ICBM gets closer! (1 Viewer)

[Chuck Kent]

Per an e-mail notification, I just verified my ICBM order with Outlaw.
If everything stays on schedule for Outlaw, I hope to have mine in place before the end of October.
I'm looking forward to finally having the best bass since I started in Home Theater!!!

 

[Jim A. Banville]

Damn! I thought you were referring to Afghanistan

 

[Neil Joseph]

Yeah. Get those scuds outta there!!
orangeman
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[John Geelan]

I also got my notification that an ICBM is ready to order for me.
Guess I will get one since I do use a powered Velodyne subwoofer combined with small bookshelf speakers all around which are powered by a Denon 3300 and I have a Panasonic RP91.
JohnG
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[Stephen Dodds]

Unless you are all jumpimg to DVD-A or SACD, what are you hoping to improve that your prepro/receiver doesn't do now?
Steve

 

[Chuck Kent]

The ICBM will be the bass manager of my system.
There are 2 reasons I wanted the ICBM. First, the ability to add SACD or DVD-A and have full bass management and second, have better, more flexible bass management than what my one-size-fits-all choice I now have with my receiver.
In my case, I am going to place the ICBM between my receiver and my 5 channel amp (the ICBM will support 6.1 but I don't run a 6.1 setup.) I will set my speaker setup on my receiver as all Large (with the sub as On.) The ICBM can then be adjusted with one crossover frequency for the mains, one for the center and one for the rears surrounds (one is also available for the rear center(s) too.) All of the filtered bass is neatly folded over to the sub. The sub's input and output volume is also adjustable. Very flexible and all in the analog domain...
For me, it is THE product that I have been wanting (even before SACD and DVD-A) for quite a long time!
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[KeithH]

If you have a multi-channel SACD player, why do you need an ICBM? All multi-channel SACD players, except the Philips SACD-1000, offer bass management. Is it that the multi-channel SACD players don't allow you to dial in the crossover, but the ICBM does?
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[Edited last by KeithH on September 29, 2001 at 10:24 AM]

 

[Chuck Kent]

Keith: While some of the newer versions of SACD and DVD-A players are beginning to arrive with some type of bass management, the ones I'm aware of only offer a simple Small or Large setting. My feelings are that if you want to squeeze the best possible match to your system's sound capabilities, you want your speakers to reproduce the amount of bass that they can easily accomodate and not reproduce the lowest bass they struggle with.
As an example, I run Vandersteen 2 CE Signatures as my mains. Highpassing them at 80, 100, or 120 Hz (where most receivers, processors or SACD/DVD-A players are) just makes no sense to me, since they are rated down to 30 Hz. I have always been convinced that keeping as much bass as (reasonably) possible with each speaker gives a better overall sound. In the case of my Vandersteen's, the ICBM gives me the ability to highpass them at either 40 or 60 Hz. IMO, this will help with the overall system blend between my sub and other speakers.
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[KeithH]

Chuck, no question that the ability to dial in the crossover desirable. I just wasn't aware if the multi-channel SACD players allow you do this or not. There aren't too many DVD-Audio players available at present with any sort of bass management, but all the multi-channel SACD players, with the exception of the Philips SACD-1000, have some kind of bass management.
Being able to dial in the crossover is very nice. My Sony STR-V444ES receiver allows you to changer the crossover in 10-Hz increments independently for the front speaker pair, center speaker, and the rear speaker pair.

Unfortunately, this feature cannot be applied to the 5.1-channel inputs.

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[Chuck Kent]

Keith: To my knowledge, at this point in time, none of the high standard audio players have what we really all need (IMO.) That is, the ability to switch between, say a dish-based 5.1 feed (say HBO or whatever) and an SACD player and have consistent, high quality system speaker blend/bass.
As an example, you are using a Denon 5800 and have everything setup (meaning "small" speakers) based on Denon's 80 Hz crossover frequency. Then you switch to your new Sony SCD-555ES SACD player and all of a sudden the crossover frequency of any "small" speakers you have is now 120Hz. The resulting 40 Hz gap is a serious problem. There is no way for most of us to easily overcome this gap without a fair amount of tweaking.
This is the cool part about the ICBM. One size bass management will pretty much fit all (of course one's system must be able to accomodate the ICBM.) The one glaring thing is that pure 2 channel listeners will need to turn off the sub and bypass the mains filters of the ICBM. But still, it's a quicker and easier fix than the 40 Hz problem above.
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[KeithH]

Thanks, Chuck. Maybe I'll look into the ICBM further.
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[Steve Morgan]

Okay guys. I have the B&K Ref 30 it has good bass management but it does it globally. If I set the crossover for say 70hz. then all speakers are crossed over at that point.I have Von Schweikert VR3.5's and the LCR 35 they are rated in the mid 30's. On order is the new surrounds which also will play to the mid 30's. Would the ICBM benefit me? My subs are Paradigm Servo 15 and SVS 20-39cs.Thanks
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[Chuck Kent]

Steve: IMO, yes.
Try a simple test. Play a variety of music through your mains (set as large) without using the sub. I have a feeling that you'll find (like many others, including me) that the bass just blends better. But, even though this works better for music, it's not the best solution for the hard, driving bass of a good home theater. Lots of loud, deep bass needs lots of power and square inches of driver.
This is where the ICBM can help. By allowing you to choose 40, 60, 80, 100, or 120 Hz for each speaker group (mains, center, surrounds and surround center) you can set the crossover point to a frequency that is low enough to excel at music and yet high enough to let the sub do most of the work for your HT's bass. Plus, it adds the bonus of being in the analog domain. So, it can also do the bass management for an SACD or DVD-A player that would plug into the non-bass managed 5.1 inputs that all of us have on our gear.
Here is the manual as a .pdf 16 pages of good info...
http://pdf.outlawaudio.com/outlaw/docs/icbm_manual.pdf
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