What's Up with Magnapan at Shows?

I assume the speaker-behind-the-curtain is the old trick to suprise you that the less expensive speaker behind the curtain is playing, not the more expensive one that you can see and think is playing.

If that is not clear, I don't know why the Magnapan rep would be offended if someone asked. Likewise, I don't see the problem with asking where a 5.1 demo is available.

I don't get to attend audio shows, so I'm not familiar with the etiquette, but if these questions would cause a problem, I think I know one of the reasons why the high-end can't reach a larger market.

Magnepan has reached the limit of design and technology without significantly increasing prices which they cannot do without sacrificing their major sales pitch---value. The only thing left to do is develop low cost tweaks and variants on the basic theme. They may be rude or aloof at shows because once they came out with the .7 series they have nothing more to say. I am a long time Magnepan owner so I am just stating what I have observed, not bashing.

According to Wendell, the goal of this demonstration wasn't just to sell speakers, but to introduce a concept -- that of using the DWM woofer to match bass panel area to the acoustics of individual rooms. This concept is still unfamiliar to most, and dealers expressed concern that customers would think the DWM meant that the 3.7 didn't put out enough bass, when in fact like all speakers it's tuned to an average room and may need more or less output to fit a particular acoustic. So Wendell is doing his best to get the concept of room matching out there, and judging by the glowing press reaction, the demo seems to have gone over very well.

I guess I should add that Magnepan believes very strongly in the value of blind listening. They use this for effect at shows, but they also use it in their own speaker testing -- they won't make a change unless a listening panel prefers it in a blind A/B test. This is an excellent way of circumventing expectation bias.

Finally, regarding dissatisfaction with the closed demo format, Wendell explains that they have a limited number of good seats and that while he'd like to accommodate requests such as listening to a specific cut, listening without the center and so forth, to do so would be to deny others a chance to listen to the demo. He says that he was doing 15-20 minute demos for four days without a break for lunch. Because they knew the room would have to be in use full time for the demos, Mark and Paula were in the hall to answer questions.

 
At this year's CES, Magnepan showed how their smallish bass diaphragm panels could serve in place of the larger Timpani panels from years back. The presentation spoke to customer concerns (well, mostly customer wife concerns) about adding additional large panels into a room to improve low frequency balance. The bass diaphragms were on display, not hidden behind a screen - you might have overlooked them as one was disguised as a small side table.

Overall, they took more of a conceptual perspective on bass response and room integration rather than a product-selling focus. While Magnepan like to give a focused rather than free-for-all presentation, I had absolutely zero sense of rudeness - quite the contrary. And the sound was excellent.

Magnepan CES 2013
 

@ Josh358

The 3.7 does not put out as much bass as the previous models!

Look at Magnepan's published specs:

MG IIIa 32Hz to 45 KHz +/- 3 dB

Mg 3.6 34Hz to 45 KHz +/- 4db

Mg 3.7 37Hz to 45Khz +/- ??? Hz

That says it all, the 3.7 bass response is not as low!

Probably due to back EMF interference in the series crossover.

Google Series Vs Parallel Crossover for info.

Mark Winey wanted the crossover small enough to fit inside the speaker, and
eliminate the external box, and that was a design tradeoff!

There are many posts and reviews on the internet about lesser bass on the 3.7.

Now they want to sell another panel to bring back the missing bass.