New Magnepan 3.7 i ?

If the 3.7i change is diaphragm tension, I would say Magnepan screwed up all the 3.7's!

After 40 years they should know how to set the proper tension.

This change to the 3.7i sounds fishy to me!

It is my understanding that part of the change from the .6 to .7 series was increasing the tension. Now they have decided to decrease the tension? If this is true, it makes you wonder what is going on up there.

I'd probably go for a cross over upgrade, but I won't be sending them back for this for another year or two until I see how this change is received by others.

Brownsfan, your worries are over....
I auditioned the 1.7s and 3.7s at the time of their release. The 3.7 was particularly of interest. I took my wife along to the dealership for a second opinion. Using my own Curved Air CD I felt Sonya's voice was made to sound quite ordinary to the point where it was severely lacking in content(!) Much of the seductiveness of her voice is embedded in the lower octaves and it was posted missing here. My words to the OH at the time were "it made Sonya sound like a bad singer that you wouldn't give a second listen to" - which she obviously isn't.
Back home I rechecked against my Martin Logan Vantages and the difference was night & day. The sense of relief was palpable. On the basis of that comparison I wouldn't touch the 3.7s with a barge pole.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago and an audition of the 3.7i.
I didn't have the Curved Air test pieces but the dealer provided some Joni Mitchell instead. Having been privy to all the recent discussion about secret crossover changes I wasn't expecting a massive improvement but was shocked to find that they'd managed to significantly address the bass problem. ("How'd they manage to do that with a crossover update?", was my first thought). Joni's voice sounded perfect. She was fully corporealised standing 6ft tall in front of me with all registers of her voice perfectly rendered and convincingly better than my recollections of the "old" 3.7.
I double checked with some ELP to see how it handled the heavier stuff and while they would never convince the "bass-heads" among us I was stunned by the sheer coherence of the musical presentation and the level of detail. Little things popped out of the mix that you'd never noticed before.
The bottom line is that although I wouldn't have touched the old 3.7 with a barge pole I WOULD buy the 3.7i in a heartbeat. That's the important difference and it bypasses any hifi technobabble that I or anyone else might offer.

Since then I've become aware of the ribbon tensioning updates and it all becomes clear.
The question is, was the 3.7 a mistake that needed to be rectified?? (..and more importantly, should the punters be paying for it?)
Furthermore does the difference in the manufacturing justify an extra $500 when they'd already, apparently, adapted their manufacturing process to release some of them as 3.7i under the guise of 3.7s? (and did those people pay $5500 for them?)

Alternatively, how loose can the 3.7 panels get by mere playing? Will they ever match the 3.7i when fully run in?
Not that I would ever accuse Magnepan of being underhand because they've always been fair with their customers but I think the veil of secrecy needs to be lifted a little to reassure the customer of the necessity to shell out the extra $500 at the very least?

Meanwhile I'm still drooling over them.... :)

Moonglum, Thanks for the information. One question, did you audition the 3.7s's in the same room with the same ancillaries?

I was careful and deliberate in auditioning speakers over a long period of time, beginning before the release of the 3.7s. In that time, I auditioned a large number of speakers below 20K, and only the Maggies and wilson Sophia IIIs were serious candidates. If the 3.7i modifications further improve them, that will be a good thing for everyone.

As for me, I'm still in a holding pattern due to a pending move. Until I see what our new place is going to be like, I won't know if I will be able to continue to use the 3.7s. That waiting period should allow more comments like yours to come in, hopefully from 3.7 owners who have taken the plunge.

My pleasure m8. No, believe it or not we were using a budget Krell for the 3.7i audition, whereas the 3.7 benefitted from a more substantial amplifier (I-700)that was over twice the price. Just to complicate matters the 3,7i audition was in a different City altogether (London - unfortunately the only dealer in the UK that had a 3.7i - but it was sheer accident that I happened across them) so in retrospect I agree there was plenty of room for variation.
Both rooms were well damped & optimised and used source CD players of similar price and quality (AR and Sim-Moon), however the (potential) sale stands or falls on how the kit performs on the day... :(
Kind regards,