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've heard excellent things about the W4S amp with the Maggies. Caveat being that I haven't heard the combo myself. Not sure about the pre.
If there are separate drivers with separate terminations then the 20.7 can be bi or tri amped. Of course we are talking modding the thing. Stock it may have just one set of speaker posts and an internal series xover. This does not mean you cannot take the speaker apart and wire it any way you want. You could use a seriously tweaked analog or digital xover and get as crazy as you like. The first thing you would want to do is build some serious damped and braced frames/baffles for them. The magnepan stock frames are not very serious.
This is in regard to what Teajay said about the new 3.7
I have owned and still do the 3.6 so when the 3.7 came out I had to hear what it was all about. It was me and my wife and son who went on the trip and took along our own music to play on the new 3.7 When we were all done listening all three of us agreed that the 3.7 sounded great but not enough to let go of our 3,6's The 3.7 to us just sounded different but not miles and miles better than the 3.6's as all these reviews will lead you to believe. What's next for the 3.7 ? They now just turned the mid-range driver into a ribbon when it could have been done when the 3.6 first came out. So now when the 3.8 comes out maybe it will have a ribbon bass driver and then Magnepan will not be able to call it a Magneplanar, they will have to call it a Ribbonplanar LOL. In any case I would not recommend 3.6 owners not to get all feeling bad about owning the 3.6 when the 3.7 is out. Here you have three people who took the test with each of us listening to two of our favorite songs from two CD's for a total of six tracks and all of us agreed that the 3.7 was most definitely not significantly better that the 3.6
I have to agree with about 99% of the above letter written by Teajay. He really hit the nail on the head. The other thing I would advise new Maggie owners is not to invest in the myestand. I tried it and I did not like what it did to the sound. The Magnepans are designed to stand straight up and that is the way it sounds best. The mye stand tilt's the speaker and aims the sound over your head.
My son is a engineer and I am pretty mechanically inclined and to us after looking over Magnepans stand that came with our 3.6, there is to us no better way to have a Maggie to stand up. There is nothing wrong with the way Magnepan makes their stand. It works, and it keeps the speaker standing straight up as magnepan intended. I reall do not want to get in to any arguments with fellow member's here on Audiogon as this is just my opinion. Thank you Audiogon for allowing me to respond.
The 3.7 already has a quasi ribbon woofer, they changed both the woofer and the midrange. The 20.1 already had a quasi-ribbon midrange, the 20.7 apparently has a quasi-ribbon woofer as well.

Re 3.6 vs. 3.7, I think that's something people have to decide for themselves. Some have raved about the difference. Others perceive it as incremental. I don't know that there's any way to make the decision for people, it's something people have to decide for themselves.
In regards to Exrons' opinion about the 3.7's and Myestands it sounds like they wern't given much of a chance. I mean 6 songs at the dealer made up your mind? When I bought my 3.7's my wife and I listened at the dealer for about 2 hours. When we decided that they were worth the effort I said that I needed to hear them in my home, in my room with my equipment. About 30 mins later they were in my car going home with me. I had them for 5 days. I listened to my 3.6's on my myestands and then made the change. No, never listened to the 3.7's at my home without the myestands. They did amazing things to the 3.6's so why would I not use them on the 7's? I should mention that the myestands have adjustable feet that actually tilt the speakers ever so slightly downward if you want. I don't know where you saw them another way. I've had them for about 3 years now and they've always been tilted forward/downward just that little bit. After 5 days, a total of about 15 to 20 hours of testing we realized that the 3.6's didn't come close. Actually, it was more like an hour of serious testing and the rest just enjoying them. Upon their return, I bought the 3.7's. They are on myestands. When the dealer has a pair of well broken in 20.7's I will try them and if a purchase is made I'll immediately order up a pair of myestands to put them on.