Am using a Hsu subwoofer with my M1s that I acquired last year. I also used it with my Quad ESL63s. Integration is done thru my Anthem STR preamp and am using Anthem Room Correction up to only 350Hz to deal with bass. I’m very happy with the results.
My reasons for using the subwoofer….
– While the panels reach down to 30 Hz or so, they have a limit to how loud they can get until the speaker membrane strikes the stators – a very ugly sound. I hear it with transients from drum sets that are close mic’d. I’m setting the crossover at 100Hz currently. But tweaking as I go. I listen to some smooth jazz and pop material at 80-85 db. The M1s won’t play full frequency that loud by itself.
– Like the Quads, my M1s are hugely power hungry. Sending low frequencies to the subwoofer takes a lot of load off the panels and lets them scale up more easily.
Even with the subwoofer, sometimes the panels just can’t play where I want them to before breaking up. The sound levels are about what you might hear from the band in a mega church. Not a rock concert.
Interested to hear if others experience this and have found solutions. When I wrote to Dr West about this, he had no help other than suggest I replace my panels, which won’t happen.
Can someone with the PX and Bass Focus panels comment on this? @Bigtwin? How’s it going with your new SLs?