Magnepans in a small room

i listened to both the 12's and 1.6's in 13 x 16 room with an mf a3 int. amp. and thought the 12's did a much better job of displaying the details of the music (i listen to everything but rap and opera) given the space constraints over the 1.6's

I just recently sold a pair of 1.6QR's because we moved and the new listening room was only 13 X 16. (The old room was 15 X 25.) Actually the speakers sounded OK in the smaller room but the big problem was placement. Magnepans must be placed away from the rear and side walls. The room served other purposes so it simply didn't work to have them sitting where they needed to be placed to sound their best. If the room would have been solely dedicated to audio I'd probably have kept them.

I used 1.6's in a room that was 10' X 17' with the
speakers on the long wall. I had them set about 4'
from the wall and sat on a sofa against the opposite
wall. It sounded really nice, with a Rel Strata III
in between. They can work in a small room but you have
to be willing to experiment with placement.

I tried the 12's in my office system, it is almost the same size as your room. They just didn't work very well for me.
I moved them into my main room which is much larger and they sounded a lot better. You really have to give them room to work their best.

Thank you all for taking the time to respond to my question. I especially appreciate the analogy from Audiokinesis.