# Maggies and IB Bass?



## mayhem13 (Feb 2, 2008)

:dontknow::dontknow:A friend of mine recently purchased a new home and was thinking to add a dedicated HT in the basement. His current setup is for critical music use-a pair of MMGs and an old 15" CV ported sub. Since the room is adjacent to a 2 car garage, i was thinking of doing two IB manifolds on either side of the proposed screen wall with the maggies in front of the manifolds, each maggie about 12" in front both masking the IB from view and allowing the LF to pass through the panel. XO would be around 100hz and i'm figuring on a DCX to add a little delay to the IB for smoother integration. Before i sell him on this idea, are there any critical flaws in the design. My concern is the effect the IB will have on the dipolar radiation of the rear wave of the maggies directly inline with the output of the IB??? Also can IBs be stereo or would there be cancellations involved in the 'enclosure' ? :dontknow:


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## Anthony (Oct 5, 2006)

Hmm, interesting question.

Well for what it's worth: I have had Maggies for 8 years now and have had them paired with a dipole and a sealed sub (and heard them demo'd with a passive radiator sub). Each of the subs had a different character to them, but none seemed to affect the sound of the Maggies. Maggies sing in the midrange to high end.

As for IB -- I don't see any particular problems other than placement. That's the biggest non-starter for a lot of people. You have to get the placement right the first time. As someone who has lugged 100+ lb subs all over the room looking for that perfect spot, the though of having to get it perfect in one shot is a little intimidating. But I don't see any reason monopole bass would hurt the performance of the Maggies.

Just my 2 cents. Good luck.


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## Guest (Oct 1, 2008)

Anthony said:


> As for IB -- I don't see any particular problems other than placement. That's the biggest non-starter for a lot of people. You have to get the placement right the first time.


I thought that was the great thing about IBs, that placement was less of an issue, as long as they are not in the rear of the room. dual IBs manafolds in the front should work very well. I want IB!

Russ


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## steverc (Jan 5, 2008)

I run four 18 inch woofers mounted in the center of ceiling two feet from the front wall along with five Magnepan MGIIIa speakers (see the pictures at http://www.kn7f.com/Theater/Finished/ ). This setup rocks; of course the subs are great for movies :hsd: but what it did for music I'm not sure I can adequately describe. What Maggies do for the human voice the IB sub does for the bottom end. The Maggies' bottom end isn't bad (quality vs quantity) especially when compared to most speakers but when compared to the addition of the subs...it's like night and day! 

Have you ever looked in an unkempt aquarium full of algae? You can tell there's fish in there but you're just not sure what kind...that's regular speakers and most subs. Now picture those HDTV demo movies where they film underwater scenes in tropical oceans in crystal-clear water with all those bright colored fish swimming everywhere in and out of coral reefs.:rofl: Sorry for the corny analogy but it's hard to describe how something sounds. The first time I listened to "Long Distance Runaround" from Yes' "Fragile" DVD-audio disk I was amazed at how deep and fast the bass was but it was just a muddy jumble. Then, when I heard it with the IB sub I was amazed all over again because I could hear every note no matter how fast it was played. I can hear the shape of every note, of every drum hit, the attack, the decay - it's all there! I hear new details in old music.:jiggy:


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## mayhem13 (Feb 2, 2008)

Thanx for the feedback all and nice room you got there Steve. I guess the only problem i can find is the ability of the low freq from the IB to pass through the maggies for once the IB is in place, there won't be any moving of it LOL and the proposed screen wall won't allow for moving the maggies. The only other option would be to scratch the maggies and go with a planar dipole array at that point. Once 8 15"s are purchased there won't be any turning back ! LOL.


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