Magnepan MC1 & MC3 on-wall speakers

Lejl447-

You didnt steal my tread, so no need to apologize. We both happen to ask this question about the same time.

While I dont know much about these speakers ( as a friend is the one getting them , and I am just helping him out on this ), I have read that they do like a good amount of power fed to them. How much ? That I honestly dont know, but maybe a phone call or email to Magnepan might help.

Have you looked over at Audio Asylum as well ?

Good luck.

Do they really have a ribbon tweeter? My guess is they have the QR driver instead. If they do not have the ribbon tweeter you could probably give them all the (clean) juice you have. I had some 1.6s and they played extremely loud with 1000 watts of power, the QR driver is very rugged in my experience.

As I responded in Riley's thread, I really like my MC-1's and feel they are worth every penny of the $750 I paid for them new. One of the better resources I found to learn about Maggies, in general, is 'MUG', Magnepan Users Group at 'www.integracoustics.com/MUG/MUG/'. Search the message boards for MC-1. Also the Magnepan web site is helpful. I have a houseful of in-wall speakers driven by a house system which takes a line feed from my main system. The wall mounted MC-1's are in a different league IMHO, and are the best wall mounted speakers I've ever heard and their look on the wall is stunning. They have a similar sound to their bigger Maggie brothern which I've listen to many times and love.

As far as amps, my Audio Research 100.2 puts out 200 watts into the 4 ohm load. Audio Research and Maggies seem to be a 'tried and true' match and my combination will play plenty loud for me. I am also impressed at how full the sound is at low volume levels. Don't know about lower power amps, but if you want loud I would stick with a high quality, high current amp just like the bigger Maggies need. I did, for fun, hook up an old 50w Linn LK1 and it sounded terrible with the MC-1s.

One more thing, they only entend down to 80 hz I think. So somehow you have to plan for a sub-woofer. My Vandersteen 2wq blends in quite well.

Can only give you impressions of the MC1 since I don't have a HT or center channel, but feel that, with high quality amplication, the MC1's, CC-3 center, and maybe MMG-W rears with a Vandersteen sub would sound great for both HT and 2 channel stereo. Hmmm, maybe I should get into HT?

Curious, I am also considering Mag On-walls for my home theater. Any thoughts on how they would sound with the Rotel RSX-1065 surround receiver I own ? my room is 16' x 16' is dedicated to audio (large speakers 1/3 of the way into the room). The surround system will be independent of my dedicated audio system.

Any alternatives ?