I am sad about the PVC pipes. Stellar room otherwise!!!
They’re steel pipes. No impact on sound.
Thanks!
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So I had the wonderful opportunity to hear the Magnepan 30.7 in a good room set up by the master. I have to report that I was blown away. I have NEVER heard speakers with such an amazing realism and deep wide soundstage. I have heard Focal Uptopia’s and hi end B&W which weren’t even close. I will say they do not sound like a box speaker. I learned alot tonight. I can say that now I feel that most box speakers are exaggerating the sound of the recording maybe? Extra DB in the bass? Making it sound too large, too much boom?? IS it the cool-aid? I don’t think so. They sound so personal, so natural, so live. I felt I was transported to the recording room, where the recording took place.
So I can say I now get what PSA ( Paul ) is after with the AN series. Music that sounds live!
Maggie’s bass is different for sure, but dare I same more real?? I was really impressed! If I do go Maggie’s the 20.7 it will be.
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Nice to hear the demo went well. :). When I demo’d the 20.7 I focused on the bass and decided I liked the sound of the bass better than a cone. I wanted to find problems with it and be critical of it. Well I walked away really liking my planar bass. If you feel that way -as I do - and I truly believe the best attributes are the mids and ribbon - you might be home.
To add to the demo, as most people seem to have commented, that the 30.7 need a huge room. I’m not sure what people qualify as a huge room. The room we were in was roughly 20’ wide by 22’ deep with 10’ ceilings. Not small for sure, but not huge. My room is currently 24 X 22 X 8
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darrenv1070, you definitely have the size of room to accommodate them. My room is only 16’ wide so they are definitely out of my ideal. I will stick with my 20.7’s. If you have the means, go for the 30’s and be in bliss. I personally want to see what PS Audio have up their sleeve. I am also waiting to listen to the PMC Fact Fenestria when it comes to town. One speaker that has my interest is the Göebel Bending wave loudspeaker, although the price seems astronomical.
I too am extremely interested in the AN series. AN2 I hope. I may pick up some used 3.7i maggies to hold me over. I doubt the AN’s will be shipping this year. Or if they do late year
I used to have Maggies (1.6) and they were great speakers. I can’t speak for the larger maggies but the 1.6’s really only weakness was dynamics. When I say dynamics I am talking about their ability to reproduce “hard rock.” If the track had a lot of loud stuff all happening simultaneously, the maggies sounded congested. At the louder volume levels that this genre begs for if there was to much going on in the mix it became difficult to hear all the individual performers in their own space. Instead the sound tended to come out as just one “sound” with the soundstage collapsing. The same held in classical pieces during busy crescendos. Augmenting the low end with a sub yielded some improvement but could not cure this. I was driving them with a wyred 4 sound amp that did 500 watts into 4 ohms. Perhaps more power could have cured it. Not sure. Everything else was done extremely well. Jazz, vocals, acoustic were all outstanding and the stuff of goose bumps. I point this out only as something to maybe look out for when you demo the 20.7’s which I am sure are much better all around than the 1.6’s. If I were demoing them I would bring some of my own music with some tracks that tested this. I am eager to see where you land! Good luck.
Hard to beat bass from big planars. Wish my room was bigger to accommodate a set.
The only advice I would offer is that you enlist the expertise of your dealer in getting them set up and optimized. It will likely save you months of pushing, shoving, measuring and cursing. I can tell you from experience that planar bipoles (both maggies and 'stats) require an inordinate amount of fiddling with respect to room placement.
Unless you relish the challenge, that is. 
Not sure anyone has mentioned these, but Sanders Sound Systems model 10e with two Sanders Magtech amps and included LMS (crossover, EQ, room correction) unit is simply sublime. Not harsh or bright simply delivers exactly what’s on your source material whether vinyl or digital. I can’t imagine more natural or “live” sound with voices, strings, etc. And… they play genuinely loud!
Every upgrade from sources to preamps are easily discerned. Plus Sanders is a fantastic outfit with support as good as PS Audio. I’m using the PWT with DSD Dac and BHK preamp. Audio nirvana at this point after decades of experimentation.
I owned Sander’s first electrostats, biamped with no DSP at the time. He’s a very nice man, and came to my home to help me set them up. I gave him an Audioquest IC in return, to replace the garbage he was using at the time. We never could get it right, however. -Head in a vice soundstage, and they were traded in.
I hope things have gotten better; certainly more expensive. Even with tubed electronics, the speakers ran me out of the room!
Also forgot to add that the LMS (Loud Speaker Management) unit allows you to better tailor the sound to your liking and room conditions. Sort of the ultimate treble, mid-range, bass controls that high end systems are generally missing.
Electrostats are off my list of possibilities. Don’t care for the sound
I can say that the 30.7 were very dynamic IMO. We had the volume up at 1 point to maybe 80 db or so. It imaged there like nothing else I’ve heard. But that being said the 30.7 are 30K, well past my budget. I can’t find a dealer who demo’s the 20.7! Bummer
Maybe I’ll go with the 3.7i and add a bass panel pair from Maggie??
That’s too bad. If you were closer you could come and visit me and listen to my setup.
Glad to hear that the larger magnepan has good dynamics. Someday when I get more room I may go back and visit a larger model. My experience with demos is similar here in the chicago area. I have read that there isn’t as much mark up on magnepan as other speakers and therefore dealers rarely have them set up. When I was looking at buying mine, I had to request that they set them up for audition. They brought them out and hooked them up for me. They definitely didn’t seem to thrilled to sell a pair. When I say they hooked them up for me it was kind of a joke. They plunked them down about 5 feet in front of a listening chair and handed me a remote. They sounded pretty good but I knew they needed more room to breathe based on my researching them. I told the sales guy that and he looked annoyed. I ended up moving them around myself with his permission and listened to my test tracks. They impressed me enough that I ended up buying a pair in spite of the crappy customer service. Hopefully you can at least get a dealer to set the 20.7’s up for you. The dealer that I bought my 1.6’s only had 1.6 and 3.6’s to demo and no models in stock to sell. Magnepan may be able to help you to arrange a demo at one of their dealers if you reach out to them and tell them of the trouble you are having getting a demo. They are nice folks. Sounds like you are sold on the Maggie sound which is very understandable just might take a bit more hoop jumping to make it happen but I have know doubt it would be worth it.
Overture AV certainly can and will, but Wilmington, Delaware is probably too far to travel for an audition.
FWIW, I’d give Wendell Diller a call and see if he can recommend/locate a convenient place to give them a listen. Like the 30.7’s, I have a recollection (perhaps incorrect) that the 20.7’s are built to order - another reason why dealers may be reluctant to push them. Unfortunate.
On another subject but I wanted to ask. Am I wrong but didn’t Paul mention that the AN series was a take off the Nudell project prototypes? If so, wasn’t the prototypes open baffle on the mids and highs? The AN3 is not open baffle. Anyone shed any light.
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You are correct that Arnie Nudell’s reference speakers and designs are the basis of the AN series but that doesn’t mean they are copies. Arnie and I had planned to produce the next generation of his work together and we vacillated back and forth whether to
use a dipole or not. The first sketches he put together were not dipoles but rather a line of dynamic 6.5” drivers flanked by three ribbon tweeters, a midbass coupler and servo controlled woofer. What we both wanted was a super dynamic loudspeaker capable
of reaching live orchestral levels in the home.
That morphed into thinking about the possibility of designing AMT ribbons for the tweeter and midrange. The AMT design of folded ribbon would give us the dynamic range and peak SPL of the orchestra while also offering the lightness of diaphragm
and transient speed of an AMT.
Then, Arnie passed away and I have taken it where I believe he and I would have gone. I was probably more intent of figuring out a way to get the speakers closer to the front wall than Arnie would have been, but then, there was rarely a conversation
between the two of us that didn’t include spirited debate. Sometimes downright battles royal.
I miss him.
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