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Re: Studio Monitors for Home Theater?

Hi ZooDog,

"It's funny that you should mention the MMG's because I was actually considering trying them out. My main concern with them is that they will not sound good off-axis. How is their horizontal/vertical dispersion?"

Magnepans are dipolar line sources and not quasi-omni monopoles like most common speakers. As a result, they radiate primarily forward and backward with less horizontal and very little vertical dispersion. This means they "load" the room differently from most speakers in that they tend to excite room modes in only one dimension instead of three. Given enough "breathing room" behind them, this can be a very good thing.

In English, unless the listener is 90 degrees off axis, dispersion will not be a problem. On the contrary, Maggies sound so much like music, other issues tend to fall by the wayside. This is much more easily understood from direct experience than from any words anyone can say or write.

I have mine (larger model, 1.5) set up with 1/3 room width between them and about 1/3 room length behind them. The speakers are set up with the tweeters toward the inside (where I prefer the center image, having tried them both ways) and "toed in" slightly so they aim at the center of the wall behind the listening position. Anyone on the listening couch can hear an image that extends beyond the speakers laterally, wall to wall and behind the speakers (and wall behind them) to whatever apparent depth is in the recording.

There is certainly enough dispersion for a couch-full of listeners and considerably more faithfulness to the sound contained in a recording than any "wide dispersion" speaker is capable of. Jon Dahlquist wrote nearly 30 years ago about why it is better to have high quality sound "here" instead of lower quality sound "everywhere". Specs can only describe what is measured and there are plenty of things an astute listener can hear that are not yet reflected in common measurements.

If you had any inclination to give them a listen, I say do it. You'll rediscover all your records and be amazed at their performance for movies too.
I'd be very interested in what you experience if you do.

Geez, does this sound like an ad?
I don't work for them, I'm just a very happy customer.

Hope this helps.

Happy Listening!
Barry


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