Can you use a Magnepan MG12 as a Center speaker?

A customer had the same questions only with a Mag 1.6 and CC3
So we lugged both a single 1.6 and CC3 to his home.
We tried the 1.6s horizontally and did the a/b test with the CC3 it was a no brainer the CC3 out performed the
sideways 1.6 as the CC3 was designed to go sideways by Magnepan
Best Johnnyr

At a given frequency, the radiation pattern's angular coverage is inversely proportional to the width of the source in that plane. The Maggie MG12 is a great example: Set up normally, the tweeter is narrow in the horizontal dimension and broad in the vertical, so its radiation pattern is just the opposite: Broad in the horizontal and narrow in the vertical.

I do not know the orientation of the tweeter element in the CC3. If it runs horizontally, then I'm afraid that 36" horizontal dimension means it would be beaming pretty badly across the treble region. However if the ribbon element runs vertically, then it will have nice, wide dispersion in the horizontal plane. That is my expectation, but I don't know it for a fact.

Duke

Duke, Would the radiation pattern width be better than the CC3 36" x 10.5" x 5.5" or other Magnepan center speaker which are all smaller than the MG12?

With horizontal orientation, the radiation pattern width would be about the same as the normal height of the panel (51 inches). That's narrow enough that conventional speakers in phantom center mode would probably work just as well if not better. Imho.

Duke
dealer/manufacturer