[Paddlefoot]

The 1.7i is much better balanced than the 1.7, mids are clearer, so is the treble. The 1.7i displays the dynamics much better too. The 1.7 was a dealer demo, well broken in..it had some wrinkles in it, I contacted magnepan, they replaced my 1.7 with 1.7i's. The newer speakers sounded better than the older version.

[FireFly1]

I had the 1.7, which had a defect in the upper part of the right speaker that made a vibration sound, dealer swapped out speakers at no charge to the 1.7i! One thing I noticed is the panel is different underneath the main sheath, so I am sure they made improvements to the actual panel and I heard more was done to the crossover etc. I would agree with last poster on all accounts.  They also made improvements to the packaging of the product.