For Magnepans try the "Rooze" comfiguration

El,

I'm not sure that the 9' is key. Remember that I'm not listening to the rear wave, I'm looking between the speakers and listening to a soundstage that is formed against the wall that the front of the speakers are firing into. The 9' dimension is not critical. What is critical is that the space behind the speaker has sufficient room for a seat, with at least 5' between the seat and the back of the speaker. So 6' or 7' is important to make this work, but not necessarily 9'. More would be better I think, and I may experiment with taking the speakers out into the room.
As you mentioned, I'm not going to win any 'best home decor' competition, but who cares what the house looks like so long as the music rocks!!

Rooze...As I understand your setup, your chair is about 15 feet from the reflecting wall, and the speakers are about 9 feet from the wall. So the speakers are between you and the wall. In this situation you will hear more than 50 percent of the sound directly from the backsides of the Maggies.

Eldartford,

This isn't the case, and I see the confusion.

The room is a few inches short of 28' wide. The speakers are 9' from the wall behind them, so they're firing across 19' onto the wall opposite. I'm sitting behind the speaker, looking through the speaker at the opposite wall which is approx. 25' away. I'm looking at the rear of the speaker, which is just around 5' away from me. Common sense suggests that the sound I hear will be from the rear of the speaker, just a few feet away. But this isn't how it works. The speakers appear not to have any sound coming from them at all. The soundstage forms on the wall which is 25' away from me. The depth of the stage is somewhere around 10-12'.
I will try to sketch out this arrangement tomorrow, but there is a sketch on the asylum that details what I am talking about quite well.
To describe this in words makes little sense, you have to hear it for yourself.

Rooze

Rooze...I saw several diagrams on AA, and they just confused me.

I think I know now what you are saying. You are most certainly hearing sound directly from the speakers, but somehow that sound is being combined with the reflected sound in such a way that its origin is obscured, and the total sound seems to come from elsewhere as you report. I wish I had a room unencumbered with furniture to try your setup.

Of course good stereo speakers will also disappear when you play a monaural signal, and the sound will seem to come from empty space between the speakers.

Rooze:

I'm curious.Are both walls drywall? I'm guessing you reversed the left-right wiring?