Magnepan Home Theatre & Home Audio Speakers

Speakers have the toughest job in audio; reproduce the deepest bass to highest treble and unleash the widest possible dynamic range. In stereo, the best speakers should provide a full-blown holographic recreation of the original sound event. For home theater you should feel like you're there.

That's the goal, but all speakers fall short of perfection. They never truly disappear as sound sources, and to a greater or lesser degree they all wind up sounding like an assortment of tweeters, midranges and woofers mounted in a box.

The Magneplanar 1.7—the first new loudspeaker from Magnepan in better than a decade—was the most eagerly anticipated introduction at this year’s CES. Happily, its debut turned out to be a smashing success. Even more happily, its “debut” in my listening room, which took place last Wednesday when Maggie’s Wendell Diller installed them in my system, has been a smashing success. I have now listened to the 1.7s for five days (almost continually, which should tell you something about their irresistible appeal) and I can say with confidence that they are worthy successors to the 1.6s, the speakers I have long thought (and often called) the best buys in high-end audio.

The introduction of the 3.7 during CES 2011 was very similar to the introduction of the 1.7 during CES 2010. In their show coverage, www.theaudiobeat.com summed up the reaction of many who heard the 3.7 at the Audio Research and Magnepan rooms-- "In terms of high-end audio in early 2011, we don't know of a more important and impressive debut than that of the 3.7."