Quote:
Originally Posted by daveneumann
Hi Elberoth,
I am very interested in your evaluation of the Sabrina. As you know from the Audioshark forums, I am looking to replace my Sasha 1's. My room is going to be fairly large (moving to a new house). How does the Sabrina compare with Sasha 2? How about Magico S-5? Are you considering buying them as your main speakers, or just playing with something until your S5 mk2 arrive?
I'd appreciate any information you can share. I've followed your system upgrades since you built your beautiful listening room many years ago.
Warm regards,
Dave
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It is a very good speaker. It is not Magico S5 good by any measure, but it is easy to like as it has no apparent weeknesses.
The only problem I had in my room was aparent bass boom. I'm not sure if that was a room interaction (port tuning freq beeing the same/very close to a bass peak that my room has) or maybe that is a natural reaction to bass-reflex bass after you live for 2 years and get used to superior sealed box bass of the Magicos ... not sure. When I got the S5s 2 years ago, after having owned Wilsons for 5 years (Sophia 2, then Sasha 1), the bass reproduction was the aspect that impressed me the most. Not the ultra smoothness of their Berylium tweeter, not the overall balance and ultra low coloration - so things that people expect from Magicos - but the bass quality.
The bass from the Wilsons - which I thought was excellent at the time - turned out to be boomy in comparision. The bass from the S5 did not only reach much deeper and had more slam - it was also much faster and MUCH more articulate. I've heard textures in the bass I didn't even know existed.
That was a big surprise for me, as I got the S5 primarely because I got tired of that ringing Wilson tweeter. I have swapped so much gear and cables during those 5 years, never beeing 100% satisfied, only to discover it was a tweeter problem from the very beginning that was giving me grief.
The tweeter in the Sabrinas is much better in that regard (no aparent ringing) but at the same time, I feel it lost some of the speed and sparkle of the old titanium tweeter used in the Sashas 1. So to my ears it is a bit of lateral move, although I'm sure that for the majority of the people it will probably be perceived as a major step up.
The berilium tweeter used in the Magicos (also used in Rockports and other designs) has all the speed, detail and articulation of the old titanium tweeter, at the same time beeing even smoother than the soft dome designs.
But as I said - no one shopping for a $16k speaker would consider the $33k Magicos as a viable alternative, so the point is moot.
For the money, you can't go wrong with the Sabrinas.