Magnepan 1.6 fronts-what non-maggies center/sur

You have to have the MMG a good ways from the front wall, or it sounds terrible. You could dampn it

I was a dealer for Magnapans in the past, and have some experience with them over the years. Might I recommend keeping those music speakers for 2 channel music dubties in that system, and doing either one of two things. One, keep the 2 channel system separate, and integrate a 7.1 channel small satalite system, that'll give you seemless, properly integrated results from your ht system. The other is to simply add a subwoofer to your Magnapan setup, and add a processor. Adding different brand speakers is a sure path to low fidelity, different overall sound - as things pan from speaker to speaker - and not to mention it will all look cheap!
Also, listening to any Magnapan speaker "off-axis" will yield less than stellar sonics. Believe me! Sound will be rolled off and hollow. The only way to hear maggies, is sitting dead between them. In that case, a need for a center and rears, is really not so important, imo, due to design limitations.(they're dipoles, and phase cancel out off-axis...it's how it is)
Keep it simple if you want to stay with the very low efficiency and rather delicate 1.6's for dynamic movie mixes, definiltey add a powered sub, and cross the maggies above 80hz.
Anyway, those are my two setup recommendations.

Its perfect for a center, the ribbon runs nearly as far as 3 couch lengths. Its also an amazing tonal match for the 1.6's(mains) and matching rear MMG's. The 3 speakers sound like 1 wall of sound.

Theres many ways to build stands. The cheapest is to mount the stock legs on the sides, and gives you tilt if you desire(or put a riser under the flip lifts to level it). You could also buy 4qty A66 L brackets at Lowes and paint them black(forms a giant T), or you can get 2 pieces of wood, 2 L brackets, 2 packs of furniture leg risers, and create a sweet custom stand like I did for $25 per MMG. Paint the L bracket black, paint or stain the wood, and the furniture risers will let you raise or tilt the speakers up or down 0-1". The risers are the exact same Martin Logan shipped with there Ascent speakers, and is under $2 per pack of 4 at Lowes.

A single MMG as a center? Is there any way you could post pictures of that? Also, wouldn't that create a bit of dispersion problem if you sit off center (or maybe it's wide enough that you're not having that problem...)

I can tell you as way to get a killer Magnepan center for cheap. Buy a single MMG and mount the feet on the sides, and lay it over. Your getting the best center channel you could from Magnepan for $300. I also will be using the MMG's for rears, and the 1.6 for mains.-SVS Ultra subs.

You can run a "ghost" center,no center at all, works surprisingly well. I ran my 3A sigs this way.

I also had a Def Tech Center (CLR 2500) and it sounded great. But the best non Maggie one that I had was an
Anothony Gallo, I believe it was the precursor to the current signature model.

I used a definitve tech center with Electrostats for a few months and I was surprised how well it performed, when you actually listen to a speakers integrated in your system it shows you that the all speakers must match crowd may be going a bit too far. In a perfect world speakers will match and mine now do but you can get away very well with many speakers. How large can youe center be if you can share?

The original Linaeum speakers, or....Aurasound linaeum speakers work fairly well. Radio shack, also had some models which used the Linaeum drivers...I have no experience with these though? (under $100)

Hard to find, but Apogee speakers, had a few hometheater speakers in their line. ($200-$500)

Any other small cone/ribbon hybrid may work well also? ($300-$800)

I have Apogee panels, and did use an Apogee speaker as a center channel in the past. I'm using an Aurasound Linaeum speaker right now though....works well enough for movies.

Dave