2026 Awards – Floorstanding Loudspeaker £50k – £100k

In 2024, to celebrate 20 years in the speaker-making business, Magico reimagined the S5 from the ground up. While on the surface they remain three-way, four-driver, sealed floorstanders, with the same height and number of drivers as their predecessors, beneath it is a speaker design that shares very little with its two predecessors other than the badge, and flies the flag for progress high in the sky.

The new S5 benefits from the company’s COVID-time renovation of its testing and listening facility, with new cutting-edge measuring tools, robots and 3D simulation facilitating a loudspeaker that has a 31% increase in internal volume and can consequently produce a realistic 20Hz in-room response (5Hz lower than its predecessor) while maintaining the same sensitivity rating. 

More magic than most

New Nano-Tec drivers for the 15.24cm midrange and two 25.4cm bass cones feature an aluminium honeycomb core that enables lower thickness, lighter weight and more effective damping, and sit within a new driver chassis that enhances force distribution and maximises airflow. Meanwhile, the 28mm diamond-coated beryllium tweeter is the one found in the company’s reference M-Series.

While Magico enthusiasts choose the company’s speakers precisely for their typical ‘just the facts’ approach, the S5 bridge the gap between accuracy and musical enjoyment with utmost determination. “If an engineer uses poor microphone technique, a singer moves their head excessively, or the producer applies too much reverb, the S5 reveals everything,” notes Alan Sircom in his review – but that transparency does not preclude a sense of musical scale and flow. Bass is also deeper and better defined this time around.

Indeed, one of high-end audio’s most prized loudspeakers has just got even more covetable.

Reviewed in Issue 243

Magico • magicoaudio.com

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The BX100 marks a significant step forward in Burmester’s development. These are metre-tall, 136kg, four-way bass-reflex floorstanders with an AMT tweeter, 170mm polypropylene/carbon fibre midrange and midbass drivers, and two 260mm side-firing polyester/GRP bass units. So far, so recognisably Burmester. What’s changed is the approach to the loudspeaker as a concept. For example, that AMT tweeter is free-standing and sits in a small enclosure that gives the already open and fast-sounding design a level of transparency and speed that is usually the preserve of small, two-way stand-mounts. The mid and bass drivers aren’t off-the-shelf either, their membranes specially designed for Burmester.

Bass and treble can be adjusted by the use of bridges, allowing the listener greater interaction between system and room, and the quality and customisation of the cabinet finish are beyond compare.

Top-to-tail articulacy

The BX100 sound also belongs to a new Burmester generation, possessing the characteristic individualisation of instruments typical of its kind, but also the midrange and treble clarity which imparts a vanishing quality not anticipated from a speaker of this size. The expansive presentation is tonally accurate, exceptionally detailed, and dynamically impressive on both macro and micro levels. Bass depth is fast and accurate, too. Fed electronica, they engage enough to make reviewer Alan Sircom want to gaze out of a window overlooking the big city and smile and nod to himself. “That’s the effect really good loudspeakers have on you,” he writes.

Reviewed in Issue 240

Burmester • burmester.de

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Few speaker catalogues are as enviable as Kharma’s. Indeed, the Dutch brand’s expertise tops out in a speaker system that costs over a million bucks. It has produced the Elegance dB9-Diamond – a ‘Diamond’ edition of the Elegance dB9-Signature, featuring upgraded wiring, a bi-wire option, trimming details and, most significantly, a 25mm diamond tweeter. This remarkable tweeter surpasses the Signature’s already highly impressive beryllium unit.

It pairs with twin nine-inch aluminium drivers and Kharma’s Omega seven-inch carbon fibre cone, all of which are presented in a visually stunning cabinet, available in any RAL shade of your choosing. The fit and finish is as you would expect from a high-end supercar.

Flawless in form and function

The dB9 Diamonds perform, in a word, flawlessly. Reviewer Eric Neff loads up one of his favourite vocal performances – Annie Lennox on Into the West from ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’ soundtrack – and is blown away by “the texture of the strings and the timbre of her voice, blended with the tactile sensation of the harp strings, all coming together in a very pleasing musical tapestry”. Club-level power meets precise control, spatial accuracy is impeccable, and their fidelity to the source material is, ultimately, unwavering.

“Should you decide to purchase a pair, it would be akin to choosing a Maybach car, a Hasselblad camera system, or a Patek Philippe watch – the form and function of all are aspirational,” concludes Eric.

Reviewed in Issue 248

Kharma • kharma.com