DaveStL

Good luck on your quest. Maggies are special. When listening at a dealer (you're lucky to have one), it's important to know how long they have been played. They are noticeably bass-shy out of the box--I listened to 1.7's at a dealer in NC, very new, and another pair that were well broken-in at a dealer in MA. New ones will be the 1.7i, supposed to be a noticeable improvement over the original 1.7. Note that 1.7's sound very coherent but cannot be biamped w/o significantly altering the crossovers. One other thing w/ 1.7 and 1.7i. They are a little shorter than the 3-series, and beam a little vertically--you can hear this if you are sitting and then stand up. A shorter ceiling should help w/ this, because you get some reinforcement. I don't hear this w/ my III-A's--I think the ceiling is about 7'9". I have biamped IIIA's w/ newer ribbons. Tremendous B4B there, if you can find some w/o delamination or are willing to do some work. 1.7's, with the newer adhesive and the foil, should not suffer delamination problems that cropped up on pre-2005 Magnepans.

That was one of the best performances I have ever seen/heard anywhere of any song and it was on TV. I wish I could have seen that live. I watch it on youtube all the time. It's amazing!!! I would love to know if it is available somewhere on CD or vinyl (pipe dream). I think I have that whole program on the uverse dvr, from Palladia (now MTVlive). It should be available, but I have not found it online. The song, at least, is on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B59OY48/175-9704382-5008339?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

My room is bigger than yours, but the system is at one end, so maybe not as symmetrical. We do live in the real world, and life is full of compromises.... I still use the MG-IIIa's Barry and Uncle Meat are describing. They are perhaps the best bang for buck in used speakers in your price range, but you may have to deal with maintenance (delamination). My next step up is $15,000+ MG 20.7's--not in a hurry! Dipoles (e.g. Maggies, ALS's) are truly wonderful in many circumstances, esp. symmetrical rooms, and esp. with 3 to 10 feet between the speakers and the front wall (i.e. the wall you face while listening). They provide a sense of space that is difficult to match with box speakers. There is the "Maggie game" where you sit in the normal listening position and close your eyes--point to each instrument or vocalist and open your eyes, and you will be amazed at the sound stage width, often well outside the speakers. You also get depth, which is largely a function of speaker distance from that front wall. IMHO, speakers really are the first thing you need to pick for a given room. And then expect that good speakers will show problems in the upstream components. You have a great amp, so don't sweat it for now.

[EDIT--the more I think about this, the "solution" below doesn't make sense if the receiver displays "DD", unless DD can be 2-channel digital. My Pioneer receiver has all kinds of modes it displays, some being its version of sonic holography. I do remember solving that exact problem, though. Will have to explore receiver setup tomorrow. But it still might be worth a look at the Dish box setup.] A lot of times TV dialog is mainly in the center channel. Commercials are often stereo. I have had that same problem, where it wants to only output to the mains. Seems like it happened when we switched from Charter to Uverse, had to set the Uverse box. Options: Audio/Language: Digital: Surround (i.e. not Stereo). But I don't recall the receiver saying it was in surround mode. Had a similar problem when we bought a Visio TV (old Sony CRT finally shot craps). As shipped from the factory there was no sound at all, was ready to take it back until I started messing w/ settings. Had to set the TV up to think it had a sound bar, although it only had internal speakers.

Pass Labs makes a nice one, sounds great, very flexible, and w/ both RCA and XLR. Originally intended as industrial gear, though, so expensive. Marchand XM44 is reported to be very good, but you buy them to spec--need to get the freqs and slopes figured out first (e.g. w/ something less expensive that's adjustable). You can get modules for them to change the XO, though. IIRC, the pro ones (which will be XLR) are 4th-order only, albeit w/ adjustable XO point. Depending on the speakers, you might want something less steep to get the drivers to blend. Seems like I just talked myself into the miniDSP (except I don't need another XO).

Welcome, lady! Perhaps you can help some of us to be gentlemen.

This is going to take a while to get through. I'm very interested in why Johnny can't read. From my experience with both public and private education (as a consumer, funder, and volunteer), public school performance standards are set far too low, and apt students are encouraged to be mediocre. Based on the first chapter of this work, I fear that some worthwhile ideas may be drowned in a rant. I don't understand the apparently out-of-hand rejection of scientific principles, nor the idea that teacher measurement and accountability are not valuable. Perhaps my misconceptions will become evident as the argument unfolds.

Hey, that first Head East album went gold. I thought it was more widely known--definitely a local favorite, first big concert I attended. Rod got it; he's up.

Whining? You think that's whining? Next song, clue 1 would have been "oh say can". Or perhaps "True North strong". Go for it.

Oh, come on, save my life--I'm going down for the last time! 3. "break any glass"

present tense! 2 "even a chance"

ok, much easier one (I hope!) 1 "save my life"