I had the opportunity to interview Peter Mackay, VP of Global Sales and Marketing at Magico LLC, when he was in Lisbon to showcase the new S3 (2023 model year), to the Portuguese market, at Imacústica.
Peter’s journey into the industry started in North Vancouver, (Canada) on the retail sales floor of a high-end audio store which also designed and manufactured its own brand of high-end loudspeakers. As this kind of business flourished, he opened his own high-end audio retail store in Vancouver named British Sound. You guessed it, mostly with British brands.
After four years of success, Peter stepped away from retail and joined Nakamichi Canada (1986) as the National Sales Director. In 1993/94 he transferred to Nakamichi America in California to oversee North American sales and marketing. In 1998, he joined Krell Industries, Inc. where he spent 17 years overseeing international sales and marketing.
Peter joined Magico in 2015 as VP of Global Sales and Marketing.
For years prior, he was impressed with the innovative design and engineering work created by Alon Wolf (CEO) and Yair Tammam (CTO) and was particularly excited to join with the introduction of the new diamond coated Beryllium tweeter and carbon/graphene driver cone designs.
Peter admitted he chose Magico because of his admiration for their products and the team’s commitment to engineering excellence. He had a history of working with engineering-focused companies, and Magico’s dedication to using advanced materials, especially aircraft-grade aluminum, impressed him. Magico’s focus on achieving accurate and linear bass frequencies using sealed enclosures sets them apart in the industry, and as Peter said, provides the audience with accuracy in the listening experience.
Peter described the sound performance of Magico loudspeakers as “incredibly present”, akin to a live performance, with ultra-fast signal dynamics and no residual enclosure effect.
As he said, the design goal has always been to provide a bespoke product that delivers the authentic sound of a live performance. He declared that Magico’s commitment to innovation remains strong, always in search of the next best materials to use in transducers, enclosure or crossover designs to enhance the listening experience at home, and that as an investment to end users, Magico loudspeakers maintain their value over time and often remain with the original or second owner.
Peter Mackay told that in the future, Magico will continue investing in flagship products like the M9,
and apply trickle down technology to other loudspeaker designs in the A-Series and S-Series product categories. In the second part of this interview, Peter unveiled that while a lifestyle product is not on the immediate horizon, it’s a vision for the future, provided it meets the high standards of Magico. Alon Wolf and his team of engineers are committed to ensuring that any product bearing the Magico logo keeps up with the company’s longstanding reputation for excellence.
Peter believes that Magico customers are experienced audio enthusiasts who have owned numerous systems over the years and who are looking to invest in their last system that represents the “best of the best” in audio system playback.
Peter stated that Magico prides itself on bridging the gap between the factory, dealers, and customers by providing educational support on product designs ahead of the sale and after sales support with loudspeaker placement and positioning ideas for optimized loudspeaker / system performance in the customer’s home.
Peter’s closing advice to all prospective and current Magico owners is to attend live music events, follow product designs that embrace real science, math and physics and don’t be afraid to experiment with your system to better understand what works and what doesn’t.