For Magnepans try the "Rooze" comfiguration

Rooze...I saw several diagrams on AA, and they just confused me.

I think I know now what you are saying. You are most certainly hearing sound directly from the speakers, but somehow that sound is being combined with the reflected sound in such a way that its origin is obscured, and the total sound seems to come from elsewhere as you report. I wish I had a room unencumbered with furniture to try your setup.

Of course good stereo speakers will also disappear when you play a monaural signal, and the sound will seem to come from empty space between the speakers.

Rooze:

I'm curious.Are both walls drywall? I'm guessing you reversed the left-right wiring?

Rooze

I noticed the pictures of your listening room from before.

Perhaps you can post a photo of the new Rooze configuration for us to see?

Also, do you have any experience with Maggies having better bass when your back, as listener, is up against the wall?

If so, what happens to the bass when you are out in the middle, floating in this direct/reflected sea of sound?

Still curious, but confused.

Folks,
Below is a link to a sketch of the arrangement.
Again, looking at the sketch one would expect the sound to emerge from the rear of the speaker. If you position yourself carefully in both a lateral and longitudinal direction, the sound vanishes from the rear of the speaker and the stage forms against the wall at the opposite end of the room. It's a weird effect that takes a second or two to register. Eldartford, in many ways it sounds like the monaural affect that you mentioned, but mostly because the sound 'hangs in a space' against the back wall and does not appear to have a source.
The soundstage has all of the aspects of a 'normal' stereo soundstage, without the speakers! It has incredible depth, width and height - in a natural unbloated sense. It has accurate image placement, though not as tightly rendered as with the conventional setup. What makes it so out of the ordinary is the apparant absence of normal room anomalies such as bass boominess or slap echo. It sounds transparent and natural - musical, to put it another way.

Of course, the whole arrangement is not 'optimized' for this presentation. The only thing being moved from the conventional setup is the chair. I suspect that if one were able to optimize fully, without constraints on speaker/chair positions, then the sound could be amazing.

Here goes http://www.newaudiosociety.com/new-seat.jpg

Rooze...The link works.

Here is an idea...Angle the speakers a bit more and/or move your chair up so that the Maggies are Edge-on to the listener. Edge-on would be a null (invisible) orientation for a dipole speaker, and would explain what you hear.

Please report back.