MMG or Vandersteen

My TV stand is exactly 28" away from the wall, so the front on the MMG would be around 29-30 inches. They should be getting @180 watts of power in 4 ohm. Is there a decent say $250-$300 new or used Center that would work as a temp until I can buy a Magnepan one? I currently have a Axiom VP-150 I would like to replace. I hear Magnepans are great at imaging, But I still think in HT the Center is the most important speaker!

I built the stands for my current speakers so I am sure I could easily build MMG stands.

with 29 or 30" you should be good.
Magnepan also sells the MMGC (C for center) for $299. I am not sure how good it is? From what reviews say it's great. I just have not heard one.

You may be able to get a MMGC cheaper as a returned one, the audioreview.com discount might even apply to it as well.

Vandy's pure and simple. I recently suffered the Maggie disease. First the MMG does not have the feel of a substantial speaker. I owned them followed by the MG12's which were a considerable improvement. I now am using Paradigm Monitor 5's and about to climb the upgrade ladder again to either Proacs or Vandy's. The best way I know of to explain it is like this. The day after I saw Cassandra Wilson in concert at a lovely intimate venue (with great acoustics) I went to one of my favorite audio stores Bradford's Home Entertainment in Eugene, Oregon and auditioned Vandy 2ce vs Maggie 1.6's. The store owner Geoff thought that Cassandra sounded better on the Maggies and indeed she souded more colorful but she didn't like Cassandra. See this is where the problem lies with Maggies. Their presentation can be so impressive that we convince ourselves that because thay have that spooky there "in the room" presence that they are more accurate. That simply is not the case. Geoff doesn't see live music very often, I do. The Vandy's sounded like listening to Cassandra live. The entire presentation was like seeing Cassandra. The richness of her voice was particlarly convincing. If you have any questions feel free to email me.

I have owned both. IMHO the Vandersteens are much better. The MMG is a toy to introduce what you can do with the Magnepans. On about 10% of my recordings the MMG's sound nice. The rest just fell apart. I believe the hype is way over the top on the MMG speaker.

I'll take the Saranwrapapans over Vandersteen any day of the week. Especially on voacals.