Magico M9 Flagship Loudspeakers Announced

Posted on 19th June, 2020
Magico M9 Flagship Loudspeakers Announced

The Magico M9 floorstanding loudspeakers boast a number of world's firsts, an outboard active cross-over and a hefty price tag.

The Magico M9 is a striking proposition for those with deep enough pockets, standing at over 2 metres tall and costing around £840,000, this is the company's new statement piece. Although ordering a set of these four-way, six-driver floor-standing loudspeakers will be out of reach for most, we generally see flagship tech trickle down to lesser models over time.

Magico M9

Perhaps the new high-tech enclosure that consists of carbon fibre inner and outer skins and an aluminium honeycomb core will make its way through the Magico range, for instance? Moreover, the M9 benefits from the brand's latest-gen Nano-Tec speaker cones, also featuring aluminium honeycomb cores, that are more likely to find their way further down the tree - or, at least versions of them.

Magico M9 behind M6

Magico M9 towers above M6

Magico proudly states that the carbon fibre and aluminium cabinets reduce the loudspeaker's overall weight; however, they still clock in at 454kg each. Those enclosures also incorporate the Californian-based manufacturer's latest application of constrained layer damping using aerospace composites, as well as standard Magico features such as a baffle board of 6061 T6 aircraft aluminium and front-to-back tensioning rods.

Each M9 floorstander comprises a 28mm beryllium-diamond dome tweeter, a 6-inch midrange driver, a pair of 11-inch mid-bass drivers and a brace of 15-inch bass drivers.

WORLD'S FIRSTS

Naturally, with an asking price just short of a million pounds, the Magico M9 is packed with world firsts. We have already mentioned the clever carbon fibre, aluminium honeycomb cabinet that ticks off the first M9 world's first. Also, that 28mm beryllium-diamond dome tweeter is the first of its size in the world. Beryllium is chosen for its strength and incredibly low weight, however, Magico has further stiffened this by using diamond that's been carefully applied using vapour deposition.

Magico M9

Magico is now on its eighth generation of the Nano-Tec speaker cones that also feature an aluminium honeycomb core. In previous Nano-Tec cones, the surfaces provided all the stiffness, and the centre provided damping. The Aluminum honeycomb changes everything, says Magico, as it gives a core material so stiff that 26,500 pounds (12,000 kg) of pressure is needed to shape the 15-inch cones.

The M9 cone voice coils are enormous – 3, 4 and 5 inches in diameter – boasting much faster dissipation of heat and greater control over the cone. Additionally, vents in the voice coil formers provide another level of heat dissipation. Magico opts for pure titanium formers because it combines stiffness and resistance to eddy currents, we're told.

All of that adds up to a claimed sensitivity of 94 dB and a frequency response of 18 Hz – 50 kHz.

MAGICO MXO CROSSOVER

Magico M9 MXO crossover

Helping hand-out the frequency duties is the Magico Analog Crossover (MXO) unit and separate crossover power supply, weighing 18kg and 27kg respectively. The 120 Hz crossover frequency between the bass and mid-bass drivers apparently posed a unique challenge due to such a low frequency requiring massive inductors and capacitors if Magico went the passive route. So, this active 2-way crossover came in to being and features Linkwitz-Riley filters to deliver 24 dB per octave slopes at the crossover frequency of 120 Hz. Open architecture accommodates additional filter topologies. Precision step attenuators provide 0.5 dB/step control of each output, using a proprietary technique to ensure purity in the signal path.

It goes without saying that, if you're sizing up these 2 metre speakers, you have a decent amount of room which is handy as the Magico M9 also requires two stereo or four monaural amplifiers to get things moving.

The Magico M9 begins shipping in Q4 2020 with the official UK RRP being 'price on application' for a pair, but expect to pay around £840,000 including VAT and the MXO crossover.

For more information, visit Magico.

Jay Garrett's avatar
Jay Garrett

StereoNET’s resident rock star, bass player, and gadget junkie. Jay heads up StereoNET as Editor for the United Kingdom and Europe regions. His passion for gadgets and Hi-Fi is second only to being a touring musician.

Posted in: Hi-Fi

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