I would like to respond a bit more here. But first I want to comment to Eldartford's situation with his 1.6 Maggies. Eldartford, you NEED TO BE CROSSING THOSE MAGGIES AT 80 or so, indeed!!! Especially given the delicate nature of those speakers (I know, I've sold them on a retail level for several years!!) The 1.6's need to focus on what they do best, and that's world class clarity, transparancy, midrange, and speed, etc! Bass, most all of it, in an HT context only really works adequately with those speakers deligated to the sub! Plain and simple. If you want to have squashed dynamics with these dynamics, strainted sounding bass, and just plain dammage to your speakers with these Maggies, then just play em full range for HT and see!(I'm talking in general to the masses here.
P.s., for the record, even though I'm not a "planar" speaker fan per se, I think you can't get better sound for the money for gorgeous sound than the 1.6!...very pretty speakers sonically. They do things most others can't anywhere near the price, conceeded. I like what they DO DO WELL!..which is offer a tremendous sonic value to the audiphile...you just can't sit off axis with em, or rock hard on em...that's all..no biggie. But I like 'em!
...Anyway regarding Vedric's stance that he likes his HT system(I think I read that right) to just be his 2 channel system, playing full range, I have tons of experience with that approach. And my comments are these...
...First, my last HT set up in my home has been a 2 cnannel music/HT system for the past several years! I've not gotten around to building a dedicated full blown HT system as of yet, since I'm in the process of a new home where it will reside.
I must say that I've heard WAY WAY WAY too many 2 channel high end systems in my years, and the reality is that there are few and far between stricktly passive 2 channel systems that can really handle a full range DD/DTS signals properly!!!(I say that, assuming one's using an outboard pre/pro to process DD/DTS material, rather than stricktly going through the analog outs of a DVD player, whatever, into the analog in's of a 2 channel preamp!...as using soley the processing in one's DVD player, WILL NOT YEILD YOUR PROPER DYNAMICS AND SOUND FROM YOUR DD/DTS SOURCES!...AND MANY AUDIPHILES DON'T REALIZE THIS!..YOU GOTTA GET A PRE/PRO IN THE CHAIN!). The problems, again,(and you're fooling yourselves if you think your dynamics are "ALL THAT!", AND OR ACCEPTALBE TO PROPERLY PLAY BACK WHAT THE MIXING ENGINEERS INTENDED YOU TO HEAR!) lye in the inability of your standard passive home audiophile speakers, full range or otherwise, to handle the bass information accurately, and without dynamic compression and lack of control!..this is a MAJOR PROBLEM AND SHORTCOMMING OF STANDARD PASSIVE SPEAKER DESIGNS TODAY!
Bass, wich is the hardests thing to control in an audio system, has MAJOR HURDLES TO OVERCOME being reproduced through PASSIVE CROSSOVER NEWORKS that most speakers posses! This is where the ACTIVE POWERED SUB HAS A HUGE ADVANTAGE, IN DAMPING FACTOR, CONTROL, AND DYNAMIC OUTPUT AND RANGE! Infact, I came back from the Hi-fi expo in San Fran this past year, and must have heard several hundred 2 channel only set up's for music. These systems, playing full range dynamic music simply can't hang!..that's the way it is. Infact, achieving true dyanmic transparancy isn't really so possible from passive speakers mostly, especially in the bass reigion! This is where active speakers have a HUGE ADVANTAGE!
Now, back to bass, just take a pair of Def Tech BP2000's, or NHT VT3's, or even ultra high end Avantgard horn speakers with ACTIVE POWERED BASS WOOFERS, and play em full range for movies versus ANY...I REPEAT, ANY standard passive home audio speaker for heavy dynamic, especially HT digital material, and you tell me which one's handle the bass properly!!!!....HANDS DOWN!..IT'S NO CONTEST! The standard home audio passive full range speakers out there can't handle the dynamics and the impact, that's capable from these current DD/DTS soundtracks, nor really demanding bass heavy music material!!!!
I beg to differ (it's all good..no worries..to each his own) with Vedric's stance that he believes that running your full range 2 channel music speaker set up for HT is just as good! I don't think so... And I've done maybe a 1000 home theater set up's in my last 15 years in this business. Infact, as I mentioned, I even pressently use a 2 channel set up for my HT!
Still, let me qualify that you CAN INDEED MAKE A 2 CHANNEL SET work well for HT! Infact, I'll take a quality 2 channel (added, you need a sub to do the bass though) system over a poor sounding 5.1 or better system any day! I prefer quality over quantity for certain. However, STill, as you've gathered, I've found out a few things the hard way over the years. And that's that you need to cross over your mains in a PASSIVE SPEAKER SYSTEM(wich most of us use), and let the active woofer handle the bass! Again, the bass dynamic range, output, and extenstion can't be handled properly by most all the passive speaker designs out there, for truely effective playback. yes, the bass will play down deep full range through a speaker, but it will be squashed, softer, less impactfull, less authoritative, and DEFINITELY less dynamically transparent! THX got this part very very right, and it works! Heck, they won industry awards from the Academy and such for their work....I think they know what they're doing when it comes to movie playback, as well as mixing! But hey, that's just my opinion/experience. To each his own.
And, like I mentioned, those of you(me included)who are doing your DD/DTS HT playback through your 2 channel preamp, without a dedicated outboard DD/DTS processor of some sort, your shorting yourself sonically! The dynamics and pressence, when you bypass the outboard processing just doesn't sound good!...sorry, that's the way it is.
I use an outboard DD/dts/pro-logic pre/pro looped into my 2 channel audio pre-amp's "BYPASS"(you can use Auxilary/dirrect, whateve) for best results in my two channel system. I then cross over the speakers as "small", or "80hz", (even though I can, and have tried different settings like 65hz, 50hz, 40hz, etc, etc), and kick in the powered sub for movies and heavy dyanamic music and such! There's really no comparison. Playing movies with the speakers full range doesn't cut it for movies...not even close.
But, I'm not saying I think everyone is don't it wrong using just their mains full range. But they will blow woofers, get shorted on the dynamic potential, impact, and accuracy of the sound in general for movie playback. But that's what it is. I've done it that way myself many many times, when I had no woofer. But it's not the best way. I'm sorry.
All you out there doing a 5.1 or 7.1 need a sub or two, or more...and you need to do bass managment to get the efficiency, dynamics, and control out of your system! You're effectively biamping your entire system, maximizing each portion of your sound spectrum from a "control" and "efficiency" stand point, and getting the sound you are supposed to by-enlarge! Only full active, high efficiency systems have it better in terms of total dynamic potential. And with movies out there like "The Hulk", "LOTR's", "Star Wars", action flicks in genral, whatever, proper bass distribution and control over the bass is a must if you want to hear more of what's capable from such demanding source material!
Again, as a comparison, go see any of these block buster, highly dynamic movies in the theaters, and then listen to em at home through your full range speakrs at home without proper bass MGMT! You'll be dissapointed I think. "The Hulk" just won't sound like it did in the movie theater...and it should!
Peace