Soundlabs and magnepan mix on front stage?????

I am running soundlab m2's with paradigm adp 450 actives for the rear surrounds and my center channel is a wharfedale active 8.2.
My critical listening is 2 channel but the home theater is for the family;I would not worry on the rear surrounds and try to buy a electrostatic for the center as it seems to be a most important speaker in the home theater setup.Take a look at the logan centers if you don't want to buy the soundlab center;I think your setup could sound very nice with the proper center channel.
I think you will find the soundlab a little bit of a harder load than 8 ohms; do they have the impedance mods and tordial transformer upgrade? You should double check with soundlab on the impedance curve of the speakers you are looking at.
For the rear surrounds I don't think you need to spend the big $$ on the maggies, maybe pick up a used pair of martin logan SL3's,Aerius or that used pair of soundlab dynastats that just showed up.

Rleff,

Thanks for your input. I am currently trying to purchase a pair of soundlabs. If the deal goes through the surrounds will be next. I was speaking to Duke from AudioKinesis today and he told me that Soundlab actually suggested not running a center channel at all. The idea is that the big soundlabs do such a good job of soundstaging that it may not be necissary. The rear surrounds I am leaning towards the maggies MGM rears. I am going to give the system a shot with the 4 channel setup. If it's missing something I can always add a center channel.

I will look at the soundlab dynastats you mentioned.

How do the M-2's do in your theater setup? Anxious to hear it.

Thanks,

Lance

Lance s
The system overall if quite nice;using Theta Casa Nova,PSE HL-1 with bypass and manley 440 monoblocks for the soundlabs; all my other speakers are actives.The center channel seems to be a tough act to blend with the m2's but as I said my major and critical listening is with the PSE and the manley's driving the m2's.
Maybe I will try running just the m2's with rears and sub just to see what that sounds like as per Duke's suggestion to you.
I think the mmg's for rear surrounds are a good pick; watch the distance from the back wall.
Good luck and enjoy the soundlab's if you get them;What power are going to use to drive them?

Rleff,

Thanks for the input. Duke said to run the surround in "center channel fantom mode". I am not sure if all pre/pro's have this option but check your rig and give it a try. He also said to give the SL's a little more toe-in but I am sure you will have success trialing what works best. Please let me know. I will be anxious to hear what you think. If I can avoid a center channel it would be great from a cost and power perspective.

For the amp I am leaning towards JC-1 monoblocks. I would love Atmas but even the MA1's are 6K used which is steep. I have always heard really great things about the JC-1's and the soundlab marriage so I will most likely go that direction. They can be had for around 3K used and it's a ton of amp for the money. Of course, I am always looking for opinions. I have read every thread on the subject and most agree that big tubes are best but to get into the game it get's expensive fast.

Pre/pro will either be the theta casa3 or the Proceed AVP2+6 (still trying to decide). I don't know if the theta has individual analog inputs (I assume they do but haven't seen the back panel yet) so i have to check. The new panny 50 dvd player decodes all of the new codecs and has independent analog outs so I can run all of the new codecs analog straight out and run the projector via HDMI direct while bypassing the prepro for the video side. I know I will have to run a switch box for the HDTV feed and gaming feed but it's worth it to have all the new codecs running analog without a processor doing the decoding.

Haven't decided on a sacd yet. The maggies for the rears are the MGM's which mount directly to the wall and have the hinges so you can adjust toe-in. I like the idea because they get the speakers off the floor and are designed to not need wall backspacing so they should be great. When not in use you can push them flush with the wall and they just look like sound board :-) The rear amp, if I can avoid a center channel will most likely be a relatively inexpensive 2 channel, maybe an old 200W SS amp that is stable at 4 ohms to drive the maggies (still not the easiest load but they are quite a bit smaller than the floor staning models)

Still working out the details of the system but I appreciate the input. Let me know if anything else comes to mind.

Thanks,

Lance