer's cold, cold heart.
https://youtu.be/pMXFxmxryoU