New Magnepan "Concept Speaker" introduced at Audio Connection

Does anyone know what amp and how much power was driving these? When I went to the 30.7 demo they sounded very good as they were powered by Mark Levinson No. 53 Monoblocks (500w into 8 ohms 1000w into 4).

I attended Mr. Diller’s Magnepan 30.7 demo in Indy a few months ago and those speakers are excellent but are priced at about $30K. I asked Wendell if he ever thought about combining and offering a 4-sub distributed bass array system (DBA) with a high quality pair of Magnepan panels for the mids and treble for a more reasonable price.
Unfortunately based on his reaction, I don’t believe he has ever heard of the DBA concept and how effective it has been proven to work in virtually any room both scientifically and anecdotally.
I knew at the time that I didn’t need to wait for Wendell to become enlightened to the DBA concept with Magnepans because I’d already been using an Audio Kinesis Debra 4-sub complete DBA system kit with an older pair of Magnepan 2.7QR speakers for about 4 years with excellent results; providing bass that is powerful, dynamic, smooth, fast, seemingly effortless that seamlessly integrates with the main speakers.
The $3K Swarm or Debra kit consists of four relatively small 4 ohm subs (14"w x 12"d x 24"h and 44 lbs that each contain a 10" aluminum long-throw driver and four port plugs for the choice of either ported or sealed sub operation) and a 1K watt class AB amp/control unit for powering all four subs in mono and setting the volume, crossover frequency and phase of all four subs as a group.
Knowing a mini Magnepan 30.7 system was a very good concept and for anyone else who thinks they may want to approximate this type of overall sound quality in their home, I believe I’ve discovered a method to achieve this; I replaced my older pair of 2.7QR with a preowned pair of Magnepan 3.7i speakers and combined it with my AK 4-sub DBA system. I’m using a Synology 20 TB NAS feeding a Lumin D2 dac/streamer a combination of FLAC, WAV and DSD music files with the output sent via balanced cables to the balanced inputs on a Levinson 326S preamp and on to the balanced inputs of a pair of D-Sonic M3-600-M class D mono-blocks. The D-Sonic amps provide 1,200 watts to the 4 ohm 3.7is which drive them very well.
The 3.7i have more midrange and treble energy than my former 2.7QR, with a much newer and improved quasi-ribbon mid-range section and a true ribbon treble section that allows for a very smooth, detailed, neutral and natural midrange/treble presentation that’s never harsh or bright and has a very high quality sound. Combined with the near state of the art bass performance provided by the AK’s 4-sub DBA system that seamlessly integrates, the result is an overall high quality sound from top to bottom that I perceive as very similar to a mini version of the Magnepan 30.7’s traditional open, natural Magnepan sound but with significantly better bass quality and a more dynamic quality overall.

But hey, we all know how subjective this whole home audio hobby can be. My main point is that the combo of a pair of 3.7i with high quality mid/treble and imaging performance paired with a 4-sub DBA system with high quality bass performance, in my opinion, already represents a legitimate mini 30.7 system at a fraction of the price. I paid less than $7,500 for a preowned pair of 3.7is and a new AK 4-sub DBA system.
I can certainly confirm that my custom mini 30.7 system combo sounds spectacular and definitely exceeded my expectations.

Tim

The open question is how much will they cost?

The 30.7 sounded poor in 3/4ths of the road trip demos, and 2 years later how many dealers have sold even one pair?

The top Magnepans (30.7 and 20.7) are not even on demo at most all the dealers.

If Magnepan is to compete with Magico and Wilson, the dealers need demos in the stores!

Also the new swarm milti-subwoofer type of arrangement with a 3.7i or 20,7 may be as good, and much cheaper.

More appealing to frugal Magnepan buyers.

Magnepan does not have the "snob appeal" that the real big buck high end buyer desires.

@don_c55 Your last sentence says a lot! It is so very true. I had a long discussion with Wendell about this very issue when I was at his 30.7 demo. Wendell stated something that I think is very much on point...he does not want to make speakers for the rich and the entitled.
Instead, he is trying to bring speakers to the market that have a wide appeal to the music lover, without having to require that they have ’deep pockets’.
As such, I mentioned to him that perhaps from a marketing perspective he is actually hurting himself!! The ’cachet’ attached to the price is what appeals to so many ’neophyte’ audiophiles. Pathetic in the extreme IMO, but still a major factor.
The new ’concept speaker’ will still suffer from the same issue...too inexpensive to be good.
BTW, I guess I was one of the few folks who heard the new 30.7’s ( and after some minor room acoustic mods and placement changes that we ’convinced’ Wendell to do) thought it was a superb sounding speaker.
Kudos to Wendell for doing what he is attempting to do...

Thanks for all the informative responses to this thread. I have listened to several setups at various HiFi shops with the Magnepan 3.7i and have always liked the sound. One system had a REL sub connected to it and it sounded really punchy with the 3.7i's. Steve Guttenberg didn't say much about the build of the speaker other than it was a ribbon design. Does it have conventional cone woofers like a hybrid, or no???
Cheers to all, and Merry Christmas!
Tim