Magnepan announces the 20.7


Jacob Heilbrunn has a first look on The Absolute Sound's site.

"But here’s the skinny: no other speaker at this price will offer even remotely similar lifelike performance, and it should—no, will—scare the bejeezus out of most of its competitors. It’s no accident that Audio Research, which I also got to visit, has 3.7 loudspeakers as part of its reference system. So go ahead. Search for another loudspeaker. But I can only wish you good luck. I defy you to find one at up to five times the cost with the scale and realism of the 20.7."

http://www.avguide.com/blog/first-listen-magnepan-s-new-flagship-207-loudspeaker
josh358
Always a risk when you buy anything! Amazon, for example, inevitably releases a new Kindle a month after I buy one. Some tech companies, e.g., Intel, price new stuff at a premium to milk the early adopters. They also cripple microprocessors to force them to run at lower speeds so they can charge huge premiums for the uncrippled ones.

Personally, I prefer a pricing model that's straightforward and fair. I think it's also important to remember that the difference between loudspeaker generations isn't huge. Some people describe the difference as subtle, some don't, but it isn't as if new models are so improved that you can't continue enjoying last year's model because something new is out. Some of the best audio advice came from a friend who advised saving money by buying "last year's state-of-the-art." Guess I've taken that to extremes, because my "new" Tympani IVa's are something like 25 years old!
Can you 20 owners make a comment on the absolute minimum sized room that you feel would properly accomodate the 20.1's or 20.7's?
My dealer has a trade in policy. Within one years purchase date you can get full price towards a more expensive Magnepan model. A very attractive trade in value is given once past the one year anniversary. The year I bought my 3.5's was the same year the 3.6's were released. I traded up at full value. 12 years later, I received a nice trade allowance on the 3.6's when I bought my 3.7's. Once the dealer has a 20.7 demo I will be taking a hard listen at possibly moving up again.
I think the limit is front wall and ceiling height. WRT the latter, the simply have to fit. The way they transmit, it's pretty much directional so you have limited interactions with side walls and floor/ceiling. WRT the former, you want them 4-5' off the front wall in order for the back wave to not "smear" with the front wave. Ideally, they should be 5-6' apart to really get the sense of scope, but I've seen 20.1s with as little as 4' between them, inside edge to inside edge -- quite an imposing sight.
So, if your listening room is a basic 'shoe-box' , 17.5 w x 26 l with a 9' ceiling 20's should fit quite well?