ideal sized mid for 2?

Mock it up with poles and bits of string cut to the size of the various shelters. Perhaps cloth.

I say we take off an nuke the entire base from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

The HMG Ultamid 2 fits 2 of us, 6'1 each, perfectly, but just. Room for pack at feet.

Derrick

I find the now gone Golite Shangri-La 3 perfect for two. The hexagonal footprint provides room for two at each side of the pole and room for their gear on each one’s side. This way, both campers have direct access to their stuff without bothering each other. Both also have unobstructed access to the door. The occupants take the central area, where there’s more vertical room, and the gear takes the perifery, working also as a good windbreak, in case of wind coming under the fly. You can find a better explanation with some pics in a recent entry in my website.

I don’t think you can find a Shangri-La anymore but there are alternatives that are nearly identical:
Luxe Trail Peak
Nigor Wickiup 3

Square mids will be either too small for 2 plus gear or too big in a way that somewhat wastes space. A hexagonal shape of the Shangri-La size is just perfect.

I suspect you will be fine with the 8×8. My big tent is a Golite SL5 which is 9'6" x 9'6" and sleeps 4 easily with lots of extra room at the head / foot directoion.

MLD or Oware might be able to customize your mid by adding a second door.

Dave C really likes the new Seek Outside BT-2 (review here).

If I were in the market for a larger ‘mid (I really love my Duomid–but it’s really a 1.5 person shelter), I’d be seriously looking at this.

Edit: link problems

I wouldn't do the 8×8. a 6×9 is great for two, or the 9×9 for real spaciousness. A shangri-la is a great size as well – I have a different shelter with same footprint and it is just as described above – just right for two and gear with the gear handy at your side.

I have a couple suggestions for you. The first is the Locus Gear Hapi. The size is in between a Duomid and a Supermid. The doors are positioned so that each person can get in and out independent of the other person. The best feature IMO is that the pole can be set up either in the middle (1 trekking pole) or, for more room, in inverted V mode (two poles, also giving more stability). Comes in either Silnylon or CTF3 'cuben'. Shipping from Japan is free and only takes 3-5 days, IME.

The second is a shelter I currently own, but may be selling soon to get the Locus Gear Hapi: the Mountain Hardwear Hoopla 4. The initial run of these were not that great (search for reviews of it here), but it's been revised and is quite nice now. Improvements include less weight (23oz + 6oz center DAC pole) and it being fully seam taped (no more water leakage issues). Because of the center hoop you get a ton of headroom and usable space due to the steep walls. Setup is quite easy and the door also allows for easy access. It's a mansion for 2 people + lots of gear or doable even for 3, but not as comfortable.

A novel feature of the Hoopla 4 is that you can forego the center pole and hang it from the apex to a tree or some other mounting point above you.

Both of these shelter options also can also be used with a mesh inner, via each respective manufacturer. MHW also makes a bathtub floor/footprint for the Hoopla 4 so you can use it with just the silnylon outer shell as a sort of semi-full protection shelter without the weight of a full inner.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think I'm going to try and find a used GoLite Shangri La 3 on gear swap. But, the BT-2 looks like an interesting alternative if I can't find one.

Other ideas I think would be better for 2 people:

SMD Haven Tarp: 18oz in sil
Tarptent Stratospire 2: fly weighs 25oz

These tarps both have inner net tents available and would give each person their own door/vestibule. You could even open the doors without getting rain/snow on your sleeping area, a problem most single-pole pyramid tarps have.

An 8×8 will be fine for two people. The MLD SuperMid is, what?, more like 9×9 and it's a palace for three.

Advice: sleep with heads and feet in a corner, not against a side.

Good choice. I find it about perfect for two + gear.

I have a 9×9 Oware mid that's quite spacious. I was thinking I'd like something close to the same height (around 6') but a bit narrower and with the door on the short side. Does anyone know of a mid in production that's about 9×7 (other than HMG, cuben is too much $ for me). This seems like it would be a great size for two people, I think the old Chouinard pyramids were about this size. Thanks

I had a Tigoat Vertex 5 and found it ideal for two plus some gear. Being conical, I found it more wind resistant than rectangular Mids. Only sold it cause I went cuben.
(Ruta Locura Lone Peak)

I went through a similar process, with lots of help in a long thread I started (something like "shelter for two in the desert").

I ended up with silnylon MLD SpeedMid, and like it, though with only one trip so far, in the Grand Canyon, I only set it up once (in the field) and only resided in it about 15 minutes (a dawn rainshower). But it seemed plenty big for me (5'10") and GF (5'5"). And it handled some pretty big gusts well, despite being tied down only with 7" titanium stakes at the corners (only thing that can penetrate the ground there) with big rocks on top of them, plus the mid-side tie out anchored to a rock on the upwind side. For that short a stay, at least, condensation was not an issue, nor it did it leak despite the fact I hadn't gotten around to seam-sealing it. Right now, it weighs about 26oz with 8 tie-outs of 2mm Lawson glowire, plus seamsealing (I used about half the tube of SilNet), plus mid-panel tieouts he added (for free, no less); so I guess if, being generous, I said the glowire was 2oz, the seamseal 1oz, and the mid-panel tieouts 1oz, perhaps the 22oz published weight is correct.

I was deciding between this one and the OWare 8×8. But I decided I didn't want to have to hassle with a pole extender, or lashing two poles together (GF and I only use one each, and I sometimes go solo). I did not consider OWare 9×9, because hiking mostly in desert, I rarely actually use the shelter, it's pretty much "emergency" (considering rain an emergency).

Late contender was the Locus Hapi, and I think I would have gone for it, were it not for the relatively long lead-time. I like the fact it's about as long as Speedmid and OWare 8×8, but a bit narrower, as my main reservation about my SpeedMid is its width and campsite required. It's a mystery to me why MLD does not make something that's wider than the DuoMid (which sounds like it's not really practical for two people, despite the name), but not as wide as the SpeedMid/SuperMid.

Good luck.