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I did an experiement where I put my MGIIIA's (bout 6 feet high for those who dont know the model #) inplace of my normal monopole tower box speakers on the home theater. My tweeters are on the inside, and I tried stereo mode since the monopole center speaker will not match. The rest of the sound track was awesome. I have a 92" projection screen, so it matches quite well. But vocals and dialogue sound too huge with 5 feet of sound coming towards you. Then tried using the conventional center, which didn't match at all but its 'smaller' image was more appropriate for center channel information. Perhaps a Maggie center is the ticket?The only thing that bothers me about the CC3, is its quasi ribbon tweeter. I heard Magnepan was supposed to come out with a new full ribbon center?
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I think your key may be placement, as others have suggested. 6"-1' sides to side, front to back can make a lot of difference...toe in as needed After you find the sweet spot.I'm a 2 channel listener myself, but had the cc1 or cc2 for a short period od time attempting to make a 'home movie theater'. I loved the detail I got from my front channel, though this required using a receiver after my preamp. Maybe I'm just a purist (getting rid of my tv...music only again from now on), but the best 'sound reproduction' always seems to end up back w/ the 2 channel.
Over time I may get a set of 1.6's for rears and have to give a different opinion, BUT that's only if I get a flat panel or projection screen...which will be a while...prices keep dropping so much each year I've decided to wait another year or so.
Hope my lil ramble helps,
Jon
is retractable and lowers only 1 inch off the front wall (Long wall of my 23x18.5x11.5 peaked room). My 20.1s flank the sides of the screen on this long wall - but they sit almost exactly at cardas position for 2 ch listening (don't use the screen to position the speakers). The 20.1s are nearly 5 feet from front wall and tweeters are in. Excellent phantom center as long as you sit between the tweeters (I don't remember exactly, but I think 10'4" apart from center of each base panel to other - plenty room for me, wife and 3 kids)I had my 3.6s in similar position except about 6 inches closer to front wall -- just as good !!
Also - do not run them in stereo mode. Use surround with phantom center mode if you have it -- or often you can preset that you do not have a center channel and the fronts get thier portion of signal plus center info. I run all 4 speakers full range (20.1s & 1.6s) and supplement base at 50 hz with a Velodyne HSG-15. I use the decoding for DTS and DD from my Arcam DV27A directly and feed it to multich analog preamp - Bel Canto Pre6.
My vocals sound like they are coming right off the screen - very convincing with great imaging.
Where are the speakers in relation to your screen ????
Did you plop the Maggies down right where the boxes were ???? If so, find the right Maggie location.
Aslo try different signal inputs/decoding as above.Good Luck !!
I have a 100" screen at the same plane as the my MG3.6/R which flank the sides. If I run it with phantom center, I basically get not much more than a giant mono image. The rear wave must be bouncing off the wall onto the screen, where it re-radiates it as a single diaphram. Used a maggie center channel on the floor as a solution. Dialogue seem to come from the floor, but center channel are rarely on axis to the listener.Eventually put a equal sized maggie MG-IIIa behind the screen. Even though it is not accoustically transparent, it seems that only the section of the screen in front of the speaker gets excited, thereby making the image seem to come from the center point.
I find my system more than fine without a center speaker. Some have had center speakers and got rid of them preferring phantom mode. Is the screen blocking the tweeter when it's down? Maybe move the speakers out or have tweeters out if so.
The center you speak of is marked for around $2000 to $2500. Ouch.
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