Originally Posted By: casey01
Originally Posted By: JBG
Here are my results after a last attempt of calibration with the Anthem ARC for the ep500 sub, First off if you have ARC, never use the same settings for movies as for music, this means doing 2 x 5 position test, this said, with the volume on the ep500 v4 at 12 o'clock I finally have some decent bass (passed the angry wife on second floor test). I was going to pull the trigger on a seaton submersive HP, now I'm confused if I'm going to keep this sub or not or ad a second sub, these rusults having me re-think my setup a bit, I have some space to put only 1 ep800 up front (tight fit next to the m100) along with the ep500 hummmm....



I believe the bottom line is that you are experiencing the issues and limitations of sub eq's which, depending on your room, can make things more complicated than they should be. For a few years now, I have incorporated in to my system(with 4 subs) a dedicated Velodyne SMS-1 digtal sub eq which has been on the market for awhile now yet offers on-screen programming,multiple set-ups, moveable parametric adjustment from 15-200HZ and both Auto and Manual memories with adjustment capability on the fly. Of course, the ultimate goal with any of these calibration devices is to achieve as flat a frequency response as possible in your room. The problem is, when all is said and done, you may not like what you hear.

In the beginning when I did the Auto set-up(which shows on-screen in real time) it showed a reasonably flat response. When I did the calibration manually, I was able to tweak a few adjustments so the on-screen graphs were even more precise. The trouble was, when the calibration was complete and I did some critical listening, I didn't like the sound. The accurate flat response in my room had the 30HZ and higher frequencies mask much of the frequency below that level which wasn't to my taste so I ended up lowering the middle frequencies and slightly boosting the bottom end which is now to my taste and suits every musical or movie circumstance.

Bottom line? Technical accuracy may not be what you like. Ultimately, let your ears determine the final outcome.


You and most other folks probably would not like a flat frequency response in the bass region and up unless you are listening to it at reference levels (around 85 dB), which is very uncomfortable. When it is quieter then that is is much harder to hear lower frequencies, which is why you prefer the boosted bottom end. Programs like Audyssey Dynamic Eq are designed to compensate for this change in how we per-sieve sounds as the volume level changes. This seems like the best solution, so that as we change the volume we don't have to change the EQ to our tastes. Dynamic Eq is definitely something I will get in my next receiver/processor.