I wanted to share some of an audiophile newbie’s first impressions and experiences at setting up an Epic 80/500 5.1 system and dedicated apartment theater room using the equipment listed in my signature. Please share your experiences with Axiom/HT setups in small rooms or apartments so I and others may learn and hopefully improve what we are doing.
EP500 - Forget what the manual says about setting the volume to 9 o’clock if you live in an apartment. Try 6-7 o’clock to start with. The low frequency tests on the Avia disk shook, note I didn’t say rattled, but shook the windows, door, dishes in the kitchen and even something inside the HDTV. (what’s Spanish for “earthquake” cause I might have heard someone yelling it?)
QS8s - I suggest liberally experimenting with their placement. I’m using the stands right now (will try hanging them later) and so far have found that in my room they sound best in the back corners with the “null” axis pointed at the center of the listening position. This seems to sacrifice some left/right directionality but more than makes up for it in depth of the rear sound field in my small room. It makes the Mines of Moria sound cavernous.
Denon 2807 - The Auto Setup/Room EQ was nice for a newbie. Sounded great within 10 minutes of having my speakers in place. Followed up with a SPL meter and found couple of questionable settings. It’s a must to run this again any time you change something.
Black out - Best thing I did for the sound field next to getting the Axioms. When the room is blacked out only the screen is visible so there are no reference points in my field of vision to prevent the Axioms from tricking my brain into “feeling” the size of the area the picture and especially the sound field intends. Below deck in Master and Commander “feels” like an enclosed space while the Mines of Moria “feel” endless. I highly recommend this if you have a small room and can get away with it. However, one thing I noticed was that the darker I was able to make the room the more annoying the smallest amount of light even in my peripheral vision became.
Buttkicker LFE kit - Great for feeling the deep bass without setting the subwoofer to shake the whole building. The EP500 does a much better job even with the very low bass but the Buttkicker makes a noticeable improvement at lower volumes.
Oppo 981HD - almost as good as DirectTV HD movies. In blind tests none of my friends have been able to tell them apart until I pointed out what things to look for like the sharpness of individual hairs and blades of grass in the DirectTV HD picture.
DirectTV HD - Disappointing movies and most TV shows. I don’t think that it’s a full 1080i signal. They must be using some sort of compression for the 1080i programming. I tested this buy comparing scenes from Van Helsing recorded from DirectTV vs 1080i and 1080p clips from the internet fed over a VGA cable to the HDTV. I could see no difference between either the 1080i and 1080p from the computer. The picture from DirectTV was not as sharp, detailed or as vivid colors. However, the 720p programming looks great. On the other hand some 1080i programs with studio close-ups of people are annoyingly sharp.
I will add more as I learn and experience more especially about the audio system. Again please add your thoughts on systems constrained by their surroundings so others in similar situations might learn from your experience.
Dean
