Aaron,

I use 5 Mackie powered monitors (plus the lfm-1) and,let me tell ya, it's great for music and ht. Of course, even though the Mackie's offer xlr inputs, I'm using unbalanced custom made cables cut to the exact length I need. My understanding is that, under a certain number of feet, balanced lines don't add any audible improvement. I certainly don't have any issues with using the 2-conductor 1/4" phone plug inputs on the Mackie's. I do use a "Brick" line conditioner/spike protector which really seems to add a "black" background to the audio...

Jay