Yes, I have. Actually I've been very busy. Here's what I've done so far:

- Replaced all my speakers with Maggies (MG12s, MMG-C, and MMG-W)
- Replaced the Outlaw Amp with the Rotel
- Replaced the Preamp with a McCormack


I just finished replacing the rear speakers last night (it turns out that the wall measurements in the Magnepan manual are off, BTW). I don't like the sound of the Rotel as much (a bit on the mushy side of neutral), but it eats up half the watts as the Outlaw, so I'll live with it. Anyhow, I'm trying to use the Spectron for the fronts, so that won't be as much of an issue for stereo listening. The reason the Spectron is not there now is because I need RCA-XLR adapters and it has no 12v trigger. Maybe I'll have to rethink this part a little.

The McCormack is a nice upgrade. Super simple to set up and very good sound, definitely an upgrade from the Outlaw 970 pre/pro. For 2-channel music, it's a bit lush, certainly more so than my Plinius pre, but that gives movies a bit of extra weight and authority, so that's also something I can live with. I only have one source right now, so I don't need an HDMI switchbox. The McCormack remote is a little chitsy, but I will probably get a Harmony remote for the whole system in the near future. One other drawback is that it doesn't have a remote on/off from standby. You have to go over to it and turn it on. My room is small, but jeez, you'd think McCormack could have added that in.

For the source, I'm using a crappy HK player that is just OK for sound and a bit less OK for picture - in short, my non-upconverting Sony SACD/DVD player runs circles around it. On the other hand, the HK does upconvert (to 1080i only), and has HDMI output, which is what I need to run the video over Cat5 to the TV on the other side of the room. It also has passable bass management and channel calibration, a must for the plain-vanilla options on the McCormack. If the Oppo universal has good SACD, that's going to be the next upgrade.

For the speakers, I'm toying with Magnepan's suggestion to run the front L&R signals through the sub and let it handle all the bass management. It's a bit odd to do it that way, but they claim it makes for a cleaner integration of the severely hobbled center channel (100Hz-16Khz) with the larger speakers. Theoretically, this should only work with a processor, because you loose all the bass intended for the center and rear MMG channels, but how much bass are we talking about, really? I have to do more testing and see what I like better.

I will say, though, that the many options on the SVS PB12+, really come in handy in a screwy setup like this one. I'm still dealing with a bit of brightness on the MG12s, mostly because my room is too small for them. In hindsight, the MC1s would have been the better option, but finding a pair of those on the used market is pretty rare, whereas the MMG12s are popping up all the time. The room problem, however, is only temporary, since I don't plan on staying in this house too much longer (we're bursting at the seams).

I sold my room correction panels when I moved to the smaller room last year, so I need to
re-invest in some of those. Right now, the MG12's are right up against the wall and they really need some damping behind them. The center channel, according to Magnepan, should also have some damping behind it. I'll probably ask around in the DIY forum what others have done, because I'm really not ready to buy panels at retail prices right now. I know it sounds petty, but I just don't see why they should be that much.

Anyhow, that's what I've done so far. The sound is very good, even with the room issues. Once I get the Spectron and Oppo in there, I'll spend more time fine-tuning everything.