When it launched in 2017, the original A3 was Magico's most affordable speaker ever (though at £12,000 per pair, it wasn't exactly pocket money). Now the A3 has been reborn as the A3 2027, with a new cabinet, new drivers and new crossover.
Oh, and a new price that's over twice as much as the original A3.
The new model is again a three-way, four-driver floorstander, but it was developed with the same advanced measurement instruments that produced the ultra-high-end M9 (which cost a staggering £840,000 per pair).
Californian firm Magico claims that no part of the original A3 speaker was kept just because it worked before – rather every element was reconsidered and reevaluated.
The midrange and woofer cones are built around aluminium-honeycomb cores, which have "ideal thickness, light weight, and the ability to be formed into custom shapes", Magico says. Once sandwiched between carbon fibre skins, they produce "groundbreaking performance" with ultra-low distortion.
Each drive unit was designed especially for the A3 2027. The tweeter's pure-beryllium 28mm diameter diaphragm has a new neodymium-based motor to deliver low distortion with greater power handling, while the 5-inch midrange uses a new long-life foam surround to achieve "excellent cone-to-surround integration, fast settling time, and ultra-low distortion figures," according to Magico.
The midrange also has a super-stabilised magnetic field, pure titanium voice coil and pure copper shorting rings courtesy of a new motor system to minimise eddy currents.
The two 7-inch bass units use the same new cone geometry as the midrange, with the same motor system and all its benefits. These units were optimised for minimal distortion using FEA simulation.
So that's the actual sound-producing parts covered. But the rest of the speaker received just as much attention to detail.
The new crossover is implemented as an acoustical-target 24dB Linkwitz-Riley slope, "delivering maximum frequency and phase linearity while keeping intermodulation distortion minimal." Magico's Elliptical Symmetry Crossover techniques control driver resonances, while Mundorf EB GmbH components promise greater power handling, transparency and liquidity.
Bracing and damping were targeted precisely where needed, thanks to the use of a Laser Vibrometer measuring the vibrations in the cabinet panels. A Near-Field Scanner (NFS) robot measured the 3D sphere surrounding the speaker to optimise the A3 2027's acoustic output, while constrained layer damping means less noise radiating from the parts of the cabinet featuring bracing and bolts.
The visual design has been overhauled, too, with radiused vertical edges and no hard corners visible when viewed in profile. There's no visible fastener either, so it looks like one uninterrupted surface only broken by the drivers. The base is precision-machined and mirrors the speakers' radiused geometry, with custom footers that help reduce diffraction.
The cabinet has had a glow up as well, with the panels now bead blasted and anodised, resulting in a satin texture. And it now comes in four finishes – black, silver, red, and blue – to the original A3's two.
All of these improvements come at a price, and that price is £28,998 per pair (around $38,000 / AU$55,000). That's more than twice the price of the original A3. But what's an extra £17,000 between friends?
Look out for it in the first part of 2027 from UK distributor Absolute Sounds.
MORE:
Read about the original Magico A3
And the insane M9 flagship
Best floorstanding speakers: budget to premium models tested by our experts
