magnepan 1.6 needs help in the bass

Mr Tennis - I have the Maggie 3.6R's and have found ( after much experimentation, I might add) that you want to go with a sealed box sub, otherwise the bass lags behind the planar midrange too much. I use the Revel B12 Concerta with a short all silver(for speed) sub cable. My speaker cables/interconnects to the amps are a combioned 14 ft, so this also helps with the "speed" issue. The Concerta B12 is perfect with the planars and I would think one would do it for you. I am in a large room, so I needed two of them. The price is right as well - at $995.oo, these are VERY good subs, with a parametric equalizer as a bonus. I have heard teh Rels work as well, but I can tell you that the Hsu Research subs do not blend in well with the planars - I tried a VTF3 and it was WAY too slow. I hope this helps. John

Which ever sub you decide to go with, 60 Hz might be too high for the xover point. In my old largish room, the 1.6s were flat to 40 Hz. If I were you I would run them full range and bring the sub in around 30-35.

Oz

But Mrtennis, what is the true existentialistic meaning of this post :-)

Seriously, having owned a pair of 1.6's I can tell you that they need a s**t load of power to bring out their true bass potential. Minimum that I would consider is 250 wpc [stable, into 4 ohms] for SS amps. Never ran 'em with tubes. I would also recommend a speaker stand [forget who makes the Maggie stands] or fashion some kind of clamp device then anchor studs from the top corners to the wall [doubtful WAF, though!]

I have been happy for years with a single Vandersteen 2Wq with my 1.6s. This is a terrific combination and the vandy has the speed to keep up with the Maggies, as well as tight, tuneful and remarkably unintrusive bass.

The x-over on this sub is such that you must have the ability to place it in the line level signal between your pre- and power amp. It will work with integrateds that have an effects loop or pre-out/power-in loop.

The x-over rolls off the signal below 80 hz that ends up going to your speakers. Conversely, the sub rolls off frequencies as it approaches 80 hz so you get a nice seamless transition with a smooth handoff. The sub actually gets its signal from your amplifier as opposed to the x-over itself. In this way, the sub is working with the same signal as the speakers which is another nice point of integration (since it's essentially part of your speaker system).

You will need to know the input impedance of your power amp should you acquire a 2Wq, as the crossover needs to be matched to that figure--otherwise, your frequency "hand off" will be in the wrong place.

I am pondering adding a second, but only for the fun of it (vs. any need for more bass).

Mrtennis, haven't I told you that you're chasing a chimera? Repent and get thee a fine floorstanding dynamic speaker. But, if you are intent on your quest, some fine stereo subs would be REL or Vandersteen. For predominantly two channel listening you would not need any more than the older Vandy 2W's, which I used with 1.6's at one time. They have been the one constant during the time I have moved through six pairs of mains (Maggie 1.6's; Eminent Technology LFT-8A's (then, two pair of E.T.'s stacked); Canary Audio Zamas, Apogee Calipers, Chapman Audio T-7's (which I still have) and Chapman Audio T-77's).