Thanks for all your suggestions! I will figure out a way to make replacement stands along the lines you have suggested. JoeE's tweak should be easy to check out too. By the way, do Magnepan give you a set of dimensioned drawings if you ask nicely, or do I just wait until the speakers get here and measure them myself?

When people on this forum talk about 'dealing with the first reflection from the side wall' what exactly do they imply? Is this

(A) a point on the side wall that's midway between the speaker's position and the listening position, i.e. where the incident and reflected waves travel the same distance, or

(B) is it a point where these distances may be unequal?

My living room is T-shaped, roughly 13 feet wide x 12 feet high x 30 feet long with a dining space opening out on one side around 10 feet from the front wall. I have placed my Audience 50s using the Cardas rule, and they're around 5.5 feet from the front wall.

In this position, if A above is true, there is no first reflection from one of the side walls because there is no wall at all. I have a three-seater couch placed along the other side wall and I guess it would absorb the first reflection no matter whether A or B is true. But because the MMGs are taller than my current speakers, I may have to experiment with some additional absorbing material for them.

Thanks for all your advice. I will be ordering the MMGs next week. I guess the fun starts when they arrive!