2025 Ultra-High-End Loudspeaker of the Year: Magico S3

Magico makes large claims for its new, demure (less than four-feet high and only a foot wide), three-way, four-driver, aluminum-enclosed S3, the first of its speakers to make use of the technology and test regimen the company developed for its statement M9: “Its technical superiority…results in a sonic masterpiece that will reveal more listening pleasure than thought possible at this price point.” Happily, these claims are true. The S3’s aural “center of gravity” is situated squarely in the bass and lower midrange, with very slightly declining energy in the upper mids and treble. Though this gives the S3 a somewhat darker, more “bottom-up” tonal balance than previous Magicos, it also gives it a smoothness and timbral beauty—a rich sameness of sound character—from top to bottom (and that bottom goes down linearly into the 20Hz octave). JV has not listened to a Magico (and he’s listened to most of them) in which the diamond-coated beryllium tweeter melds more seamlessly and harmoniously with the graphene midrange and woofer. In the conclusion of his review, JV wrote: “Never have I heard a full-range loudspeaker in my home that does as much as this one does for the money that Magico is asking. If that doesn’t make it a classic of some kind, I don’t know what will.” Perhaps TAS’s 2025 Ultra-High-End Loudspeaker of the Year Award will help convince you.