Jimmy Fallon
Magico S5 Mk II, dual McIntosh turntables, and a system Tom Cruise personally recommended.
The Story
In a 2023 CBS Sunday Morning segment, Jimmy Fallon walked cameras through his dedicated listening room in his New York home. What they found wasn't a casual celebrity record shelf — it was a serious, six-figure audiophile system built on the recommendation of another famous gear obsessive: Tom Cruise.
The room centers on a pair of Magico S5 Mk II speakers — sculpted, sealed-box designs that look like modernist sculpture and sound like the recording studio was moved into your living room. Between them: two McIntosh MT5 turntables on a custom credenza, flanked by McIntosh MC611 monoblock power amplifiers and a McIntosh C49 preamplifier. Blue meters glowing, vinyl spinning, fireplace burning. The room of a man who takes listening as seriously as performing.
The Gear
The Magico S5 Mk II is a three-way sealed-box floorstanding speaker built from machined aluminum. Every component — the beryllium tweeter, the graphene-coated midrange, the aluminum-cone woofers — is designed to eliminate distortion at the source. Magico builds speakers the way aerospace companies build aircraft: with obsessive precision and materials science.
Two McIntosh MT5 turntables allow Fallon to have two records ready simultaneously — no interruptions between albums. The MC611 monoblocks deliver 600 watts each, enough to drive even the most demanding speakers with headroom to spare. The C49 preamplifier handles source selection and volume with the quiet authority that McIntosh has perfected over seven decades.
According to multiple reports, Tom Cruise emailed Fallon a detailed gear list after discovering their shared obsession during a Tonight Show appearance. Two A-list celebrities geeking out over speaker wire. The hobby doesn't discriminate.
Tom Cruise emailed me a list of every piece of equipment I should buy. And I bought all of it.
— Jimmy Fallon, CBS Sunday Morning, 2023
Why It Matters
Fallon's system matters because of its visibility. When a late-night host with millions of viewers talks about audiophile equipment on national television, it introduces the hobby to an audience that might never have encountered McIntosh or Magico otherwise. The CBS segment generated more search traffic for Magico than any advertisement could have.
The Magico S5 Mk II trades for $15,000 to $30,000 per pair on the used market. The McIntosh MT5 turntable retails around $6,500 new. The MC611 monoblocks are $8,000 to $12,000 each. This is a system that costs more than many cars — but for Fallon, the value is in the daily experience of hearing music at the highest possible quality.
The Original Gear
Magico S5 Mk II
$15,000–$30,000/pairSealed-box, machined aluminum, beryllium tweeter. Speakers built with aerospace precision for people who hear everything.
McIntosh MC611 Monoblock
$8,000–$12,000 each600 watts per channel. Autoformer technology. Blue meters. The kind of power that makes speakers forget they have limits.
Modern Alternatives
Magico A3
~$10,000/pairMagico's most affordable floorstanding speaker. Same sealed-box philosophy, same aluminum construction, scaled to a more manageable size and price.
View on Amazon →McIntosh MA352
~$5,500Hybrid integrated amplifier — tubes on top, solid state below. The Fallon system philosophy condensed into one box.
View on Amazon →
