Subwoofer Advice

Not a good idea. The KEFs are quite small. The next best place would be in corners.

Now you have no crossover. So, you would take an output off your preamp and run it to the KEFs using the low pass filter in the KEFs.

Once you have the MiniDSP, you would set up the crossover in the MiniDSP and take a digital output to the Benchmark then balanced outputs from the benchmark to the KEFs.

Yes, the MiniDSP will improve the performance of the KEFs alone. You can always add subs later. Two 10" woofers is not going to project anything below 50 Hz with and degree of authority. With the KEFs you will have 4 purpose designed 9" drivers.

Not at all, you are going to use them. The M1 will drive your Coda Amp and the Benchmark will drive the KEF amplifiers. The SHD Studio will provide the crossovers, room control and bass management as well as streaming and source selection like any other preamp. 

@navyachts The Coda looks like a fine amp for the MLs. I would not change that. The SHD does not show an amp with the subs because most subwoofers have a plate amp installed in the subwoofer. You would use the Benchmark DAC 3B to drive the subs. If you get a MiniDSP you would disable all processing in the MLs and run them flat, the MiniDSP will take care of everything else. 

@navyachts  Have ML lower the boost point from 100 Hz down to 80 Hz and maintain the volume at 20 Hz. Rooms are always a problem from bad to terrible.

The M1 is really a DAC and a very good one. Your current speakers are better. You can make any speaker "active" with the right preamp. What I would do in your situation is get a MiniDSP SHD Studio use your M1 on the main speakers and get a less expensive DAC like a Benchmark to run subwoofers. With your system I would get two KEFs and place them inside the MLs right up against the wall. With the MiniDSP get the UMIK 2 (much better). MiniDSP uses DIRAC live,the easiest of all the room control and bass management systems to use. Dirac live will walk you right through the measurement routine, just follow the yellow brick road. The MiniDSP has a digital equalizer built in that is self explanatory and will allow you to make adjustments. You can make your system sound any way you want. I have set up two systems with SHDs so I can handle any problems you might have.

I do not know what amplifier you have. I would like to see either a Parasound amp on the less expensive side or a Pass or Bricasti amp on the more expensive side. The Bricasti M25 or a pair of M28s would be perfect and these amps are the most indestructible amps I have ever seen. Even I can't blow them up. 

@brunomarcs Snakes? Sorry about that. I will give you a different link, maybe this will work. https://imgur.com/user/mijostyn/posts Yes, there is a driver in both ends. the interior volume is 2.15 cubic feet. 0.5 cubic feet are taken up by driver leaving 1.65 cubic feet total. 0.825 cubic feet is a little larger than one of these drivers calls for, lowering the Qts of the subwoofer. This was a wild guess on my part given the interaction of the two drivers being in the same cavity. Uncorrected they are down only 3 dB at 20 Hz at 6 inches with a very flat curve up to 0 dB at 100 Hz where they are cut off. Efficiency is about 89 dB by coarse estimation. As a system the four subwoofers are spaced along the front wall to form a line source. This matches the power radiation of my main loudspeakers and limits room effects. Because the array is horizontal it sends no radiation towards the side walls and in my media room there is essentially no rear wall. The next solid wall is 75 feet away. Consequently, the bass is very event throughout the room with maybe a 3 dB barrier boost at the side walls. 

I stock Walnut, Cherry, South American Mahogany, Maple, Gabon ebony and Cocobolo. Some I source myself, some is kiln dried from a local supplier. I buy in large quantities because it is much cheaper and I love looking at big piles of wood. I get turning blanks from local tree surgeons and I steal burls from the woods around my house 

@grislybutter The Balanced Force series are much better. They are not perfect, but they are better than most. The enclosure creates distortion in two ways, shaking and vibrating. Both types occur around certain frequencies. Shaking is caused by unopposed driver forces. When the cone is pushed forward the enclosure is pushed backwards. This is completely cured in balanced force designs. Then there is vibration in the walls of the enclosure. This is not so easy to stop. It takes intelligent design, over construction and the right materials. The problem for commercial manufacturers is this is expensive to do and makes their products uncompetitive in the markets they serve. The Magico Q series subs cost $36K!  

@big_greg You are right, this is a diversion, but @navyachts problem has been successfully addressed and his interest has been diverted to the subwoofer question. I am nowhere near the most intelligent person on this website, but I have been using subs with ESLs since 1978 and building subs since 1987. Experience being the teacher that it is I feel qualified to deal with his situation. ESLs are like the most beautiful girl you wish you never met. It is easy to make them sound terrible putting additional requirements on associated equipment, particularly amplifiers and subwoofer systems. 

Making deep bass accurately is very difficult because the laws of physics are stacked against us. Bass is also vague relative to midrange, it not as easily localized if at all and the timbre of bass instrument is determined by their contributions to the midrange. I cross to my high frequency transformer 500 Hz 2nd order and with everything else turned off you can still clearly make out most bass instruments. Synthesizers are the only exception I know of. A great subwoofer system is felt rather than heard. To get the maximum "feel" out of a subwoofer system you have to run it up to 80-100 Hz, painfully close to it becoming obviously audible. Doing so requires very steep slopes, above 10th order to minimize the subwoofer systems contribution to the midrange. Such steep slopes are only practical digitally. You can cross to the sub much lower and use a shallower slope, but you miss out on a lot of the feeling that goes with percussion and bass instruments. Anyone who has been to a live performance in a smaller Jazz club like the Blue Note or Birdland in NYC knows what I am talking about. Recreating that kind of bass in a residential environment takes a lot of power, a lot of subwoofer and digital equalization. Most systems are down by at least 6 dB, usually much more when they get down to 20 Hz. This is at the listening position, not one meter. To get realistic bass in most rooms requires adding at least 10 dB sloping up going down to 20 Hx. That requires 10 times the power! Another big problem occurs in the time domain. It is important that the signals from the various speakers arrive to you at the same time and in phase if that "feel" is to remain intact. You can move speakers around till you are blue in the face,you will never achieve the accuracy of a measurement microphone and digital delay capability. In many cases the correction is done by computer, even better. All this tech is now readily available and at a reasonable price. A $950 MiniDSP SHD Studio and two good quality DACs like Benchmark Media Systems will do the job for most systems. Such a set up will turn a run of the mill Mid Fi system into a stunning performer. Going up the ladder is Anthem and ARC followed by Trinnov and finally DEQX. 

@big_greg you think? Just because your subs are not at max volume does not mean they do not resonate. Some enclosures are better than others, but the only commercial subwoofer that are virtually resonance free is the Magico Q series subwoofers and they are balanced force. There is no other commercial subwoofer you can integrate with ESLs satisfactorily. They all stick out like a sore thumb. All the subwoofers I have ever made except the final model have stuck out like sore thumbs. In addition you can not satisfactorily integrate subwoofer with a 2 way crossover and digital signal processing.

What you are use to hearing is satisfactory to you. My problem is that the sound I was and am getting is never satisfactory to me. That is a curse that nobody needs. Look what it did to me https://imgur.com/gallery/building-resonance-free-subwoofers-dOTF3cS

@navyachts About 3 feet, but do yourself a favor and be happy with your newly programmed MLs. Don't stress your finances. Save up and when you have more than enough, go for broke.

@navyachts If you really are attached to ESLs (I certainly am) The Sound Labs 545s give you 45 degrees of horizontal dispersion without curving the diaphragm which is a very non linear approach. This is why ML has to cross out of the ESL portion at 250 hz, to prevent the diaphragm from distorting. The 545 does not have this problem, but IMHO still benefits from crossing over to subwoofers at 100 Hz. You will get better bass, reduce Doppler distortion and greatly increase your headroom. 105 dB is attainable this way with the right amplifier, louder than anyone needs to go. If you were crazy and wanted more, go with 645s. If you want a full range line source which gives you a more powerful system with larger more life like imaging go with 645-8s which is what I use. These are 8 feet tall and have a terrible WAF. The 545s will sneak by. You will certainly notice more detail in bass instruments. The journey never ends. Most of us are damped by finances, but as soon as the money comes in 

@navyachts Yamaha NS 5000s? What you really need are a pair of Sound Labs 545s and Subwoofers. If you get the subwoofers for your MLs the switch will be easy.

@navyachts That is quite the combo, Alice in Chains and Herb Albert. The Grunge seems to be serious bad luck. There were suicides in all three bands. Probably a good thing to stick with Herb Albert. You should try Fourplay, Bob James band, Smooth Jazz at it's best. 

@big_greg Turn up the volume on your SVS subs with a bass heavy number and put your hand on the subwoofer. That vibration you feel is distortion you are hearing. Using two opposing drivers to cancel out Newtonian forces is one way to limit that vibration you feel. With proper enclosure construction and balanced force design you can create a subwoofer that does not vibrate at all excepting for the driver's cone  https://imgur.com/gallery/building-resonance-free-subwoofers-dOTF3cS

There you go. Do exactly what I said with the deep bass boost. You have to dive in. Just keep the volume low and you can not hurt anything. There is also nothing you can't undo. 

So, you like it better now? I have a new preamp processor and I have been using DSP since 1996. It still took me some god awful number of trials to get things working reasonably well. Part of the problem is I have a strange setup. Anyway, The manual is not always right because there is no standard system/room. It is a steep learning curve and trial and error are frequently the only way forward. 

Thanx! Let me know how it works out.

@navyachts I was led to believe the speakers had tone controls on them. This is wrong? If white is what you want then the KEFs are it. I have listened to them in a system with Harbeth P3s and they are excellent. The two 9" drivers are equivalent to one 12" driver which should match your MLs perfectly. I really like the ML balanced Force subs also, but in your instance I think they are overkill. 

@navyachts There is not a single driver subwoofer that can match a balanced force subwoofer for accuracy. That leaves only KEF, Magico, Martin Logan and myself as options and I am not building any more. See building resonance free subwoofer thread below.

@navyachts I've been saving for HiFi gear all my life.

@navyachts The ML Balanced Force speakers are great, but they are even larger and more expensive. I think the KEFs will do the job, fit in better and cost about 1/2 as much. Warning, one sub is never a good solution. You are better off without any.

If you do a lot of listening from one listening position just keep the microphone at the listening position for all measurements. If you tend to listen more as background music then use the 5 locations as per instructions. Now, you have level controls for bass and midbass. Run the program then turn the midbass down just a little and the bass up as far as it will go. Then start decreasing the bass a little at a time until things sound right to you. I am not sure if this will work, but give it a try. It costs you nothing. A thing to remember is a balanced sound at lower levels with have too much bass and treble when you turn it up. I recommend balancing the system at the loudest levels you listen. When you turn it down the bass and treble will seem a little low unless you have a loudness control. 

@navyachts I do not know that program. You have to jump in and read the manual. If you give me the exact product name I might be able to download the manual and give you a hand. You might want to look into those KEF subwoofers in the meanwhile.

@navyachts OK, I reviewed your pictures. Does the Anthem program have EQ capability? Can you increase certain frequencies manually? I assume you measure the speakers with a microphone? You should put sound absorption directly behind the speakers. It will improve your imaging and dampen sibilance. 

I also use ESLs and have been since 1978 along with subwoofers. If we can advance the low end 10 dB at 20 Hz keep it flat to 60 Hz then curve it down to zero dB at 100 Hz you should be fine without added subwoofers as long as the drivers and amps can handle the volumes you like to listen at. If not then we have to fill in with subwoofers from 80 Hz down. There are not many commercial subwoofers that are clean enough for your system. Martin logan has its balanced force subs, but you will need two subs. Do not even think about one. In your situation I think the best subs would be the KEF KC 92. They are also balanced force and you can get them in white which would fit your decor. They are quite small. I would put one right next to each ML, either side will do. I am hoping you will not need them. 

Bricasti Design just loaned me an M1 DAC to play with. Nice unit! I live about 30 minutes from the factory in Shirley, Mass.  

What is the size of the room the MLs are in? Did you get the Anthem room correction for it? Does it have a bass EQ function?  I can help you figure this out, but I need this info first. It is possible you may not need a subwoofer at all. 

Mike