PRICE $2,250

PLUS • Seductively spacious sound • Superb surround sound for movies

MINUS • Dual center panels awkward to install • Panels much taller than plasma TVs

Sound & Vision soundandvisionmag.com

And now for something completely different from Magnepan, a name synonymous with flat-panel speakers for more than a quarter-century. Like most “Maggies,” the Magneplanar MC1 speaker is a hybrid, combining a large planar-magnetic driver for the bass and midrange with a ribbon tweeter in a flat panel about the size and depth of a window shutter.

SETUP

You mount the MC1s on the wall with very simple hinge brackets that let you fold them away almost totally flat — less than 2 inches deep — when off duty, or swing them out at 30° or so for action. This swinging-door design serves two purposes. First, like virtually all panel speakers, the MC1s are dipoles, which means they radiate the same sound from the front and back, but out of phase. Swinging them out reduces the front/back cancellations that can wreak havoc with tonal accuracy. Second, adjusting the angle also lets you control how much direct or reflected sound reaches your ears, which has an impact on the perceived depth of the sonic image.

Magnepan sent three pairs of MC1s, suggesting that one pair be placed well to either side of the TV, the second pair bordering the screen to serve as dual center speakers, and the third pair in the usual side-wall surround positions. I followed this recommendation closely, mounting the front L/R pair about 4 feet from each side of the screen and the center pair (wired in series) flush to it. The L-shaped brackets need only one screw each, but the short input cables are hard-wired, so you’ll need to splice on your own extensions. Magnepan doesn’t make a subwoofer, but the MC1 system needs help at the bottom end, so I used my regular sub, a Velodyne DD-12 ($2,399).

MUSIC PERFORMANCE

My experience with panel speakers goes back to the KLH 9s and Quads of the wacky ’70s, but it’s been a while since I’ve had any in my system. Playing two-channel music, the Magneplanar MC1s made me sit up and smile. It’s hard not to love the deep, spacious, effortless sound that dipole panels can deliver from a really well-produced CD, like Mark Knopfler’s latest, Shangri-La.

The Maggies were highly transparent, with impressively accurate tonal balance. This made them slightly brighter and less rich in the lower voice regions than the Atlantic Tech and Klipsch systems, both of which were slightly warmer.

As with any dipole design, all those room reflections made a difference. In my studio, centered soloists sounded slightly less distinct and “right there” than with an excellent pair of box speakers. But the Maggies’ tendency to accentuate reverberant material made the soundstage depth more palpable.

Each adjustment in the outer front pair’s angle from the wall changed the intensity of these effects, and to a lesser degree their overall tonal balance. Fortunately, finding the “sweet angle” each time isn’t as hard as you might think.

Like most panels, the MC1s aren’t jam kickin’ rude boys. They’ll play plenty loud, if not as loud as the Klipsch or Atlantic Tech system. And in a quiet room, which preserves dynamics, they’ll deliver lifelike impact and detail.

MOVIE PERFORMANCE

With all six Magneplanar MC1s (plus the Velodyne sub), 5.1 channel movie soundtracks produced as large and seamless a sonic “bubble” around the listening position as I’ve heard in my room. I was swept into the movie in scenes with enveloping sound, like the South Atlantic storm in Master and Commander, and certain surround effects sounded eerily natural — like the moment in Chapter 15 of The Bourne Supremacy when a car pulls away from front center to rear left.

Swinging the pair of center speakers out about 45° kept voices anchored to the screen as long as I stayed fairly close to the center. Further off to the side, voices “pulled” slightly to the closer speaker. One way to address this issue — as well as the awkwardness of having to place four MC1s across the front of the room — would be to use a single center speaker placed horizontally. Magnepan makes a horizontal center speaker, the CC3 ($990), a curved dipole design that can’t be wall mounted but could be positioned above or below a TV. I didn’t have a CC3, but I tried a conventional center speaker I had on hand, and while it would have needed more tweaking to optimize the setup, it was a promising experiment.

THE DRAMATICALLY DIFFERENT MAGNEPLANAR MC1 system breaks the “rules” of cinema sound, which attempt to take the room out of the equation by limiting reflections in the front of the theater. That’s the opposite of what dipoles try to do. But no matter: the proof is in the listening, and this setup sounded great — even seductive, making me want to listen more and more.

The Bottom Line

The Atlantic Technology FS-3200 and Klipsch RVX-42 systems sound very good, and their stylish, compact designs will add to the on-wall elegance of a big LCD or plasma TV. Between the two, the Atlantic system sounded a bit smoother and more accurate, while the Klipsch exhibited warmth that some listeners may even prefer. Magnepan’s Magneplanar MC1 system is a special case. If you have a bit of audiophile in you, and don’t mind that the front speakers aren’t visually as well tailored to today’s flat-panel TVs, then you owe yourself a listen. (And don’t forget to budget for a really good subwoofer.) Freestanding speaker systems are still the performance champs and usually offer better value. But if the siren song of a sexy, space-saving on-wall setup has you in its grasp, don’t fight it, because you won’t be giving up much in terms of performance.

If I could have the home theater of my dreams, instead of the perpetually cluttered disaster area of my reality, I’d give in, too.

Home Theater & Sound · www.hometheatersound.com

Features SnapShot!
Description	Features
Model: Magnepan MG1.6/QR speakers Price: $1725 USD per pair Dimensions: 19.25"W x 64.5"H x 2"D Weight: 45 pounds each Model: Magnepan MGCC2 center-channel speaker Price: $1,199 USD Dimensions: 35"W x 10.5"H x 8" D Weight: 22 pounds Model: Magnepan MGMC1 surround speakers Price: $750 USD per pair Dimensions: 10.25"W x 46"H x 1"D Weight: 12 pounds each Model: Outlaw Audio Magneplanar-specific ICBM Price: $325 USD Dimensions: 17.5"W x 1.75H" x 7"D Weight: 10 pounds Warranty: Three years parts and labor	· Cabinetless design · Quasi-ribbon tweeters · Planar-magnetic drivers · Dipole radiation pattern · Outlaw Audio Magneplanar-specific ICBM (80Hz, 120Hz, 200Hz, 240Hz center-channel crossover selection) · Metal-frame stands · Wall- or floor-mount surround brackets (MGMC1) · Natural oak, black, or dark cherry hardwood trim · Off-white, black or gray fabric grille material

In 1988, Stereophile magazine conducted a reader survey asking which speakers its readers were using and how satisfied they were with them. The answers astounded me. Not only was Magnepan the most-owned speaker brand among the respondents, but a full 99% of Magneplanar owners would buy them again (Magnepan is the company, Magneplanar the technology). That kind of customer loyalty is impressive, but it does make you wonder. If Maggies score so high among the people who already own them, why aren't they better known?

At least part of the answer is that Magneplanar speakers are different. Unlike conventional box loudspeakers, which use the speaker enclosure to reinforce the sound created by the drivers, Magnepan's flat panels couple directly to the air, producing sound waves that radiate from the front and back of the panels.

The panels themselves consist of a 0.5mm Mylar diaphragm bonded to current-carrying wire grids, which are "driven" by permanent bar magnets spaced behind the diaphragm. The phenomenally light diaphragm is excited by the reaction between the current and the magnets, generating sound with its vibrations. In recent years, Magnepan has teamed this quasi-ribbon magnetic-panel technology with a vertical, direct-coupled true-ribbon transducer, which acts as a tweeter, reproducing the sound from 1kHz on up. (For more on Magnepan's technology and construction methods, see the SoundStage! factory tour.)

The system

Over the years, Magnepan has endeavored to improve its speaker line with each successive generation. In addition to its popular MMG entry-level loudspeaker, the company has produced the MG1.6/QR, a loudspeaker that has garnered almost universal praise -- and has enabled Magnepan to move into home theater with an affordable and attractive system.

The $3676 home-theater speaker system under review here is anchored by the MG1.6/QR, which serves as the front speakers. This 64.5" tower seems, at first glance, more imposing than most speakers out there, certainly the ones in its price class. Tall? Yes. Wide? Fairly. But at only 2" deep, it's remarkably unobtrusive.

Still, why so large? Because, when it comes to creating sound, exciting air is key -- and nothing excites like displacement. Planar drivers don’t have high excursion, so the more surface they have, the louder they can play. The MG1.6/QR's 442 square inches of radiating surface -- and its 2"-by-48" quasi-ribbon tweeter -- enables it to produce a fairly sizable wave-launch.

Dialogue duties fall to a completely new speaker. Reckoning the dialogue channel to be essential to the success of a home-theater system, Magnepan went back to the drawing board and came up with a curved, two-way design, the MGCC2, which incorporates variations on the quasi-ribbon driver and ribbon tweeter used in the MG1.6/QR. Oriented horizontally, its curved shape provides broad dispersion.

However, the relatively small size of the MGCC2 necessitates a significant compromise. With a scant 198 square inches of radiating surface, the speaker does not match the larger Maggies in size, and therefore cannot produce the same bass output as its larger siblings. It can't even reach the 80Hz shutoff imposed by most home-theater processors. (Though some processors, such as the B&K Reference 30, do allow for an appropriate crossover.)

To overcome the MGCC2’s 160Hz lower-frequency limit, Magnepan went to Internet-based Outlaw Audio, which designed a Magneplanar-specific version of their Integrated Controlled Bass Manager (ICBM). Purchased separately for $325, the Magneplanar-specific ICBM offers a high-pass-filtered center-channel output appropriate for use with the MGCC2. Once set up, this version of the ICBM will high-pass filter the signal going to the MGCC2 at frequencies up to 240Hz and, as you choose, it will redirect bass frequencies to your front right and left speakers, to your subwoofer(s), or to all three. Outlaw’s ICBM is a full-featured bass-management system that is far more flexible than any I’ve encountered in surround processors. As Jeff Fritz found in his SoundStage! review of the ICBM, it is a transparent and easy-to-use addition to any multichannel system.

Surround duties are performed by the MGMC1, a two-way design that also incorporates Magnepan’s quasi-ribbon tweeter. The MGMC1 can be stand- or wall-mounted and has a hinged bracket system that allows it to be positioned flush against the wall when not in use.

Brass tacks

The Maggie system does have a few limitations, which, at first glance, might rule it out for some buyers. First, the size of the speakers may put off consumers concerned over spousal acceptance. But before you make up your mind on the acceptability of these speakers, I highly recommend that you get a look at them in person. They are just not as imposing as you might think. They also have the added benefits of being light and movable. When not in use, they can be easily slid out of the way. My wife prefers their appearance to that of any box speaker I’ve had through here.

The next caveat is that they do like power. Their 4-ohm rating is not ultra-punishing, but they crave wattage, and there's no getting around it.

Also, this system includes no subwoofer, so you'll have to add one or choose to use the system as I did, without a subwoofer.

Finally, the speakers will not play as loudly as most dynamic-driver-based loudspeakers. They have a dynamic threshold beyond which they should not be taken. However, this dynamic ceiling never bothered me because I never bumped against it in day-to-day use. These Magneplanar speakers played plenty loud enough for me, and given their propensity for lightning-fast transient response and for illustrating microdynamic contrasts, I never felt the need for higher output.

When you want to get someone’s attention…whisper

I think the reason so many home-theater owners are inclined to drive their systems to deafening levels is because they are trying to overcome a lack of quality with quantity. When a system lacks finesse and nuance, an emotional connection can be next to impossible to make. Frustrated, the listener strives to make that emotional connection through higher SPLs.

On the other hand, those with musically detailed systems know that when it comes to SPLs, sometimes just a little dab will do ya. All you need to do is rise above the room’s noise floor and everything becomes crystal clear. This is how I felt about the Magneplanar system. It is so utterly detailed and uncolored, so sprightly and so involving.

Anyone who has experienced a football game on HDTV knows that while players are a little more three-dimensional and focused, the real difference is in the new level of ambient detail. Where before the game was played on a featureless sea of green, you now see individual blades of grass. Rather than a blurred background of undistinguished humanity, you now see real human faces. The Magneplanar system is HDTV's sonic equivalent. What it does is highlight previously unnoticed ambient details that draw you into the experience to a whole new level.

But I don’t want to give the impression that this Magneplanar system is wimpy. Far from it. On a tip from Magnepan’s Wendell Diller, I unplugged the front right- and left-channel inputs at the ICBM. Then I cued up the defense-of-the-bridge scene from Saving Private Ryan. With the ICBM redirecting the MGCC2's bass frequencies to the MG1.6/QRs, I listened to the center-channel speaker, the center channel's bass through the MG1.6/QRs and the two surrounds.

Wimpy? Heck no! What I heard was amazing in its brawn, not to mention its finesse. The MG1.6/QRs delivered a level of bass that would shock those who criticize planar-bass reproduction, and the level of detail I gleaned from the center-channel speaker was startling and revelatory.

With all five speakers in action, try the bedroom scene from The Haunting. Listen to the delicate sound of the burning candles; you can hear the gentle crackling of the burning wax. Then there's the surprisingly authentic sound of windows frosting over as the temperature of the room plummets. And when all hell breaks loose (literally), the Magneplanar system is fully capable of reproducing the raucous mayhem.

You have probably observed the ongoing debate between music and movie aficionados concerning the requirements for music versus movie-soundstrack reproduction. I find that, while a mediocre system is more tolerable with movies, a really good system takes the home-cinema experience to a new level. The Maggie system proves my point. It brings a sense of realism to the forefront, as I have never experienced it before. Take, for instance, the opening battle scene from Gladiator. The Magneplanars showed me detail like no system has before. The thunder of hooves, for instance, took on newfound realism as the Magneplanar system differentiated the strikes from one another. The ensuing battle scene seemed remarkably non-chaotic as the action all around me was portrayed in a manner that made sense, rather than sounding like a mass of sonic debris.

Reproduction of concert videos was nothing short of artful. This system raises the bar for cohesiveness with a completely seamless quality of surround sound. Magneplanar owners know how easily the speakers completely disappear, leaving behind only the soundstage, and now home-theater owners will find that the surround speakers do so too. In fact, even turning my head toward the speaker and looking at it usually provided no sonic clue as to its existence. All I heard (sensed!) was enveloping sound. And, oh, what sound it was.

James Taylor’s Live At Beacon Theater was absolutely stunning over this system. The opening acoustic-guitar riff on "Daddy’s All Gone" was reproduced so precisely, and with such microdynamic detail, that I could easily hear the instrument’s reverberation spread like rings in a pond until, reaching the auditorium walls, it clearly revealed the hall’s size and signature. Later in the song, when the electric guitar entered, its reverb was a delicately nuanced shimmer that I doubt most people in the audience fully appreciated. "Shower the People," a wonderful song performed here in elegant simplicity, was elevated to goose-bump territory by Arnold McCuller’s accompanying vocals. This system conveys emotion as well as it does space.

Comparison

Comparison with other systems I’ve reviewed for HT&S is a little difficult, but perhaps the system that came as close to the Magnepan both in terms of quality and price would be the Tannoy Saturn system that I reviewed last April. A Reviewers’ Choice-designated system, the Tannoy system had similar bass extension (without its subwoofer) as the Magnepan and came in at $3300, so less than the system from Magnepan sans ICBM (which would be a great addition to both systems). Aesthetically, you can make up your own mind about which system you would rather look at, but for me, the Maggie system just exudes class. Others will prefer the smaller, traditional boxes of the Tannoy system. Where sound is concerned, there’s just no contest -- the Maggie system is more musically refined and offers greater detail and transparency. On the other hand, the Tannoy system will probably play louder and will ultimately require fewer watts no matter what your listening level.

Conclusion

As a reviewer, I try to describe what I hear and describe what sets one system apart from the rest. Some systems are more difficult to write about than others, but this Magneplanar review almost wrote itself. Those who have not read enough here should keep an eye out at SoundStage! for a comprehensive multichannel-music-oriented review on a similar Magneplanar system.

No doubt some will find it unorthodox that Magnepan has turned to Outlaw Audio, an Internet-based company, for their ICBM, which may or may not be required for use depending on the adjustability of the bass-management system of your processor. Personally, I applaud Magnepan for doing what it takes to bring to market a home-theater system that is purely Magneplanar in spirit. However, the ICBM is an extra $325, and you'll have to buy it over the Internet unless Magnepan can work something out with Outlaw Audio and its own dealer network. As a customer myself, and in the face of rising Internet sales that bypass the traditional brick-and-mortar shops, I would encourage support of any dealer who stocked the Magneplanar-specific ICBM so that customers could buy this complete system in one place. If you find such a dealer, treasure him -- he's clearly one of the good guys.

In the meantime, I can only try to sum up this Magneplanar system as the most revealing, the most emotionally evocative, and the most reasonably priced system that I’ve ever reviewed for Home Theater & Sound. Adding to this system’s wonder is that you don’t have to break the bank on electronics to experience this level of reproduction either. This system is so utterly clean, detailed and transparent that those forced to use ultra-polite levels (such as apartment dwellers) will not miss a trick. And while bass performance was very good on its own, it will require a good subwoofer to plumb the depths of deep bass, just as do most systems comprised of even more expensive speakers.

But this Magneplanar speaker system does everything else so exceedingly well that I can only urge you to go listen for yourself and determine if it raises the bar of performance for you -- as it has done for me.

Review System
Receiver - B&K Reference 30
Amplifier - Adcom GFA 7000
Source - Pioneer DV525 DVD player
Cables - DH Labs BL-1 interconnects, D-75 digital interconnect and original Monster Cable speaker cables
Monitor - Proscan PS36700 direct-view TV

Magnepan
1645 Ninth Street
White Bear, MN 55110
USA
Phone: 1-800-474-1646

They sure don't look like loudspeakers.

They look like screens standing in the room -- or, in the case of the MGMC1s, hanging on the wall.

They don't work like ordinary loudspeakers, either.

And they sure don't sound like ordinary loudspeakers. They have a big, open, airy sound that's like nothing else out there.

No, there's nothing ordinary about the Magnepan home-theater loudspeaker system.

Hallelujah!

And now for something completely different

Magnepan's name is a compressed form of magnetic planar, the technology the company's speakers employ. Simply put, the speakers have no cabinet or "box," just a framework that supports a tightly stretched, electrically conductive Mylar membrane between arrays of small magnets. On each side, all the magnets are arranged so that the same magnetic pole faces the membrane and the two arrays oppose one another in polarity. When a signal is passed through the membrane, it is attracted to the magnets of opposite polarity on one side of the membrane and repelled by the similarly charged magnets in the opposite array. The motion of the membrane creates the speaker's sound. Since there's no "box" to catch the backwave, a planar-magnetic loudspeaker radiates as much sound to the rear as it does to the front.

The MG3.6/R ($4375-USD/pair) is a large (71"H x 24"W x 1.625"D) three-way, full-range design that couples a true ribbon tweeter to midrange and bass panels, based on Magnepan's basic planar technology. Each speaker has a 55" line-source ribbon tweeter, which is essentially a long, thin strip of conductive foil suspended between two magnets A user-replaceable fuse further protects the tweeter.

The 3.6/R's crossover points are 200Hz and 1700Hz. Magnepan specifies the speaker's sensitivity as 86dB/2.83V/m. The speaker connections are made through an externally mounted crossover box with accommodations for biwiring or biamping. Speaker connections are nonstandard sockets with threaded setscrews that tightly grip bare wires or posts. My Deltron connectors worked fine, as would any banana plug.

The MGMC1 ($750/pair) is a far smaller panel (46"H x 10.25"W x 1"D), but it has an interesting twist -- it can be mounted on the wall on its supplied brackets or used as a floorstanding design with a pair of optional conversion stands. The small size of the panel necessitates near-wall placement if you want to achieve the company's specified frequency response of 80Hz to 24kHz. Sensitivity is given as 86dB/2.83V/m and impedance as 4 ohms. The MGMC1 is a two-way design with a bass/midrange panel and a tweeter panel -- the crossover point is 1300Hz. Speaker attachment is by means of a fixed wire-tail with tinned ends.

What makes the MGMC1 so slick for surround use is that nifty little hinged wall-mount bracket. When you're not using your system, the speakers can be pushed flush to the wall. When you are, they can swing out like doors -- and their on-wall position means they get all the boundary reinforcement they require. What a marvelous concept.

The same could be said for Maggie's center-channel speaker, the $990 MGCC2 (a new version, the MGCC3, which adds an octave to the bottom of the speaker's response, has just been released). It, too, is a two-way design, employing a quasi-ribbon tweeter and a midrange/woofer panel. But here's the cleverest bit -- the midrange/woofer panel is curved, which gives the MGCC2 far better horizontal dispersion than a conventional (well, comparatively) flat panel. The curved panel crosses over to the quasi-ribbon array at 750Hz. The MGCC2 is large for a center-channel (10.5"H x 36"W x 8"D), but it only weighs 22 pounds. Speaker connections are the same set-screw-adjusted sockets that the MG3.6/R sports.

The MGCC2's claimed frequency response is 160Hz to 18kHz. No, that's not a misprint, but at the time the CC2 was developed that was all the bass Magnepan could coax out of the technology -- besides, the company reasoned (I think correctly), home-theater enthusiasts would probably have a subwoofer in the system. Despite the reduced low end, the MGCC2 does not employ a high-pass filter, relying instead upon the physical characteristics of the diaphragm to act as a mechanical filter; like Bartleby, when confronted with a signal they cannot reproduce, they prefer not to.

However, during the prolonged interval between the time Maggie shipped me the MGCC2 and this review, the design mavens at the company came up with what company spokesperson Wendell Diller calls "a clever design trick" that gives the MGCC3 bottom-end response down to 80Hz. Always nice to have, of course, but since I do have a subwoofer, I have to say that I never missed the extra bass.

Their principles are the same, though their modes of thinking are different

Setting up the Magnepan MGMC1s is dead simple, of course. Just mount them on the wall (using the supplied brackets). Maggie recommends you place 'em on the wall so they blend on-axis and reflected sound for a nice diffuse blend. This gives you a (ahem!) magnitude of placement options, since their mounting brackets are infinitely adjustable. Nice touch, that.

The MGCC2 was a no-muss-no-fuss setup as well. If you have a direct-view monitor, just place the speaker above or below the TV. If, like me, you have a projection system, just place the speaker under the screen on a stand. If you can't do that, you'll have to play the angles and experiment with which precise tilt-angle makes dialogue sound as though it originates from the screen. The MGCC2 seemed particularly forgiving when it came to placement, possibly because of its wide horizontal dispersion.

The MG3.6/R has two different driver types and, as a result, two different radiation patterns -- the quasi-ribbon tweeter is a line source and the rest of the speaker is a dipole. Normally, panel speakers are tricky to place because their bass response needs rear-boundary reinforcement, so getting that speaker-to-front-wall ratio takes some experimentation, but the side-wall interaction is almost completely nonexistent. However, those line-source tweeters change that equation -- place them too close to the side walls and the speakers will throw a distorted image of the original event. The trick is to get them just far enough from the side walls to keep the soundstage three-dimensional and then move them back and forth between the front wall and your listening position.

If you're lucky, that's all you'll have to worry about. Me, I also had to place them on either side of my screen and keep the screen at the proper focal length from my projector. Even with these added complications, getting the Maggies set up and sounding good was a lot easier than my description of the process would make it seem. Just be warned, you may have to work for the best sound they can produce.

Also be prepared to give them some juice. At 86dB sensitivity and a fairly consistent 4-ohm load, the 3.6/Rs don't seem as though they need a lot of power -- however, they do, they do. The Musical Fidelity M250s were able to drive them to a fare-thee-well; so was the 200Wpc Plinius Odeon -- but most receivers would not be up to the task.

In addition to the MF and Odeon, I also used the McCormack MAP-1, the TAG McLaren AV32R Dual Processor, and DVD-32R DVD player upstream. I crossed over to the Polk PSW650 subwoofer, which remained the go-to-bass workhorse throughout the audition. (I'll be coming back to the TAG McLaren and Plinius components in the upcoming weeks).

We boil at different degrees

If you set a premium on spacious, expansive, enveloping sound, the Magnepan HT loudspeaker system is the answer to your prayers. Yes, it took a bit of placement jiggery-pokery, but the results were worth it.

Central to this embarrassment of sonic riches was the full-bodied wraparound sound of the MG3.6/Rs. Some folks have called them lean, but they aren't at all thin sounding -- not if you take the time to couple that backwave to the front wall properly. Once I got that tuned in, the 3.6/Rs projected big-boned sound that was particularly impressive in its seamless top-to-bottom coherence. And the side-to-side soundstage was bigger and deeper than that of nearly any speaker I have experienced at anywhere close to the price of the Maggies.

Seamlessness and depth are what I expect from a high-resolution panel loudspeaker. What I did not expect was the amount of sweet, extended top-end the 3.6/Rs produced -- not to mention that most valued audiophile commodity, "see-through transparency." The 3.6/R's quasi-ribbon tweeter is really, really special and it adds a new level of detail and ease to the Maggie sound.

Another surprise was the way the MGCC2 mated flawlessly with the far-more-full-range 3.6/Rs on either side. No comb-filter effect, no timbral shift, no dynamic damping -- the center-channel just blended in perfectly. And no, the missing bottom octave never caused a problem.

In theory, the center-channel should precisely match the L and R -- I know this because experts keep telling me so. However, I think you can get so hung up with frequency response that you lose sight of the importance of dispersion, and most identical center-channels just don't cut it when you have to sit off center from the picture (yeah, I know, and some do). In an imperfect world, we make our choices where we must and I vote for dispersion -- especially of the sort the MGCC2 delivers.

The MGMC1 wall-mounted panels were also just right, as Goldilocks would have it. When it came to disappearing completely, they were as close to perfect as surrounds can get. Ambience and sound effects were delivered invisibly and (ahem) discretely. I may not be entirely rational when it comes to the MGMC1s, but it’s hard to maintain critical distance when you're in love.

The world of the happy is quite different from that of the unhappy

This is a home-theater site, but I have to mention just how satisfying the Maggie surround-sound setup sounded with multichannel music. My infatuation with Telarc's disc of Hovhaness nature portraits (Mysterious Mountain; Hymn to Glacier Peak; Mount St. Helens; Storm on Mount Wildcat [Telarc SACD 60604]) continues unabated, and the Maggie system kept that flame fanned with its extraordinary presentation of the ambient wash of a big concert hall. The reflected sound coming from the rear speakers was impossible to pinpoint, seeming to come from the rear of -- well, certainly not my room, my room isn't 90' deep!

The front channels delivered the full-on assault of a big ensemble -- the sound spread from wall to wall and seemed 30' deep (again, not the typical sound of my listening room). When I say full on, I mean full. These are burly, muscular speakers, capable of bench-pressing a lot more than their weight!

Red Dragon's 5.1 sound was particularly impressive -- and dramatically effective -- through the Magnepan system. It keeps the surrounds going throughout the entire film, establishing locale, deepening the emotional impact of scenes, and placing the viewer deep into the acoustic of the film's environment. In addition, Danny Elfman has composed a stunning -- and extremely grown-up -- score, which the three front channels delivered with precision and panache. Red Dragon is one of the rare films where even its least action-oriented scenes make the strongest possible argument for the surround experience. Well, probably with any high-rez speaker system, but definitely with the Maggies.

That's all fine and dandy, but not all of us watch only demo-worthy films. I still watch silent films, but even less fanatical movie buffs watch classics from the age before hi-fi soundtracks. Fear not, the extremely high resolving power of the Maggies does not make it impossible to listen to less-than-pristine soundtracks (they won't hide the flaws, but they don't highlight them either). I watched Kiss Me Kate, which sports a fuzzy-sounding (occasionally sharp, even) audio track, but the Maggies just reported that fact without adding any shrillness and distortion of their own. Just like they oughta.

We’re probably both trying to say the same thing in different words

The Magnepan MG3.6/R, MGMC1, and MGCC2 loudspeakers gave me many hours of musical and filmic ecstasy. Doing all the "hard" research that resulted in this review was grand fun from start to finish -- in fact, I may have prolonged the process unduly simply because I was enjoying myself so thoroughly. Does that mean you should rush out and buy the system?

Naturally, that all depends. If you like spacious, transparent, vivid sound, maybe you should. You'll need lots of cash ($6115 for the whole shebang) and you'll need a big room (the 3.6/Rs need space), and you'll need a lot of power for the 3.6/Rs (at least 100W, but mo' is betta). Answer yes to all of those needs and the system might be just the ticket.

Of course, you could get a lot of that openness and transparency from a system that substituted Magnepan's MG 1.6/Rs for the 3.6/Rs -- or, in a smaller room, you might get away with the MGMC1 at the corners and the MGCC1 in the front'n'center position, if you have a really good sub.

But the MG3.6/R, MGMC1, MGCC2 system is the one I fell in love with, and I suspect it might enchant you, too. At the very least, you should experience this system before you buy anything in its price range.

I guess it's possible you won't like them as much as I do, but at least you won't have wasted your time listening to yet another ordinary loudspeaker system.

...Wes Phillips

wes@soundstage.com

Magnepan MG3.6/R, MGMC1, MGCC2 Home-Theater Speaker System
Price: $6115 USD for complete system (MG3.6/R, $4375/pair; MGMC1, $750/pair; MGCC2, $990/each).
Warranty: Three years parts and labor.

Magnepan
1645 Ninth Street
White Bear, MN 55110
Phone: (800) 474-1646

In a month that Doug Schneider writes about my two two-channel systems in his "Traveler" column, I feel a little self-conscious about telling you of another system, especially one so different from the ones I have. But doing so lets me tie up a loose end from the CES as well as plug Jeff Fritz's "Surrounded" column and its emphasis on multichannel music.

As anyone who's been to CES knows, finding good sound there is often an ordeal because the hotel rooms in which the systems are set up vary in size and the companies whose products are on display have only a short time to transform a hotel room into a listening den. So I entered the Magnepan room at T.H.E. Expo with only the idea of saying hello to Wendell Diller on my mind, not listening to the multichannel music system he had set up. I knew how hard it was to place two speakers in such a room; arranging five seemed like a task too large for any mere mortal.

But then these were Magneplanar MGMC1 speakers ($750 USD per pair), which are meant for mounting (via included brackets) adjacent to a room boundary. Of course, this cuts down on the choices of where to place the speakers and dictates that you mount one on the left side wall and one on the right, both facing forward. The same thing happens for the rear channels, with all four MGMC1s facing the listening spot. The fifth speaker, the MGCC2 center-channel ($1,199), has its placement as part of its name: it goes right between the two front MGMC1s and on a stand that lifts it to a height roughly equivalent to that of the MGMC1s. The accompanying picture shows this better than I can explain it. The whitish panel on the right wall is the speaker. Other equipment for this system included a Sony XA-9000ES multichannel SACD player and TAP-9000ES multichannel preamp/control unit, an Outlaw Audio Magneplanar-specific ICBM, a whack of Bryston amplifiers, enough Nordost cabling to connect everything, and a pair of very small Velodyne subwoofers, one of which is pictured on the floor between the flower pots.

Two things made this system special. First, the speakers, mounted on their brackets, were rather unobtrusive by high-end-audio or home-theater standards. The MGMC1s simply swing out of the way and against the side walls when not in use, leaving only the MGCC2 in plain sight. Wendell speculated that an "automation kit" to motorize the movement of the MGMC1s would be a hit. This would require perhaps pushing a button on your remote control to make your Magnepan multichannel-music system ready for use. Cool!

The second, and more significant, aspect of this system was the sound, of course. I heard an early prototype of this system when Doug Schneider and I visited the Magnepan factory in the middle of 2001, but this new iteration was leagues better than that system at filling the room with musically significant detail. Orchestral recordings displayed a soundstage that was truly wall to wall and even seemed to spread beyond the room's boundaries. And when Wendell played some live jazz recordings, these only in four-channel mode, the sense of being among the spectators was unrivaled by anything I've heard in stereo. All of the two-channel goodies were apparent too: transparency, perfect tonality, scads of detail, and life-sized images. Even among all of the mega-buck systems on display in Las Vegas, this one by Magnepan was one of the best I heard.

If you do the math, the speakers, all five of them, cost $2500; I'm not sure exactly what the electronics and cabling cost, but I suspect the figure wouldn't break the bank for either a committed audiophile or home-theater enthusiast. Thus, a system like this is attainable, and it will please both the music and movie camps. I bet spouses will take to the idea of having speakers that hinge back and out of the way too, and in normal use, the center-channel speaker will likely sit on a TV and not on a stand front and center.

In 2000, I wrote an editorial that discussed why I don't like home theater, and while I stand by what I said there, especially in terms of the home-theater experience, I also acknowledge that Magnepan's CES system has me more than a little intrigued at the thought of using more than a stereo pair of speakers. I was sorry that Jeff Fritz, our in-house multichannel-music maven, didn't get to hear this system, but I suspect he would have been as impressed as I was, and perhaps more so given that he knows this realm better than I do. Yes, there are still great limitations in terms of software, but even if SACD never lifts off, DVD is not going away, and record companies like Telarc are already issuing multichannel recordings in both formats. There will be more music available as time goes on.

But no matter -- this Magnepan system was not created specifically for multichannel-music believers. It was made for initiates and skeptics like me, and it accomplished its goal of having me expand my stereo way of thinking. I can't say I'm quite ready to buy such a system -- I still enjoy my reference system, to which Doug Schneider, after his visit, would certainly ask, "Who wouldn't?" But multichannel music is calling, and we should all be ready to hear it.

...Marc Mickelson
editor@soundstage.com

A taste of state-of-the-art performance at a very affordable price.

Review Summary
Sound	"Make the room come alive" with "balanced, detailed and musically lithe performance that is completely free of the speaker"; "system transparency far exceeds anything else at the $2400 price point."
Features	Planar-magnetic panels with quasi-ribbon tweeters that, in the case of the MGMC1, can be wall mounted and swing out of the way when not in use; multiple grille-cloth/finish options.
Use	Requires a powerful amplifier as well as the Magneplanar-specific Outlaw Audio ICBM for bass-management duties.
Value	"The affordable system with which you can elevate your enjoyment of Dolby Digital, DTS and Dolby Pro Logic II material now..." and "standing ready to take you to the next level."

In January of this year, I reviewed Magnepan’s MG1.6/QR / MGCC2 / MGMC1 home-theater speaker system for our sister publication Home Theater & Sound. In that review, I started off with a short introduction to Magnepan as a company, but I seriously doubt that many readers of SoundStage! are unfamiliar with Magnepan. They are makers of some of the most unique and highly regarded speakers around. They have some of the most loyal customers you will likely encounter and a very established network of dealers. If Magnepan is new to you, I urge you to read the factory-tour article here on SoundStage! for an introduction.

The speakers Magnepan produces are like no other you are likely to encounter. Called Magneplanars, the speakers vary in height and width, but once you are familiar with one model, you will instantly recognize others as being from the same family. Unlike conventional box/dynamic loudspeakers that use the speaker enclosure to reinforce the sound created by the drivers, Magneplanar flat panels couple directly to the air, producing sound waves that propagate in a dipolar radiation pattern -- which is to say from the front and back of the panels equally, yet out of phase.

The panels themselves consist of a 0.5 mil Mylar diaphragm bonded to current-carrying wire conductors, which are "driven" by permanent bar magnets spaced behind the diaphragm. The phenomenally light diaphragm is propelled by the reaction between the current and the magnets, generating sound with its vibrations. Magnepan has teamed this quasi-ribbon magnetic-panel technology with what they call a quasi-ribbon tweeter. The difference between the true ribbon tweeter found on Magnepan models further up the price scale and the quasi-ribbon used in the system under review is that where the quasi-ribbon tweeter has the current-carrying conductor mounted to the Mylar membrane, with a true ribbon, the free-floating (suspended within the magnetic field) current-carrying conductor is actually what vibrates to create the sound. "I won't need a lifeline for that question, Regis."

You’re surrounded

The home-theater speaker system from Magnepan that I reviewed had a retail price of $3350 USD. I concluded the review with the declaration that this high-resolution system raised the bar for me in terms of what I expected from home-theater sound. However, for this review, SoundStage! decided to assemble a multichannel music system and knock the price of entry down to a paltry $2400 by omitting the full-range Magneplanar 1.6/QR and substituting a second pair of Magnepan’s new MGMC1, which did necessitate the inclusion of a subwoofer and its associated cost (see the sidebar to this review).

At each corner of this multichannel ensemble is the new MGMC1, $750 per pair, a small panel (by Magneplanar standards) measuring 46"H x 10 1/4"W x 1"D and weighing in at 10 pounds. Magnepan rates the MGMC1 as having a frequency response of 80Hz-24kHz +/- 3dB with the stipulation that the MGMC1 must be placed within very close proximity to a wall for bass reinforcement (more on this later). Magnepan also specifies an 86dB efficiency as well as a 4-ohm impedance. Recommended power for the MGMC1 is between 40 and 200 watts. Its crossover point is 1300Hz.

The MGMC1 can be mounted on stands designed specifically for them and available at extra cost, or they can be wall-mounted via an included hinged bracket system that allows the speaker to be positioned flush against the wall when not in use. Very smart.

Anchoring the system is another new design from Magnepan. With the realization that the center speaker is the most important speaker in any surround system, Magnepan set out to create a center-channel speaker fully up to the task. But the first barrier they encountered was the one of necessary bass and dynamics versus the limited size of the speaker that will likely be found perched on the top of a TV set. Their goal of remaining true to the Magnepan philosophy of eschewing dynamic drivers (cones and domes) and designing a center-channel identical in both spirit and sound to the Magneplanar line made the task even more difficult. What they came up with was the $1,199 MGCC2, another two-way speaker that utilizes the quasi-ribbon tweeter, which in this case is crossed over to the bass panel at 750Hz and extends to 18kHz. But unlike any Magneplanar to date, the MGCC2 features a curved diaphragm designed to widen dispersion in the horizontal plane in order to deliver full-spectrum sound to a wide array of seated listeners. The MGCC2 is 10 1/2" high by 36" wide by a maximum depth (in the center) of 8". It weighs in at 22 pounds, which makes it light considering its size.

Though large by center-speaker standards, by Magneplanar standards, the MGCC2 is still rather small, and the laws of physics being what they are, a small planar-magnetic speaker can either produce bass or be dynamic, but not both. So in order to maximize dynamics, Magnepan made a decision to limit bass. How limited? Try 160Hz. Interestingly, neither the MGCC2 nor the MGMC1 use any form of high-pass filtering. Rather the tension exerted on the speakers’ membranes acts as a sort of mechanical high-pass filter; below the speakers’ limits, they simply do not respond to the input signal, making it improbable to overdrive them with too low a frequency.

Still, the problem remained that Magnepan needed to find a solution for filling in the gap between most surround processors’ standard 80Hz filter and the MGCC2’s octave-higher 160Hz limit. Magnepan went to Internet-based Outlaw Audio and negotiated for the creation of a Magneplanar-specific version of Outlaw’s Integrated Controlled Bass Manager (ICBM). Purchased separately for $325, the Maggie-specific ICBM offers a selectable high-pass-filtered center-channel output appropriate for use with the MGCC2. With selectable filter settings as high as 240Hz (the frequency labels on the ICBM are unchanged from the regular version, but Magneplanar owners will know that actual values are double those noted on the ICBM panel), the ICBM actually filters out the bass frequencies that would be destined for the MGCC2 and "recombines" those filtered frequencies into the front right and left speakers (recommended to retain the proper timbre and center imaging), or directs them to a subwoofer, or directs them to both. Outlaw Audio’s standard ICBM is a full-featured bass-management system that is extremely flexible and sonically transparent. As discussed by Jeff Fritz in his SoundStage! review, it is just about mandatory for multichannel DVD-A and SACD music systems given the horrendous omission of any kind of bass management.

Both the MGMC1 and MGCC2 are available with a variety of grille colors and wood-trim finishes (as is the entire Magneplanar line). These, along with wall-mounting, makes it all the more possible to fit the five-speaker system into a living room or family room -- and thus the lives of its owners.

Ready, set…

For my home-theater review, I set the Magneplanar speakers up in a more or less perfect room. But few of us have perfect rooms, and my own family room is about as imperfect as any, so it was here that I decided to install the Magneplanars for this multichannel-music review. One half of my room is part of a recent addition to the house and the other part is original. The problem is that when the room was expanded, portions of load-bearing walls could not be removed, so I’ve got three partial walls jutting out from what is the front of my room. You can imagine how those walls would break up those reflections intended for re-radiation back into the room.

What I found was that largely due to the presence of a center-channel speaker, this room worked remarkably well with the MGMC1/MGCC2 system. As a matter of fact, the left partial wall gave me the perfect place to hang the front left MGMC1. For narrow rooms, Magnepan suggests hanging the speakers from the right and left walls with the rear speakers hanging the same way but at a 30-degree angle behind the listener. My room is much too wide for this as the left side of the room flows into an open kitchen. So I was forced to hang the rear speakers on the rear wall, which not only worked very well but also looked great. I placed the MGCC2 on top of my TV with Vibrapods underneath.

Having used similar systems in two different rooms, I found that final settings on the Magneplanar-specific ICBM may vary as they are somewhat dependent on the room. I settled on a center-channel setting of 200Hz with the rear-mounted Recombine toggle engaged (which routes bass signals to the front speakers). Settings for the front and rear channels were 80Hz and 60Hz respectively.

Given the low prices of the speakers under review, Magnepan’s Wendell Diller was eager for me to give the system a go with, shall we say, less-than-top-shelf electronics. I was amenable because one of the things I found in the previous review was that these Magneplanars are remarkably forgiving of electronics. So detailed, liquid and transparent are these speakers that as long as your electronics are without glaring flaws of their own, the Magneplanars will combine to give you a product with a much higher degree of panache than would be anticipated. Where some speakers are at the mercy of the associated electronics to achieve anything close to their potential, the Maggies actually seem to elevate moderately priced electronics to new levels of transparency and musicality.

Go!

The first and probably most important thing that the dipolar Magneplanars do is make the room come alive. While they disappear as no other speaker I’ve used (including ribbon/dynamic hybrids and electrostatic/dynamic hybrids), they leave behind the most expansive and convincing sense of real space that I’ve ever encountered in my home. If this system doesn’t make your walls disappear, I don’t know which speakers will.

Velodyne SPL 800 subwoofers

When Magnepan’s Wendell Diller offered to have sent a pair of the Velodyne SPL 800 subwoofers ($899 each) he used at CES 2002, I readily accepted. But upon arrival, it seemed as though two small subs had been sent to do the work of a single real subwoofer. Nevertheless, these two 35-pound, 10 1/2"H x 10 1/4"W x 12"D boxes were just too cute to not give a try. Though the SPL 800 offers extension to only 28Hz, the fact is that it offers plenty of oomph down to its limit, and for 99% of the music I listen to, that’s plenty of extension. In terms of punch and weight, the pair of subs sounded like much larger units. In fact, toward the end of the review period, I disconnected one of them and found that a single subwoofer was all I needed for the music I listen to -- classical to high-energy rock -- and at the volume levels I prefer. Furthermore, when I used only one subwoofer, even when operated up to 110Hz, it offered no audible clue as to its location. On classical music, the bass section remained to the far right side of the stage, just as it should. Not only was the little Velodyne the best small sub I’ve ever used, it was one of the very best subs I’ve used. The only time I ever felt that something was missing was when playing Telarc’s new multichannel SACD recording of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture [Telarc SACD 60541]. The cannons were missing some of the subsonic weight and drama that larger subs with more extension can offer. But when it came to real music, the SPL 800s performed magnificently. Subtly plucked basses from Polonaise from Eugene Onegin, Op. 24 were so neat and orderly that the Velodyne subs portrayed their contributions such that the reverberation throughout the hall was almost as important as the original notes. And Capriccio Italien had all the bass-drum slam (as did the 1812 Overture, for that matter) that I could have hoped for. Both cuts sounded spectacular in terms of bass pitch, definition and weight. Even Pink Floyd’s "Time," "One Of These Days" and "When Tigers Broke Free" offered more bass slam and mayhem than the engineers could have dreamed that the speakers of the day could reproduce. Nothing on the Echos CD came close to shaking these little subs. But more importantly, when the subs were called upon to do piano, such as with Michael Camilo’s Triangelo SACD [Telarc SACD 63549], the instrument never sounded larger than life, and the lower registers were never exaggerated in any way, just clean and balanced throughout. The Velodyne SPL 800s are unique in terms of their size, price and abilities. They offered superb performance, period.

System transparency far exceeds anything else at the $2400 price point. Nothing else comes close -- not even for several times the system’s price. And as good as the front three speakers are, it’s how well the rear channels worked in my room that put the system over the top. Anybody who has been forced to place surround speakers on or close to a wall knows that the wall has a disastrous effect on both bass response and overall timbre. Not only that, but the wall’s diffraction effects make the speaker that much more localizable. But what if that surround speaker depended, in a very symbiotic way, on the wall for its spectral balance, as does the MGMC1? It will sound completely natural when used near a wall, that’s what. And as the wall sits largely in the dipole’s null (the axis of minimum direct sound radiation), even the wall’s diffractive/reflective effects are minimized. And although the debate rages regarding the use of monopole or dipole surrounds, the Magneplanars give you the best of both worlds. The bulk of the signal arriving at your ears is directly radiated from the speaker (you don’t sit in the null as you do with the usual dipolar surround speaker) and there is plenty of reflected sound arriving at the ear with enough delay so as not to confuse imaging and detail but also enhance the perception of space. The result is balanced, detailed and musically lithe performance that is completely free of the speaker -- so free that even turning my head and looking right at the speakers did not give it up as the source.

I gave Pink Floyd’s Echoes [Capitol 2 CD CDP 7243 36111 2 5] a spin first, using the Pro Logic mode on my Yamaha processor. First, as a compilation disc, the tracks were recorded over a period of years and the Maggies really let me know it. As a rule, the later the recording, the better the engineering. Tracks like "Wish You Were Here" and "Us And Them" exhibited superb sonics, and the Magneplanar system produced string tone that was spot-on in its tonality, delicacy and conspicuous lack of grain. Vocals were as physically large as the recording dictated, and even the fly buzzing around at the beginning of "High Hopes" sounded particularly true.

System coloration, something that absolutely plagues systems in the $2000 price range, was nonexistent. With no speaker boxes come none of the boxy colorations. What you get is remarkably open, liquid and detailed sound with no obscuring colorations. Not that the MGMC1s are quite the equal of the larger speakers in the Magneplanar line. They are not. But then again, the larger speakers like the MG1.6/QR are superior in this regard to speakers at multiples of their price too.

Instruments known for possessing real texture come through that way loud and clear. Muted trumpets from Nice ‘N’ Easy, a multichannel SACD [Telarc SACD 60532], really showed off the speed and agility of this system. This disc features Eric Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops performing Nelson Riddle arrangements of Sinatra standards. "Let’s Face the Music," for example, starts off with the high-speed cymbal work that is eventually joined by some frenzied acoustic bass to which is added the full brass and woodwind sections. The Maggies preserved each instrument in space with crisp transients as well as neat instrumental outlines. Or try "Get Happy" for some splendidly recorded strings, tenor sax and trumpet, each reproduced as capably as far more expensive systems.

Associated Equipment

Loudspeakers – Velodyne SPL 800 subwoofers.

Amplifier – Rotel RMB 1095 five-channel amplifier.

Processor – Yamaha DSP 1A.

Digital – Bel Canto DAC 1.1 for CDs, Pioneer DV-525 DVD player as transport and for DVDs, Sony SCD-CD775 multichannel SACD player.

Digital cable – DH Labs D-75.

Interconnects – JPS Labs Ultraconductor.

Speaker cables – JPS Labs Ultraconductor.

Accessories – Vibrapod isolation pods used under MGCC2.

System dynamics were also superb. In my Home Theater & Sound review, I noted that the Magneplanar system did require a good deal of power and even then system dynamics could be somewhat limited as compared to some dynamic speakers (though I never did hit the dynamic ceiling). But that caveat is largely removed through the use of the smaller MGMC1s. The system's inefficiency does mean that you need some gain, and you will likely advance the volume control further than you are used to, but as the speakers are all crossed over well above the deep-bass frequencies, which would otherwise strain the system, they really sing. This system played remarkably loud with no sense of stress.

The levels of coloration that make vocals, as reproduced by most center-channel speakers, suddenly sound completely unacceptable were absent over the MGCC2. And detail? Tons. You don’t even have to put on well-recorded music to hear the difference. Just listen to TV broadcasts over this speaker, and I’ll guarantee that you hear them as you have never heard them before. Personally, I didn’t know that TV could sound so clean, clear and transparent. One afternoon I sat with my daughter and watched PBS children’s programming, and I couldn’t believe how good Clifford the Big Red Dog, among other shows, sounded over the Magneplanar system. Not interested in children’s cartoons? Well, the point is that no matter what I put on, the Magneplanar multichannel system raised my level of appreciation.

Conclusion

The Magnepan MGMC1 is an astounding value at $750 a pair. No, it doesn’t have any bass at all and will necessitate the use of a subwoofer, even if used as a stereo pair. But there are no $750 monitor speakers that I know that offer truly satisfying bass on their own anyway. But what sets the MGMC1 apart from similarly priced monitors is everything that happens above 80Hz. Everything. I don’t know of many $2000 monitors that can match the transparency, low levels of coloration and overall smoothness of the MGMC1.

Relative to the MGMC1, the $1,199 MGCC2 is fairly expensive. Even as compared to most center-channel speakers, it’s not cheap. But it is also the most accomplished center-channel speaker I’ve ever heard, which makes it no less of a value than the rest of the system and makes it the worthy anchor of far more expensive systems. Yes, it only goes down to 160Hz and it requires the added expenditure for the Magneplanar-specific ICBM. I say throw the price of the ICBM right at the MGCC2 and consider it a $1275 center-channel system. It’s still a bargain.

As SoundStage! editor Marc Mickelson suggested in a recent editorial, like it or not, multichannel music is coming. And this Magneplanar system is the affordable system with which you can elevate your enjoyment of Dolby Digital, DTS and Dolby Pro Logic II material now. And once the industry has ironed out the wrinkles of multichannel SACD and DVD-A sound, it’s also the affordable system standing ready to take you to the next level. A terrific system now and for the future -- what more can you ask for?

...John Potis

johnp@soundstage.com

Magnepan MGMC1 / MGCC2 Multichannel Speaker System
Prices: MGMC1, $750 USD per pair; MGCC2, $1,199; Magneplanar-specific Outlaw Audio ICBM, $325.
Warranty: Three years parts and labor on Magnepan speakers, five years parts and labor on Magneplanar-specific Outlaw Audio ICBM.

Magnepan
1645 Ninth Street
White Bear, MN 55110
Phone: (800) 474-1646