Magnepan Sweet Spot

barrysandy, the Tympani's image better withe the tweeter panels to the outside. The reason is that the woofer panels bloke the primary reflection off the front wall.

OP if you like the MMGs then from what little I understand you will like the LRS more and the placement with one would work with the other?  I have tweeters outside and placed to make the room play the music sure there is one nicer spot but the key is to get it filling the space.  Sounds like you are probably not going to want them 4 ft off the wall where they work best from what I can tell..

So much wrong here with the comments that the don't image. 

I have a T1, rebuild and upgraded by magnepan. I have mine approximately 3 feet away from the backwalls. Tweeters on the OUTSIDE, not inside, the tweeters are hinged in towards the listening position. High frequencies, are more subjected to positioning. 

The inner panels are hinged in crossing right before the listening spot. I crossed them over at around 60hz and the rest goes to a healthy 3.5kw of subwoofer support tuned (to be phase coherent) and measured in to be as close as I possibly can with the planars. 

Driven by a healty ATI class a/b weighing in at 97 pounds (pure power supply) you can probably weld with. 

These speakers do not do well on low end. It's just what it is, cut them off at around 60hz (works for me, could be in your room way different) let them do what they do best. Mid-low, high it makes a huge difference with the tympani, giving them that low end cone support. It gained heaps of dynamic range.  I use two 18 inch jbls in a very narrow bandwith to give it body,  and two 10 monoliths to support mid low. I am fortunate I have a audio engineer as friend who gladly helped me out. I learned a great deal about my system and its capabilities.  

Then the "audio reviewer" making claims they don't image. I had a chuckle, let's put this in perspective how incredibly wrong you are. 

You use a mmgi and basically step in maggies. They are fantastic in their own right, but comparing that to a Tympani?! Is hilarious at best (I got the mmgi, mgI , mgII, Tympani, mmgw) .

The only reason why you failed at making them sound good, you lack the equipment and/or the room you put those in was far from ideal. I can assure anyone here. The T1 when set up correctly, voices smack in the middle and with authority none of my point source speakers are able to do. Not even in the same realm..

I have also a huge collection of Arnie nudell speakers. (Needs no introduction) so not being a biased "knee jerking Maggie fan" none of that. 

Infinties list I currently own 

Kappa 9, kappa 6.1, rs4, rsII, RS1b (!!) , Renaissance 80,QE needless to say I am a fan of planar drivers. These are all speakers that have incredible potential and are well known amongst the community..

None of them come close to the sound field the Tympani can produce in my space. Dipole , line source doesn't suffer from floor or ceiling reflections. What one guy said above "do not use diffusion or traps" he's correct. 

The backwave is important, you can fine-tune it but don't over dampen your room that's completely the wrong approach with maggies. I urge any here that are interested, to look up "dipole radiaton patterns" .some need that little lession so it seems here (with respect ) 

It becomes very clear you're dealing with a totally different speaker principle here. It cannot be compared to cone. 

They are amongst the best speakers I have ever owned. Superior instrumental seperation, completely dead center vocality (people stand up and think it's a trick) aslong as your room allows it. And have these speakers set up right ?! You get something really special to listen too. 

I literally had a buyer here to buy a set of k9 , he heard my main system. He ordered for 8k on amps same as I have and maggies the second he left. As thank you, he gave me a set of kappa 6.1 😂

They rival high end speakers all day long with ease. They do take some more user patience, and understanding. Than a point source .. 

Then for horns, I had a klipsch lascala , on prima Luna and jadis orchestra reference tubes. It wasn't for me , it's just a speaker that saturated the room with spl . It wasn't for me,...

I would have to concur that Maggies do not have the 'solid' image focus as a well done box speaker. I suspect it may be because of dipole radiation, which lends the air and spacious sound, but also provides strong rear radiation with which the room generates constructive and destructive interference. At times, it almost sounds (to me)  like part of the music is out of phase, which, well it probably is! Keep in mind that conventional speakers are monopole radiators at low frequencies, and dipoles energize the room acoustics much differently. I am very happy with the speakers overall; with good recordings, musical instruments sound more like the real thing than my other speakers.  FWIW a well designed box speaker that has constant directivity and low distortion  will provide a more 'convincing' stereo image than my maggies. They just don't sound quite as "real". Box speakers have resonance and re-radiation issues through the cone that panel speakers avoid - electrostatics and otherwise. Moving the maggies around can help some, but I have not been able to find a convincing "sweet spot".