The 20.7's are here!

bpape · « **Reply #20 on:** 18 Dec 2011, 03:35 pm »

I really want to hear these before I go any farther with my Acoustats. I've always liked Maggies and the 20.1's were a whole different ballgame from the others. If they've managed to get the virtues of the new ones into these without losing the things that the 20.1's did so well, they could be my 'last' speaker.

As much as I love what I have, it would be nice to have a bit wider sweetspot.

Bryan

SteveFord · « **Reply #21 on:** 18 Dec 2011, 08:40 pm »

20.1s are starting to pop up:

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?spkrplan&1329258875&/Magnepan-MG-20.1-full-range-sp

They don't look THAT big...

josh358 · « **Reply #22 on:** 18 Dec 2011, 08:53 pm »

Quote from: SlushPuppy on 18 Dec 2011, 03:16 pm

Wow, I have my 1.7's in a dedicated 16X18X10 room and feel that's not big enough to get the best out of them.

True, I don't think it's big enough to get the best out of any of them, except the Mini-Maggies. But I think the issue is what will sound best in the room, rather than whether it will sound. They all suffer in small, untreated rooms because they sound best when the reflections are delayed and, to a varying extent, because of bass modes and the like. But AFAIK the only issue that makes the big ones more of an issue than small ones in small rooms is that they can start to get boomy or tubby. But that can be EQ'd out. And as Wendell Diller of Magnepan likes to point out, the larger ones can have a smaller acoustical footprint than the larger ones -- the acoustical center of the midrange is closer to the tweeters, so you have fewer problems with lobing and image smear.

Otherwise, for a small room, diffusion can make the room acoustically larger by in effect delaying the buildup of reverberation to more closely resemble what happens in a larger space.

josh358 · « **Reply #23 on:** 18 Dec 2011, 08:55 pm »

Quote from: SteveFord on 18 Dec 2011, 08:40 pm

20.1s are starting to pop up:

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?spkrplan&1329258875&/Magnepan-MG-20.1-full-range-sp

They don't look THAT big...

Big? To a Tympani owner, this is what you put on your desk.

Elizabeth · « **Reply #24 on:** 19 Dec 2011, 11:48 pm »

From my own experience with large speakers in a small space i have no fear of placing something like the 20.7 in my space.
The 20.7 is mostly much taller than a 3.7..
The small extra width is no big deal.
Right now i have 5" extension on the bass side of the 3.6s I own.

berni · « **Reply #25 on:** 20 Dec 2011, 07:30 am »

The 20.1 and 20.7 are not big, they simply have the right size.
They are still not big enough....

Rclark · « **Reply #26 on:** 20 Dec 2011, 08:07 am »

^

can you imagine? I wonder if eventually they might introduce a line to surpass even the 20 series.

josh358 · « **Reply #27 on:** 20 Dec 2011, 10:53 pm »

Quote from: Rclark on 20 Dec 2011, 08:07 am

^

can you imagine? I wonder if eventually they might introduce a line to surpass even the 20 series.

Can anyone say "new Tympanis"?

SteveFord · « **Reply #28 on:** 20 Dec 2011, 11:13 pm »

Perhaps a do-it-urself kit which involves bolting together 43 mini maggies kind of like a Leggos set?
I'd like to see them do a Class D powered version of that low efficiency, all foil MMG, myself. The amp would keep the cost down and you can always roll vintage tubes in your preamp.

Rclark · « **Reply #29 on:** 20 Dec 2011, 11:33 pm »

SO what do you do now? Replace the wire with aluminum foil?

SteveFord · « **Reply #30 on:** 21 Dec 2011, 12:03 am »

See the MMG Madness thread.
It's a prototype which will probably never see the light of day, I'm afraid.

josh358 · « **Reply #31 on:** 21 Dec 2011, 02:03 am »

JBen's serious about doing the MMG's. Also, I'm working with someone who's rewiring his delaminated IIIa mids with foil. He already has the foil. Now that should be interesting!

Wonder if the mystery speaker at CES is the MMG super system you pointed out?

SteveFord · « **Reply #32 on:** 21 Dec 2011, 02:37 am »

It could be but that's just wishful thinking on my part.
They've done it, they liked the results, they said power is cheap so maybe someday.
Has anyone noticed just how downplayed the 20.7 introduction has been? It's not even on their web site and if Josh hadn't been good enough to post that review here most of us probably wouldn't even know about them.
Judging by the number of 20.1s that are hitting Audiogon right now they're busy filling orders.
The wife says if I knock out the wall to take over her kitchen for speakers "that will be IT". I'm not sure what "IT" is but it doesn't sound like something I want to experience.

josh358 · « **Reply #33 on:** 21 Dec 2011, 03:27 pm »

Quote from: SteveFord on 21 Dec 2011, 02:37 am

It could be but that's just wishful thinking on my part.
They've done it, they liked the results, they said power is cheap so maybe someday.
Has anyone noticed just how downplayed the 20.7 introduction has been? It's not even on their web site and if Josh hadn't been good enough to post that review here most of us probably wouldn't even know about them.
Judging by the number of 20.1s that are hitting Audiogon right now they're busy filling orders.
The wife says if I knock out the wall to take over her kitchen for speakers "that will be IT". I'm not sure what "IT" is but it doesn't sound like something I want to experience.

LOL, I shouldn't laugh, but I've contemplated knocking down the wall in my listening room many a time. Probably would have, except the construction guy told me that the house would collapse.

Someone was complaining somewhere about Magnepan's introduction of the 20.7, saying they should have sent out press releases, letters to existing customers, put it on their website, etc. But I assume they'll be adding it to their web page, running ads, getting full reviews, etc. by the time it starts to appear in the stores.

I gather they needed CES for the mystery speaker/Factory Direct introduction, so they didn't unveil it there, which is their normal way of getting initial publicity. I suspect that will put the 20.7 at a bit of a disadvantage since I think people follow CES news pretty closely. But by the same token, the 20.7 is building on a legendary speaker that's marketed to serious audiophiles and those who need to know about it will likely get the news, one way or another.

Davey · « **Reply #34 on:** 21 Dec 2011, 03:42 pm »

Steve,

Part of being a good husband is finding the limits. If you don't explore then you'll never find.
I think her comment was a challenge to you. You need to take up the challenge and establish who's boss.

Kitchen....listening room......a man has to keep his priorities straight.

Cheers,

Dave.

Rclark · « **Reply #35 on:** 21 Dec 2011, 07:57 pm »

"You went and did it anyway??!!"

"Honey I thought you agree'd it'd be the shIT?!"

thunderbrick · « **Reply #36 on:** 21 Dec 2011, 08:05 pm »

Quote from: Davey on 21 Dec 2011, 03:42 pm

Steve,

Part of being a good husband is finding the limits. If you don't explore then you'll never find.
I think her comment was a challenge to you. You need to take up the challenge and establish who's boss.

Kitchen....listening room......a man has to keep his priorities straight.

Cheers,

Dave.

There's a point, and it IS a fine line, when our obsessions become a threat to our own survival, guys.

Overwhelming anecdotal evidence suggests that the "point" is most often attained by those who lived to regret that simple phrase, "I do."

TONEPUB · « **Reply #37 on:** 21 Dec 2011, 08:31 pm »

Quote from: josh358 on 20 Dec 2011, 10:53 pm

Can anyone say "new Tympanis"?

I'm with you there! I loved my Tympanis back in the day. One of my all time fav speakers.

SteveFord · « **Reply #38 on:** 22 Dec 2011, 02:53 am »

I know where the line is drawn and I know who the boss is, too.
I have a wonderful wife but mess with the kitchen and she'll make good on her threat to bury me with my speakers!

josh358 · « **Reply #39 on:** 22 Dec 2011, 11:00 pm »

Quote from: TONEPUB on 21 Dec 2011, 08:31 pm

I'm with you there! I loved my Tympanis back in the day. One of my all time fav speakers.

I found an interesting web page the other day that I think helps explain why that Tympani midbass was so much more realistic than any I've ever heard. If you go down near the bottom and compare the impulse response graph labeled "Dipole all modes aligned" [parallel to the front wall] you can see how unlike the omni and cardioid it tunes out all the lateral and vertical room modes. But if you go down below and look at "Dipole all modes 45 degrees" you can see that if you toe the speaker in, it triggers the lateral modes and starts to look not much better than the omnis. So -- with the Tympanis, you could toe in the tweeters and position the woofers so that the dipole pattern was still parallel to the front wall. I'm thinking that that allowed you to eliminate most of the bass modes without compromising HF performance. Then, if you were me, you sat an equal distance from the rear wall as the speakers were from the front wall, and that reduced even the remaining axial depth mode, for almost room-independent bass.

http://www.musicanddesign.com/Dipole_modesA.html