Thanks for the write-up, Steve.

It's interesting to compare with my experiences of both Magico and Wilson speakers with different electronics and in different environments.  My feelings on Magico, based on what I've heard, are not positive.  Every time I have heard them they have sounded faultless in any hi-fi terminology sense, but completely lacking in musical emotion.

Wilson, on the other hand, have always impressed me with their superb attributes and ability to make musical connections.  Perhaps it's not surprising that I find them, in their characteristics, much closer to my Ushers?

Yes, I'd agree with that.

My thoughts so far
An unusual event for me, walking from home to a dealer working from (extended) home I didn't know existed until recently.

Should have taken my favourite test CDs. Didn't as I thought they would have hundreds or have infinite file based so had to rely on CDs I knew quite well but not played for many upgrades on my system.
As we walked there no one saw my car so we were allowed in.

"No hoi polloi" was inferred but still we went in !

Had lunch already so not bothered about the barbie or drinks. Being almost vegan and almost tee total I wasn't fussed anyway.

Into the dem room with the smaller speakers.
A few seconds told me there was no need to listen to them. A thinner sounding version of the Auram Montans I guessed

Big room:
The speakers are *big*, grey and not pretty. The pictures show them better than real life. The kit serving the speakers big and multi box. Lots of silver or gold or wood colouring. Too big for most people's rooms. The speakers would have to sound superb to get over the look of them.

First thoughts on music I had not heard before.
At best something wrong/missing, especially in the mid range. At worst it was lacking maybe even broken.
Rough cuts from Steve Stills, Dave Crosby and Graham Nash. Interesting to add to your collection, not essential unless you are a big CSN(Y) fan.
Steve's Kraftwerk CD gave me something I knew slightly. Live album I may have heard once or twice so not so worried that also seemed incomplete in presentation. Kraftwerk ok for me. I have a few of their albums with Man Machine scoring 7/10. Others rang from 4/10 up.
Female vocal, including Harriet who sounded a bit like Karen Carpenter. None of this telling me much about the sound.

With others playing music I didn't know I went looking for music I knew quite well in the collection, to have a sense of what was going on 

ELO - Out of the blue - sounded ok.
Ry Cooder - Paris Texas - First couple of tracks, moody acoustic guitar, nice sound.
Sting - Brand new day. Track 1 sounded nice and bassy as expected, track 10 also superb and sounded good.
Leftfield - Leftism. Sounded ok but rather different to what I know (knew, see my kit blog later).

Overall this is not a system for me.
Seeing Steve's post showing prices and adding on what I guess the accessories cost we must be looking at a price somewhere North of £300,000, more than most houses.
For that I'd expect my socks and other parts of clothing to be blown off. They weren't. It didn't seem to improve on my system which is a tiny fraction of that cost.

In contrast, a few years back I had the shock and horror when visiting Martin for the first time in Basingstoke, hearing how much better his system was compared to mine. I was staggered my lovely Linn/Naim system was so far out of it. We have both upgraded significantly since then and moved the goalposts much further up the field.

Back to mine.
While the audio memory was still there I put on the same albums
ELO - Out of the blue - sounded ok. much as round the corner. Hmm. What's going on there then ? This is not an album that had that good a manufacturing process.
Ry Cooder - Paris Texas - First couple of tracks again. Better I think, That mid range and detail came out. More space in the playing, detail.
Sting - Brand new day. Track 1 and 10. A step definite up. More clarity in that mid range. More together, more complete. Nicer to listen to .
Leftfield - Leftism. Sounded different again to what I know, slightly better than around the corner I think.

I'm in two minds as to whether I should go back this week with Mavis, L'Arpeggiata, Ry Cooder and Pilote to have another listen.
Will I learn or is this academic.....

Just remembered the w i d t h I have from my system since the AM box came is much more.
Often surprises.

Does that include the mains blocks, cables, interconnects, various Stillpoints supports and dampers ?

Bearing in mind the price of the kit I assumed very high prices for the above

Steve

I would suggest a change of amplification from CJ pair you have to really bring out the best in the CR-1 you acquired last year.

Recently heard the new two box Vitus pre amp @ £45K along with a whole entreq /still points system costing a touch more very smooth, sweet, sweet sound no edges and you really couldn't point a finger at doing anything wrong at all, it just didn't involve you. Hifi in a very pure form.

Having owned a pair of Rev 5 towers I would suggest they do the Martin T Big Banger scale like few others plus a sight to behold!

Not a fan of Magico's however if you have the space and the understanding of how and what Magico does the Q7 can be made to sound good, but very few amplifiers really gel well with them very much like the Focal Grand Utopia III a real so in so to dial in, but get it right and they can sound fabulous (just don't use naim!)

The wonderful thing about hi fi is that it's all about choice.

Each and every dealer and distributor I have ever talked to has claimed that their choice of products are the best available and absolutely "destroy" the competition!

They can't all be right, can they?

Amen to that Martin!