My brother is very happy with his LFM-1 EX, which he's owned for a little more than a year. I haven't listened to music in his system but the subwoofer was very capable on the LFE while watching movies.

Let us know how the Maggies sound when you get them setup.

Rob

Got my 1.7s and had them set-up within 20 minutes of entering my house. Will take a while to get them in their sweet spot and also to break in. New dilemma, I think I could use a bigger TV to sit in between these towers...doh. Will report back as they break into the room.

so 24 hours in and they already sound much nicer than my last pos that i actually called a speaker. I havent had a chance to really push some sound through them yet, but the weekend is near. As mentioned in other posts the soundstage is really wide on these, in my small area I almost had to angle the speakers outward from one another to start getting noticable separation from the L/R. Tuning them into my room is going to be hard, but Ive got time so that will be a process. I love the clarity they provide even without being totally broken in. As expected the bass is pretty mild on these guys, but what bass tones they do put out sound very nice. I am looking into 2 options and curious which should come first. I definitely need a sub and want to get some monoblocks for these speakers to open them up a bit. My current receiver is a Sony 5200es which is putting out 125wpc at 4/8 ohms. Would you recommend I do a sub first or the monoblocks. Truthfully I don't know much about dedicated amps for speakers and would like to hear some feedback what I can expect by getting monoblocks aside from more volume? Otherwise what comes next, sub or amps? After those 2 agendas are squared away I might step up to the plate for the center channel and rears that Magnepan makes and see how these all sound in 5.1

Of course, it's a matter of taste. If it were me, I'd go with the sub first.

Go with the sub first. It will free up some power from your amp at the low end and let it concentrate above the low pass filter point.

nice speakers!

if you get a sub first you can set the crossover on the amp higher and the amp wont have to work as hard. this may give you better over all performance from that receiver.

BUT you will need an amp eventually as those will never sing until you get them the juice they crave. planar speakers are very telling of upstream electronics, so be prepared as the mono blocks will give you the new speaker feeling all over again. all amps are different as are their characteristics. but in general expect detail and separation unlike you have known this far, but over all the dynamics should improve by leaps and bounds and really be the biggest improvement.

all this is dependent on the electronics you decide on, so do your homework. never be in a hurry, due diligence is your friend. the migration to hifi is a personal journey, good luck and have fun.

you have many hrs of aural bliss ahead, congrats.

Most any sub that is clean and accurate, in other words good for music, will be a decent combo with the maggies (I have 1.6s).

The cleaner you can make it, the better. An IB would be the ultimate for blending, followed by dipole woofers, then sealed, then a PR or ported unit.

Obviously there is some overlap amongst different sub alignments, where a really good implementation of one type might be better than another that normally performs a little cleaner, all other things being equal.

I have some dipole subs XOed to my 1.6s, but then also have a pair of big ported subs for the whole system. When listening to music, I treat the 1.6s as full range since with the woofs they are flat to 25, and basically go down to 20 in room. I use the subs for mch music for the .1, and run all the maggies in the system as small for movies, games, etc. with the big subs covering from 80 down (higher for my maggie surrounds).

My big subs are a pretty decent ported design, but there is a pretty noticeable improvement going to the dipoles on music.

My dad has the LFM-1, and it is indeed a very decent ported sub. If you are looking for anything below 20hz, you are likely to have to go ported unless you have some flexibility in the areas of an IB, or big boxes, or big $$$.

I would recommend trying the Dynaudio SUB250's. I'm a huge fan! I posted this in another thread, but its relevant here too:
I am running this exact setup (MMG and 5 2200's) with a Outlaw 990 preamp, and it sounds amazing. I cant believe a speaker this inexpensive sounds this good. On a whim, I bought a set from a fellow at work, just to see what Magnepan was all about. I actually ended up replacing my Dynaudio contours in place of the MMG's - imagine that! The 2200 is an EXCELLENT amp, has never given me any trouble and has driven anything I've owned. They also drove my contours great (which are also known to be very inefficient like the Maggies, albeit less so). In this setup when I want to play it LOUD, I put it at around -10DB, so there is ample room to go even louder. I have run it at 0db and only then did they start to break up, but it so loud you'd never listen to them for any period of time.

The Magnepan MMG and 2200 monoblocks is a match made in heaven. I should note that I pair them with a pair of Dynaudio sub250 subs. I've actually placed the MMG's on top of the subs (they stick out just a hair, but still look good) so they are closer to ear level, and this made a huge improvement. I shoot the MMG's horizontal with a L bracket the previous owner gave me. The MMG's and Dynaudio subs sound really excellent together. The 250's blend well with many speakers because they are so accurate, but not jarringly so, and the MMG is no exception.