Martin Logan Abyss with Magnepan 1.6/QR's???

Duke, thanks for that reply. Very informative.
I'm leaning towards a single Vandersteen to start and then adding a second if I feel the need.
I'm not very concerned about coherence since I've had reasonable success even with the sluggish SVS sub.
Still, the sound of the Abyss and it's smaller cousin (Dyanamo) impressed me to consider them.

Cheers.

I don't have any experience with either the Abyss or the Dynamo, but assuming they are comparable in quality (not quantity), two smaller subs will usually integrate better with dipoles than a single larger sub.

You see, dipoles inherently have smoother in-room response than monopoles do.

Among monopoles, in general the more low-frequency sources you have spread around the room, the smoother the net in-room frequency response. With only a single sub, there's a pretty big discrepancy between what's happening in the upper bass and what's happening in the deep bass. Two small subs are better than one big one in this regard. With four properly set-up small monopole subs, you can get a very good blend with a pair of dipoles. That's probably the point of diminishing returns.

One other thing - make sure that the crossover of your sub(s) rolls off steeply, like at 24 dB per octave. In my experience, it is harder to get a gentle slope low-pass filter to blend well with main speakers that have a fairly steep roll-off (Maggies roll off at 18 dB per octave on the bottom end). Of course, Richard Vandersteen would disagree with me.

Best of luck to you,

Duke

i own a pair of 1.6s. i would not use a sub for music. the loss of coherence is a problem.>>>

Sounds like you have a problem with your room. I've heard two subs (Vandersteen and REL) match well with the 1.6's. Vandersteen is my top pick after hearing a pair with the 1.6's. But I also heard the Martin Logan Abyss sub with the Martin Logan's and was impressed by it's tightness and speed. It might also be a good match for the Maggies.
If you're having coherence issues with a good sub against different driver types, it's almost always a room/placement problem and in some cases (and expense) can be tuned correctly.
From what I've heard it's unlikely that the new Magnepan sub will be of any use to the 1.6.

Cheers,

Robert

i own a pair of 1.6s. i would not use a sub for music. the loss of coherence is a problem.

wait for magnepan to perfect a subwoofer. i heard an early version at ces.

I have Maggie 1.6s for the front and MG12s for the rear in my system. I have narrowed my sub search down to Nola Thunderbolts. They are less than the MLs. Check out the Absolute Sound review of the Maggie/Nola system
Happy listening...