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
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?
I have 3.7s (6" narrower and 6" shorter) in a room with a 13' front wall and an 7.5' ceiling. The back wall is 40', of course, so I'm able to pull them a good 5' from the front wall with no issues. I think the sound is amazing.

And I'm still considering upgrading to the 20.7s.

But then, I have problems.

Your room is plenty big for 20.7s. Should sound amazing in there.
Once the 3.7s were introduced it made little sense to jump into the 20.1 unless they were used at an attractive price. There was little doubt that the QR technology would be applied to the 20 series within the year. No manufacturer is going to announce near future changes at the expense of current inventory or near future sales. Caveat emptor as they say. I plan to listen to the 20.7 when they become available; however, I purchased the 3.7s a year ago without listening first to compare w/ my 3.6s and I would not go that route again.
I had 1.7's and felt that, among other postive things, they sounded sterile compared to my 1.2's utilizing the same Pre amp and amp (W4S products).

I traded up to a dealer demo pair of 3.6's at a steep discount and a one year full trade in value option.

The warmth is back, plus I obtained all of the other attributes of the 3.6's over the 1.7's.

My point is I agree with Djexxx that an updated model may not necessarily sound better once you get past the "its new and sounds different" stage.