Interesting thread! A perfect summary from earlier quote: "They're a great option for people who
want planar sound but don't have the room, or a
cooperative spouse. I think they're severely underutilized. "
WRT "
#62 Anyone with any thoughts on Magnepan's wall-mount speakers, such as the
MMGW,
MC1 or
MMC 2?"
I had a set of EV 35i (they were made just briefly when EV was playing in the consumer market) until I auditioned a set of Maggies at local dealer. My wife ended up giving me a set of less $ (and smaller) ones to replace the EVs. Since then I've had Maggies for nearly 30+ years - everything from used to new. I've seen the wire/glue issues mentioned on the older models too but kept trading up. I've never been able to upgrade to the larger panels simply because my HT setup is in the main great-room of the home so my SAF of having more "big black monoliths" in the room is
non-negotiable.
Today the setup uses the 4 x MC1 wall-mounted for surrounds + 2 x MG10.1/QR for center. The surrounds are set to 30-45 degree toe-angle which I change occasionally just playing around. The centers flank each side of the wall mounted TV, are elevated to screen height on cabinets and are also set with a slight toe angle. They are not wall mounted are are at least 12"+ from the rear wall. Like others have said, these "smaller" maggies need assistance in the < 80 Hz area so mine are supplemented with a pair of older HSU passive subs with a crossover around 80 Hz.
IMHO, the MC1 panels are amazing above 80 Hz and they can fill the space with some amazing HT / films. The MC2 (motorized) units are "better" panels than the MC1 but they came out after I purchased mine. Plus the thought of running more wires to operate the motors is a a bit of a challenge and likely maintenance.
As for AMPs, yeap, maggies eat power for breakfast. I agree per earlier comments, using less than ~ 200WPC on maggies would be a struggle to reach reference levels. Maggies are more resistive low ohm loads vs. reactive loads in "non-panel" designs and they not considered "efficient" speakers because of the very large panel designs. There are a limited number of higher quality amps that can deal with
2-4 ohms at those power levels. Today I've deployed Sunfire's 7 x 400WPC channel to drive all the maggies. The center channel is split and separately amplified to each panel.
Results? Sounds amazing to me (and nearly everyone who's heard them), especially in the sweet spot. It's not bad even outta the MLP b/c the sound reflecting off the walls behind the panels really fills the space. Funny thing is a guy and I were talking at work and I had to get him to consider that the whole panel is radiating sound vs a tweeter or midrange standard driver. That helped with his "light-bulb" understanding of why I chose these speakers over "standard" drivers. BTW, the space is part of a very open floor plan approaching 9K+ ft3. Trust me, they will play to reference levels without effort when you have powerful AMPs backing them. The key is getting the low end driven by good subs. Let the panels do what they do best and you will be heading down the dark-side of "monoliths..."
Peace.