Hi
I have a Marantz DV8300 Universal player that does no bass management for DVD-A (but does for SACD). I have Marantz SR9300 receiver and Polk RM7600 speakers and an SVS 20-39 PCi subwoofer. Would an Outlaw ICBM improve my system for DVD-A and SACD? I have read in reviews that the ICBM improves the system unless the speakers are full range and I am not sure if the RM7600 sat system will qualify as full range speakers.

Thanks

From a brief glance at the RM7600 on Polk's site, the combination of player and speakers looks like an excellent candidate for the ICBM.

Thanks. I was asking because the specs say "full-range sattelites". But I guess ICBM is indeed useful with these.

I'm confused about ICBMs

I have 2 systems. Can someone please help me determine if an ICBM would benefit either of them substantially:

1. 5.1 System:
M&K 750 for the front left, center, and right. M&K tripole surrounds, and a M&K Subwoofer all connected to a Denon 3300 Receiver. I use an old Denon DVD player connected via an optical cable only. This is my movie system, no DVD-Audio, no SACD, just Movie DVDs and TV.

2. Stereo System
Magnepan MMG for left and right, LFM-1 Sub connected to a Outlaw 950. I have a Sony ES SACD player hooked up as my source with both the digital connection for CDs and the Analog connections for SACD. This is my music only system (CDs and SACDs.)

In both cases I have my speakers set to small (in the processor/reciever)and have all of the bass sent to the sub. How would an ICBM change what I already have soundwise?

Thanks

An ICBM would allow you control over the crossover point used as well as give you bass management in signal paths that would otherwise lack it.

The M&K's in your 5.1 system are probably designed to work with a THX-standard 80Hz crossover, which is probably the crossover applied by the Denon for any digital input. To use an ICBM in that system, you would have to have a DVD player with built-in DD and DTS decoders so you could connect it to the receiver via analog cables. Since you have no analog sources that would otherwise not get bass management and since your speakers are designed to work with the crossover point used by the Denon (assuming the Denon does use an 80Hz crossover when speakers are set to small, which I would hope is true), the ICBM probably isn't a good fit.

The stereo system is somewhat similar - you have a digital connection for CD's that gets its bass management in the 950, and the analog connection (presumably to the left and right channels of the six-channel analog input) gets its bass management from the 950's 80Hz analog crossover. You might consider the ICBM in this system as a way to apply a crossover point different than 80Hz in order to get better results with your MMG's (Outlaw actually has a Magnepan edition of the ICBM with a different set of crossover points that were defined by Magnepan for use with their speakers).

Thanks Gonk, you are a great resource to this board.