Magnepan 1.6 fronts-what non-maggies center/sur

The original Linaeum speakers, or....Aurasound linaeum speakers work fairly well. Radio shack, also had some models which used the Linaeum drivers...I have no experience with these though? (under $100)

Hard to find, but Apogee speakers, had a few hometheater speakers in their line. ($200-$500)

Any other small cone/ribbon hybrid may work well also? ($300-$800)

I have Apogee panels, and did use an Apogee speaker as a center channel in the past. I'm using an Aurasound Linaeum speaker right now though....works well enough for movies.

Dave

I used a definitve tech center with Electrostats for a few months and I was surprised how well it performed, when you actually listen to a speakers integrated in your system it shows you that the all speakers must match crowd may be going a bit too far. In a perfect world speakers will match and mine now do but you can get away very well with many speakers. How large can youe center be if you can share?

I also had a Def Tech Center (CLR 2500) and it sounded great. But the best non Maggie one that I had was an
Anothony Gallo, I believe it was the precursor to the current signature model.

You can run a "ghost" center,no center at all, works surprisingly well. I ran my 3A sigs this way.

I can tell you as way to get a killer Magnepan center for cheap. Buy a single MMG and mount the feet on the sides, and lay it over. Your getting the best center channel you could from Magnepan for $300. I also will be using the MMG's for rears, and the 1.6 for mains.-SVS Ultra subs.

A single MMG as a center? Is there any way you could post pictures of that? Also, wouldn't that create a bit of dispersion problem if you sit off center (or maybe it's wide enough that you're not having that problem...)

Its perfect for a center, the ribbon runs nearly as far as 3 couch lengths. Its also an amazing tonal match for the 1.6's(mains) and matching rear MMG's. The 3 speakers sound like 1 wall of sound.

Theres many ways to build stands. The cheapest is to mount the stock legs on the sides, and gives you tilt if you desire(or put a riser under the flip lifts to level it). You could also buy 4qty A66 L brackets at Lowes and paint them black(forms a giant T), or you can get 2 pieces of wood, 2 L brackets, 2 packs of furniture leg risers, and create a sweet custom stand like I did for $25 per MMG. Paint the L bracket black, paint or stain the wood, and the furniture risers will let you raise or tilt the speakers up or down 0-1". The risers are the exact same Martin Logan shipped with there Ascent speakers, and is under $2 per pack of 4 at Lowes.

I was a dealer for Magnapans in the past, and have some experience with them over the years. Might I recommend keeping those music speakers for 2 channel music dubties in that system, and doing either one of two things. One, keep the 2 channel system separate, and integrate a 7.1 channel small satalite system, that'll give you seemless, properly integrated results from your ht system. The other is to simply add a subwoofer to your Magnapan setup, and add a processor. Adding different brand speakers is a sure path to low fidelity, different overall sound - as things pan from speaker to speaker - and not to mention it will all look cheap!
Also, listening to any Magnapan speaker "off-axis" will yield less than stellar sonics. Believe me! Sound will be rolled off and hollow. The only way to hear maggies, is sitting dead between them. In that case, a need for a center and rears, is really not so important, imo, due to design limitations.(they're dipoles, and phase cancel out off-axis...it's how it is)
Keep it simple if you want to stay with the very low efficiency and rather delicate 1.6's for dynamic movie mixes, definiltey add a powered sub, and cross the maggies above 80hz.
Anyway, those are my two setup recommendations.

You have to have the MMG a good ways from the front wall, or it sounds terrible. You could dampn it