Hello,

I am putting together a new home theater system (primarily for music) based around Maggie MC1s and a CC3 center. I ordered an ICBM and whilst talking with the guys at outlaw, mentioned that I had been leaning towards getting a Velodyne DD-10 sub.

Has anyone used the LFM-1 subwoofer with Maggies?

Cheers.
Alan

Heh...I've been using an LFM-1 with my Maggies now for a grand total of two days. I've had an LFM-1 since it came out, but my Maggies just arrived this weekend, and I've been slowly making cables and replacing my 14-year-old Infinity setup while re-arranging my entire audio rack.

So far, I've got the 1.6QR L and R mains and the CC3 hooked up, along with the LFM-1. Considering that I've done maybe ten to twenty minutes of pseudo-calibration with my Radio Shack sound meter, they sound great. I've mostly been listening to two channel (duh!) but since I added the center I've been listening to SACDs in glorious 3.1 sound; kind of like having a BLT without the B.

My room is 20x10, and I've got the mains against a short wall. I used to have the LFM-1 in a corner, but I moved it to an open part of the room, and the bass suddenly got much tighter. The 1.6/QRs I got have decent bass, but for my taste in music I need that extra "oomph" for kick drums and bass. I've crossed over everything at 80Hz via my 950 preamp and like I said, so far, so good.

My remaining setup consists of two more 1.6QRs for surround side L and R, and a pair of MC1s for rear surrounds, all of which are still in the box until later in the week after I route cable via the wall and/or buy those things at my local hardware chain to run them along the moulding.

To get back to your original question, I can offer that at my local Maggie dealer, I auditioned three- MC1, 12 and 1.6. The MC1 and 12 series all required a sub for my taste, and I was using a very small sub each time, maybe about half the physical size of the LFM-1. Sorry, but I've forgotten the names/brands as I wasn't too interested in the subs there. They were all side firing and did okay, but I'll stick with the LFM-1. I specifically remember the bass punch not being the same at the dealer as what I get at home with my LFM-1 on tracks from Gaucho, Peter Gabriel's Up, or other SACD discs I took with me.

During my speaker trials the past six months(!) I got to hear several setups. My second choice would have been B&W 700 series, but even then their sub didn't quite do it for me as the LFM-1 has. I think that you'd have to double the price of the LFM-1 to get the performance. I've heard better subs than the Outlaw of course, but the cost was just too much for me to justify when the LFM-1 does what it does as advertised. If you really need the 20-25Hz for movies where worlds/cars/people blow up every five minutes, go for it and spend the extra $$$. Since I'm 90/10 music to movies, the LFM-1 works great for me.

Hope this helps!
Marty

Goalie,

Any reason why you went with 1.6's instead of MMGs? I've got a half dozen MMGs on the way for my theatre system. They'll be replacing Dahlquist mains and Definitive Technology surrounds and center.

Magnepan offers a pretty generous upgrade plan. I really liked the 3.6, but they were just way too (physically) large for my room.

Cheers,

Hate to follow up my own post...hehe

Magnepan's factory is apparently closed for vacation and couldn't get me the MMGs in the time frame I needed. So I picked up 1.6's from a local dealer. They're being delivered in a couple of days. I absolutely love the 3.6, but I just can't convince my wife to deal with their imposing physical size. Sigh...

Cheers,