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Magnepan 1.7 owners and subwoofers

Looking for feedback from Magnepan 1.7 (or 1.6 and 3 series) owners and their opinions of different subwoofers. My criteria is musicality, not output. Convenience is important with remote control a plus. I am looking for new with a cost less tha $1500 and $1000 would be better.

I have tried the ported HSU subwoofer with bad results. I went small with a Polk model 2000 mini sub that was better but did not give me the musicality that I was hoping for.

Convenience of having a remote is important. I was constantly adjusting the sub volume when switching from classical to rock music and sometimes between selections of the same genre. I hate reaching over and adjusting blindly controls on the back of subs only to find out once back in your listening chair that it has been set too low or too high. Two of the four subs I am considering (below) have remotes.

Here are four subs that I am currently looking at:
HSU ULS-15
RSL Speedwoofer - size, convience of remote, price and some nice reviews make this one a top choice for me so far
Rythmic F12 Servo
Velodyne Optimum 12 - has remote and highest list price although through Audiophile Liquidators it will be under $1500 delivered.

Other equipment: Wyred 4 Sound STI 500 and DAC 2 and Netgear 9150 music server. Morrow SP 5 speaker cables, Silnote Interconnects.
ronwills
panzrwagn's avatar
panzrwagn
528 posts
 

Most Magnepan-subwoofer setups suffer from what I call 'timbre mismatch', regardless of the crossover and level settings. And that is made worse by subwoofers that are home theater oriented, tuned for output not musicality. Certainly crossovers with a high-pass and lowpass are preferable, boosting power handling and panel output capabilities. However, my headbanger, tweeter melting days are far behind me, so lack of a high-pass function isn't a deal-breaker for me. 

Stick with the hifi version of the subwoofer offerings, and a smaller driver (8") and your timbre match issues will be minimized. REL and SVS, as well as KEF all have great offerings that meet those requirements.

Coincidentally, my experience with both  Magnepan and powered subwoofers goes back almost 50 years, both as an audio engineer and as an audiophile.

 

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ryder
1,690 posts
 

IMO if you want to use a sub for music 2 channel, you should place the sub in a center channel position(between the mains). Its the only way to get it to blend IMO. Sounds fantastic between the mains and can even be set at a high cross over setting

 

IME, I would agree with this. Dead centre between the speakers produced the best result. A caveat, the sub needs to be reasonably high quality. If the sub is poor quality, you will get poor results wherever you plonk it. I learned through the hard way.

musicaddict
370 posts
 

@schubert  I must agree with @dsper  in that there is nothing wrong with W4S amplification and bass control. With a damping factor of 2000 the bass is tight and powerful. Can't imagine it wouldn't do the job with Maggies.

I love my SVS SB-3000 for about $1k and it has remote control. It's sealed and tight. If just running one I'd also opt for center placement for the ability to use a higher low pass frequency if necessary.

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