Used Maggies

Thanks for all the insight. I'll keep you posted.

Photon's advice is bang on from my experience. I have 1.6's in a room that is essentially identical in size to yours. I needed to deaden the corners behind the speakers and pull them out about 5-6 ft to make them work. I had to work to at getting them to sound right after several years in a bigger room with vaulted ceilings and irregular dimensions. My speakers are 8.5 years old, and there is not the first sign of delamination, but on older speakers, delamination is apparently highly dependent on care (optimal humidity, low UV exposure), so it becomes a real risk on older speakers. Shipping is a real hastle. I bought mine new from a dealer, and Magnepan delayed shipping for almost a month to avoid shipping over the holidays. Picking them up is the way to go for sure on used Maggies. I buy at least half my equipment used, but when I get around to replacing my 1.6's with 3.6's, I'll go to a dealer, borrow a demo pair, make sure they work in my room, trade in my 1.6's and just pay the dealer for his services. That just seems to be a better way to go with Maggies. If you go for the 3.6's and make them work (or not) let us know.

I think with your size room you would be happiest with the 3.6's. Make sure that the magnetic strip is attached to the back of the tweeters. Have them strapped to a pallet and shipped, try Yellow Frieght. When you open the boxes go slow the pressure can blow the tweeter.

Best to get the serial numbers and contact Magnepan. They are very friendly and helpful! I bought a pair that had been in storage for a couple years and the adhesive had broken down. Their repair service was excellent. The best part of maggies is they can grow with you and each step up provides outstanding results. I have 3.5s now using active XO biamped the sound per dollar is awesome

The biggest thing I'd worry about buying used Maggies is the barely adequate factory packaging. IMO, it leaves the speakers vunerable to shipping damage. Admittedly, I've had worse than average luck with every shipper out there, but I don't think I'm being paranoid. I'd prefer to pick them up myself if there was any way possible. I can't say I found Maggies to have a small soundstage if they were set up properly with adequate room. As long as they were around a third of the way out into a decent size room room and had at least four feet on each side, I thought that bigger Maggies have a very generous soundstage. We've all got different perceptions about these things though. Your rooms footprint is a good size, but eight foot ceilings aren't ideal. About the only thing to watch out for is delaminated membrane wiring in older models.

They are really good midrange speakers if driven with top flight electronics, however, you must be absolutely on axis to appreciate its strengths. I always thought it was like listening through a smallish window.