Scott is absolutely right here. I have a Magnepan Edition ICBM, which I used with a CC1 center channel. The MGCC1 has little response below 150Hz, which is why the Magnepan Edition was custom-designed for this speaker with a higher crossover in the center channel. As far as I can tell, there is no difference in the crossover slopes or any other aspect of the ICBM's (excellent) performance.

Because of mulitple blown fuses on my CC1 (from very loud center channel transients on movie soundtracks at high volume), I wound up pulling it and putting my old Velodyne center back in. The ICBM works beautifully, but the lowest crossover that I can use for the center channel is 80Hz (2X the 40Hz shown on the center channel crossover knob). That's just OK with me, since my center should be crossed over there anyway. However, if you have a higher-performance center channel that works well down into the 50-60 Hz range, the Magnepan Edition wouldn't be an ideal solution. As far as I can tell, the only reason to get a Magnepan edition would be if you used a Magnepan CC1 or CC1, or had a different center channel that you wanted to cross at 80, 120, 160, 180, 200 or 240Hz. If you have a full-range center channel (40Hz or below), you could always just put the center selector on the ICBM in bypass with no ill effect. The newest Magnepan Center, the CC3, operates down to 80Hz, so a standard ICBM would work fine. The MMG-C (direct mail from Magnepan), operates down to 100Hz, so a normal ICBM would be perfect there, too.

In case you're wondering about the Magnepan CC1, it has phenomenal detail and works very well with my MG 1.6s, but is clearly overworked for very dynamic movie soundtracks at high volume. It is an excellent choice for SACD / DVD-A playback, but gives up the ghost when asked to deal with sharp, wide-frequency transients in action movies. In all other situations, it is beautiful. In the vast majority of soundtracks, it never had any problem. The difficulty arises when you listen to movies with extremely wide dynamic ranges, combining softer dialogue with loud transients hard-mixed to the center channel. I found that it would pop the max allowable 4Amp slow-blow fuse during explosions, impacts, etc. in movies like Gladiator, Return of the King, etc. If it was happening once every few weeks, I wouln't worry about it, but two or three times in the same film is a pain in the keester. Of course, I could always just turn the volume down or limit the dynamic range on my processor, but where's the fun in that?! Hey - I moved out of an apartment and bought a house mostly so I could listen to my stereo as loud as I wanted to, which shows you where my priorities lie!

It wasn't a problem while I was driving it with my Yamaha RX-V1200 receiver, since there just wasn't enough power to drive it that hard before the amp clipped. When I went to a separates (B&K Ref 30 and an M200 driving the center), it just couldn't handle it. The Ref 30 has replaced the ICBM in HT bass management duties, due to it's excellent notch filter and processing, but the ICBM is still the much better choice for multi-channel SACD and DVD-A bass management. I'm a HUGE fan of Magnepans in the rest of the system, with MG 1.6qr in the front and MMGs as surrounds, but the CC1 is a bit of a disappointment here. I'm curious to see if anyone owning a CC3 or MMG-C has had a similar problem, since I've been tempted to move my CC1 to the rear center and get a better front than my Velodyne. Any Outlaws out there have an opinion?