Last spring, I was the fortunate recipient of a pair of AR MGC-1 speakers. They came from none other than the designer himself, Ken Kantor.
Ken had carted this pair around with him to shows and demo's, eventually putting them into storage several years back where they languished in a state of disrepair. Rather than let them deteriorate any further, he sought a new owner to restore them and keep them in good use. The cabinets were in poor condition, all surrounds needed replacing, one mid driver was absent, the grills had to be re-fabricated from scratch and they required a special cable to be replicated for the side firing drivers.
The operational issues were addressed quickly and without much trouble, Ken even supplied a pair of replacement mid's at no cost to me. I had the full complement of drivers up and running and sounding wonderful by the end of June 2010. With the help of a friend I was finally able to restore the cabinets and build the grills.
Now they are the centerpiece of my HT system. They are driven by a Pioneer VSX 47TX receiver and an Oppo BDP-83 player for source. Multi-channel playback is accomplished by running the center and sub to the fronts and surrounds to the side firing drivers. 2-channel stereo is supplied via a Squeezebox v.3 and Vortexbox Appliance server. Power is handled with a Panamax 5300.
The last piece is the MGC-1e, which was the amp and controller for the side firing drivers. The unit I have is non-functional and is displayed only for historical significance.
