one year i visited ces, and magnepan introduced the mg 20. it was displayed in a smallish hotel room at the golden nuggest.
obviously, the speaker needs space.
still, the sound was wonderful.
yes, there waas room for improvement, but i think, it is hard to ruin the sound of a great speaker, unless there are some unusual component mismatches, which can be avoided, or a really bad room.
if i like a speaker, i'll try to make it work, under less-than ideal room conditions,, because, i may prefer that speaker in the "wrong" room in comparison to other speakers set up reasonably well.
if i have a favorite speaker, i won't settle for another.