Steve Guttenberg wrote:

 

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Rear and front views of the eight foot tall, 800 pound Magico Ultimate

 

The Magico Ultimate is now in its third revision, and runs close to $600,000 a pair, too bad you didn't jump on the originals back in 2004, when they were just $229,000! The original and current Ultimate speakers share the same "horns," the megaphone-like pieces that sit in front of the drivers, but the new speaker has redesigned drivers, crossover networks, and amplifiers. The form-follows-function "Blade Runner" aesthetic won't appeal to buyers with traditional tastes, but Magico's line of box speakers is certainly more conventional looking, and affordable. Well, affordable in this case means they start around $12,600 for the Magico S1s!

 

The Ultimate speakers are so rare no U.S. dealer has a pair on display, the speakers are sold only by special request. Magico doesn't have a warehouse with stacks of them waiting for customers -- no, when someone shows an interest, Magico builds a pair. It's a five-way system, each 800-pound speaker has four horns, and the drivers are custom-made in Japan. I was surprised to discover that Magico doesn't claim the drivers are proprietary, just that they're exquisitely designed and manufactured devices. There are eight hand-built, horn-loaded drivers in each pair of Ultimates, and no single driver costs less than $10,000.

 

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The Magico S1