[SteveFord]

Wendell just sent me this a few minutes ago. 
Perhaps someone here can swing by and give us a review?


Magnepan will be demonstrating--- "Bass....sized for your room".

Adding one or more Maggie Bass Panels will increase the total bass radiating area for difficult rooms. As a point of comparison, the 8-panel Tympani IIIa of yesteryear will be on static display (Too much is no better than too little). The Maggie Bass Panel gives the customer the flexibility to size the bass for their given room.

We will be showing two different prototypes of cosmetic kits that could be attached to a stock DWM Bass Panel---a "flower pot" and a glass-topped coffee table with silver aluminum stiles to match the 1.7 or 3.7.

Magnepan will be at T.H.E. Show in the Flamingo, Conference Room A, 4th Floor.

[Rclark]

Now that sounds really interesting.

[jhm731]

Wonder how 3.7s with a couple of Maggie Bass Panels would compare to 20.7s.

[SteveFord]

That's what I was wondering when Wendell first told me about it.  Maybe use one DMW with each 3.7?
It would certainly be a less expensive proposition and wouldn't be so visually imposing.

[jk@home]

A flower pot subwoofer? Going for the maximum WAF! 

[josh358]

Wonder how 3.7s with a couple of Maggie Bass Panels would compare to 20.7s.

I haven't heard the combo, but I'm guessing the 20.7's would win. They have a better midrange and deeper bass. My understanding of the role of the DWM with the larger Maggies is that they improve the midbass performance in larger rooms. This is more important to sound quality than deep bass and it's a weak area in most loudspeakers because of room interactions. But Wendell has found that it's difficult to explain that concept to customers, who think in terms of extending deep bass and not midbass reinforcement.

[jhm731]

First comments I’ve seen on the Magnepan's CES 2013 room:

Jonathan Valin- TAS
Best Sound for Lowest Price
At T.H.E. Show I got to hear $3495 Maggie’s 3.7s coupled with Maggie’s DWM bass panels and, folks, you could not recognize the sound. I don’t really know how deep the DWMs are capable of going but where they play they add a lifelike density of tone color and dynamic excitement that the 3.7s alone simply can’t muster. A sensational showing.

Neil Gader – TAS
Magnepan, produced a compelling demo with its 3.7 loudspeaker augmented by a pair of  “stealth” DWM bass panels ($795/each) custom designed not only for subbass extension near room boundaries which they accomplished seamlessly, but also to integrate fashionably as furnishings like a side table or invisibly depending upon the whims of your decorator. A very satisfying modular approach.

Still haven’t seen any pictures of room.

[Hasse]

Still haven’t seen any pictures of room.

Pics: http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/MUG/messages/19/195682.html

[jhm731]

Here's another picture, you can see the 3.7 behind the screen:

[Hasse]

I wonder how far from the front wall the 3.7´s were placed.

[SteveFord]

I dunno, I'll ask Wendell.
It looks like they impressed the you know what out of Jonathan Valin:

Best Sound for Lowest Price
 
At T.H.E. Show I got to hear $3495 Maggie’s 3.7s coupled with Maggie’s DWM bass panels and, folks, you could not recognize the sound. I don’t really know how deep the DWMs are capable of going but where they play they add a lifelike density of tone color and dynamic excitement that the 3.7s alone simply can’t muster. A sensational showing.

He got the price wrong on the 3.7s, they're $5495 last time I checked.

[SteveFord]

Hasse,
Here's your answer:

"Whenever possible, first reflections should be greater than 10-12 milliseconds".

In this particular room, they went with 6 feet, 2.5 inches.
Edit: no they didn't, Wendell was kidding about the actual measurement. 
My guess is he does what I do which is to use your arms as a tape measure.

[jhm731]

Hasse,
Here's your answer:

"Whenever possible, first reflections should be greater than 10-12 milliseconds".

In this particular room, they went with 6 feet, 2.5 inches.
Edit: no they didn't, Wendell was kidding about the actual measurement. 
My guess is he does what I do which is to use your arms as a tape measure.

A millisecond equals 1.2 inches.

I don't think 3.7s would sound good 14.4 inches from the back wall.

Maybe he was referring to the spacing between the DWMs and the larger panels.

[JohnR]

Hello, speed of sound is 1,126 ft/s so a millisecond is 1.126 feet or 13.5 inches.

6 feet from the front wall will give 12 feet round trip, so delay to first reflection from that wall is 12/1126 = 10.6 ms.

For a lot of people (me anyway) the ceiling will be closer than that.

[jhm731]

Thanks for the correction.

Now I know the speaker won't work in my room.

[SteveFord]

Most people don't have them that far out, you know.
4' should get you going although you might need some drapes or the like behind the speaker.

[jhm731]

Most people don't have them that far out, you know.
4' should get you going although you might need some drapes or the like behind the speaker.

According the Cardas set up formula(http://www.cardas.com/room_setup.php), I'd need to have the center of the speaker 59.33" from the rear wall.

[SteveFord]

In a perfect world, yes.
I finally settled on 65" with the 20.7s and probably the same amount with the 1.7s, tweeters in, around 3" of toe in.
You just move them around until they sound right is the way everybody does it.  Too bright, add something to absorb the sound, not bright enough get rid of whatever is sucking up the high freqencies.  That's why drapes are a good thing as they're easy to adjust.
Want a bit more midrange and bass hitting you?  Increase the toe in.
Put some crud in the corner to help break up the sound waves a bit and you're good to go.
Every room, every system and every set of ears is different.

Another blurb from TAS:
Magnepan, produced a compelling demo with its 3.7 loudspeaker augmented by a pair of  “stealth” DWM bass panels ($795/each) custom designed not only for subbass extension near room boundaries which they accomplished seamlessly, but also to integrate fashionably as furnishings like a side table or invisibly depending upon the whims of your decorator. A very satisfying modular approach.

It looks like they're onto something with this accordian approach.

[Pryso]

Recently I was thinking about speaker placement and the 10 ms recommendation for delay from the sidewall.  This general rule applies to most speaker designs although it may be less important with planar speakers and their figure-8 dispersion pattern.  The intent is to separate reflected sounds from directly radiated sounds by a sufficient amount of time to minimize sonic smearing.  Acoustical studies apparently identified 10 ms as the minimum desired time delay.

So further thinking about planars I realized the same concept should apply to the front wall and its reflections.  Not being an expert with acoustics I sent a note to Jim Smith (I trust you all realize his relationship to Magnepan) asking if my concept seemed valid.  He concurred.

Since one ms is approximately one foot in distance, I realized the "ideal" placement for any planar should be at least 5' out from the front wall to provide the desired separation of direct from reflected sound (in this case more likely spatiality than smearing, although that could be an element too).  Understand that delay can also be achieved by diffraction at the front wall reflection point or reduced by absorption.  Thus Maggie and other planar owners can improve their set up with either of those applications when they must place their speakers closer than 5' from the front wall.   

[jhm731]

More pictures of Magnepan's CES 2013 room: