[jhm731]

http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/magnepan-207-loudspeaker-1/

[steve k]

I drooled all over that article. 

[rollo]

  Ok stop drooling get a large room powerful ss amps and get a napkin.



charles

[a.wayne]

Another Good infomercial from AS.......... 

[SteveFord]

This "infomercial" is spot on; the 20.7s are in a totally different league than the rest of their line up.
One thing that the author neglected to mention is that you need a REALLY BIG room for these speakers as otherwise the bass will be way out of proportion and you'll have to sit abnormally high up in the air as the majority of the sound will be shooting over your head.
One error, if I'm not mistaken, is that there is no difference in the higher frequencies between the 3.7 and 20.7.

[FullRangeMan]

More one disservice to the audiophiles.

[a.wayne]

Worse, whats his reference , what is he comparing the 20.7 to and why no actual pics of the speaker or his setup, just a ton of blah, blah, blah,  the review is only informative to those who are already familiar with Maggies ...

[SteveFord]

While his observations match what I found, more or less, a professional magazine should have some kind of technical information on the product.  You're right, I would have appreciated photos of the actual set up and maybe a bit where the speakers are tried out in different sized rooms. 
I've often wondered if 20.1s would have fared better in my house than the 20.7s did as they keep mentioning the increased bass and midbass output of the 20.7s.  I won't make any promises but when the stereo bug bites again this might be a project I enlist a Mr. Wizard type in.  How to get 20.1s to work properly in a normal sized living room...

[Davey]

TAS doesn't really have anybody on staff qualified to objectively test a speaker like this.  Don has experience with the 20.1's......so I guess that could be considered a "reference."
http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/magnepan-mg-201-loudspeaker/

I'm not sure what people expect from magazine "reviews" at this point.    They're obviously a part of the marketing arm for products and the manufacturers provide some of their advertising budget.  It's a circle jerk.
I like to see a lot of technical information and testing results on speakers, but the average "audiophile" doesn't give a crap about that stuff.......they simply want to know how it "sounds."

At this point, I think Wendell and the fellas at Magnepan have made the decision to provide no further technical information on any of their new models and/or any improvements to existing models.  (I believe all the DIY interest through the years on their speakers is responsible for this stance.)
That leaves only subjective evaluation available to any "reviews" for their products.  Thus, you're going to get reviews like this full of flavory subjective rhetoric.
There we are. 

Cheers,

Dave.

[rhoni]

Steve,

Why do you say the 20.7 need a really large room?  What is your reasoning?
The 20.7 and 3.7 seems fairly similar in size so one would think that if a room works for the 3.7 it should work for the 20.7.

I know you had the 20.7 for awhile before reverting to the 3.7.

Can you elaborate on your experience again?

Thanks.

Viet

[SteveFord]

Wendell's phrase was "a trombone in a telephone booth" which sums it up nicely.
Way too much bass output plus you'll need to sit up about 6" higher compared to the 3.7s.
20.7s are the best speakers I've ever heard but they need a lot of space to work well.
For my living room I needed another 6' in both length and width and knocking out the front of the house for a set of speakers just isn't in the cards.

[rollo]

   In general all maggies prefer a rectangular room to perform their best. Optimal performance requires a minimum of 4ft to side walls from edge of panel. Then 8 or more feet behind.  Again talking optimum. They also like a dead front wall with diffusion at the rear wall. Some like absorption of the first reflections others diffusion.
  IMO it would be a waste to buy them for a challenging room. That is why there is a 3.7 .


charles

[Davey]

I disagree with that.  I think the front wall should be diffusive and the back wall absorptive.  Why attenuate the dipolar nature of the system by attempting to absorb the reverberant radiation from the speaker?  This is one of the aspects that gives the speakers their "openness" and "live" factor.

Regardless, a larger room is beneficial in all cases.........all other things being equal.  I've seen photographs of Magnepan speakers that look like they're installed in a closet.  I can't figure that one out. 

Dave.

[rollo]

I disagreed at first myself once done however no turning back for me.   One would not defeat the"dipolar"effect if properly distanced from the front wall. I'm talking optimal. Once one hears them set up with 10ft to rear wall with some absorption on the wall [ directly behind each speaker the sound stage is huge and unrestricted. Bass is better developed and more powerful.
    Another observation is if a room is narrow the tweeters go inside with lots of room to side walls tweeters on the outside. I learned this from Scot Markwell who was Harry Pearsons set up man and his Maggie set up was just perfect. Try it you may like it if not go back. Every 1/2" in position matters with maggies in general.

charles

[Davey]

I understand you "optimum" label, but the vast majority of users can't set up their systems with 10' behind the speakers.  (Real-world suggestions are probably more helpful.)
A typical domestic listening room (in my case 23' X 15') calls for some experimentation, but embracing the reverberant aspects of these speakers is the way to go.....IMO.  However, much depends upon the type of program material you're listening to and what type of ambient cues are encoded within.  When I'm not demo'ing my system for interested folks, I listen to classical music pretty much exclusively.  You can easily reproduce a huge soundstage with a more conventional setup in a typical room.......if you do it right. 

Dave.

[SwamisCat]

I move my speakers (3.7i) frequently, as there are always trade offs.  That said, I decided to start with the Magnepan recommended minimum distance and work out from there' recording my subjective impressions on a specific list of about fifty songs.

Three feet sounds unlistenable to me (though I have no FW absorption or diffusion -- my guess is these are pretty much necessary at this distance).

Four foot has great all around bass and a wide stable soundstage with tweets out in my room.  Nice, but still a bit harsh in the upper Mids and lower treble.

Seven foot is substantially better. Eight foot (Tweets in) is amazing.

The real magic though occurs at 10 feet. Imaging gets both wider and more specific with depth cues on every instrument.

I do find that unlike earlier models, the 3.7i prefers to be aimed directly at my ears. Also, in my room it really benefits from the addition of the DWMs at this distance to fill in the upper bass. I can't get them out much further than 10 feet without backing my seat within a few feet of the rear wall, which introduces a new set of problems.

[SwamisCat]

Charles,

What FW absorption do you recommend when the speakers are well out from the front wall? Bass absorption or broadband? Any details are very much appreciated.

[SteveFord]

Just to pipe in, these are NOT just larger 3.7s.
The 20.7s are a different animal due to their construction; I don't think that any of the reviews really get that point across.
Maybe this will help: on this one Brian Eno track there's a repeating note on a tape loop (I think it's a B on an electric guitar's low E string) and it fades in and out of the background for 20 minutes while the rest of the song goes over it.
With the 20.7s that note was pushed to the forefront and it was like having it drilled into your head.  What should have been a background bit was simply overbearing in my house.
THAT is the kind of difference with this model compared to the smaller ones.
If you haven't heard a set, you really need to get out and give a listen.

[bernardo]

So your 18 x 30 room I see in your system profile isn't large enough to do them justice? How large a room would you think it would take?

Ben

[SteveFord]

I would want 36' x 24' for them. 
That way I'd have room behind them, room behind me, I could spread them out a fair bit and I wouldn't feel like I had to sit up on a bar stool.
One thing that nobody mentions is that the mylar starts pretty high up on the panel.  For my couch the 3.7s were too low, the 20.7s were too high.  Sounds like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, I know. 
But I don't have a 36 x 24' living room so the 20.7s went to a new home and I went back to 3.7s and put them on top of some very short stands made from an old dining room table.
The sound quality isn't nearly the same but at least I don't have Brian Eno's tape loop trying to drill a hole in my head which is a good thing.
One final thought: people said to stick an equalizer into the mix to tame the wild bass notes but I really don't want to go that route.  Maybe that's a mistake on my part and I was just being stubborn for no reason, I dunno.