Premiere Design

When I ran across the Ultimate II speaker from Magico, I knew I had to profile it here—hey, the name says it all! This 5-way, horn-loaded monster stands 7.5 feet tall and weighs 800 pounds, and from all reports I've read, it sounds just as impressive as it looks.

Four out of the five transducers are horn-loaded compression drivers, which are said to exhibit a sensitivity of 110dB/W/m and a nominal impedance of 8Ω. The midrange driver alone weighs 60 pounds, thanks in part to its powerful alnico magnet.

The front panel is machined from a 4-inch-thick slab of solid aluminum, which is one reason the Ultimate II is so heavy. Similarly, the horns are fashioned from aircraft-grade, hard-anodized aluminum. The large 1:1 midbass horn at the top of the structure can reach down to 100Hz, at which point the 15-inch conventional woofer at the bottom takes over, powered by a 1000W amp/DSP bass module.

With an overall frequency response from 22Hz to 30kHz, the Ultimate II has garnered high praise from the audiophile press, which it darn well should at $394,000/pair. And you'd better have a big room to take full advantage of its undoubtedly big sound. For the rest of us, we can always dream...