conundrum

Hello,

I just went to my stereo dealer - ready to purchase the B&W 802d or the Maggie 20.1 (close to same in price).

I've been a Maggie fan all my life - but need to try new things.

And I found the B&W's sounded really great, I was surprised.
And I was also surprised the Maggie's sounded just terrible.
They were at once muffled and too brilliant (hard to get all that wrong).

So I went home and listened to my old Maggies (3.5) and thought they sounded really good, too. And I know in my heart that my moderately priced Maggies cannot really sound better than the big ones.

My electronics are inferior (although not bad) to what I heard in the store (though my room is a lot larger).

So what gives?
Does Magnepan make a great speaker through the 3 series and then they don't know what they're doing?
There was something about the B&W's that didn't thrill me - although they are fine speakers and I can't define what that is.

Why should the 20.1 sound so horrible?

I'd planned to purchase the big Maggies and even had my new amps picked out - but I was horrified with what I heard.

Maybe I'm going crazy. Maybe there is too much stress in my life.