Mojo,
I am copying what I had sent to Craig who wanted to know what my impression is of the EP500 after a few hours of use......



Craig,

Here I am typing out my second round of initial impressions on the EP500. I wrote a long winded essay and inadvertently deleted it!

The good news is; I was able to eat dinner, play a second round of the same music with a change out from an RCA ended interconnect over to XLR as I was having sub woofer hum when things were idle; I thought it was a ground loop, then I started to play with switches and then move the RCA cable around in it's socket, the hum seemed to disappear. I thought this was a good time to switch over to the XLR and the hum cleared up.

Initial settings on the sub amplifier: gain at about 80% of full, polarity 'normal', crossover 150 hz. and after playing with the phase, I found with the sub at the opposite side of the room from the Bryston Model T mains and at around 25 feet distance, 45 degrees works to make the sub sync harmoniously with the woofers in the Model T's and produce the most output.

After listening to Timo Maas 'Connected' which is electronic music mix with a lot of varied bass content I found the sub to be totally transparent in the room. I cannot really say where it is vs. the Def Tech 15 inch 500 watt sub which I could point to in the dark. The Def Tech was more in your face with hard hitting bass, but could be muddy if too loud. The EP500 no matter how loud I play it, it's silky smooth, not in your face.

I switched to vinyl and put on Don Henley "Dirty Laundry" which has great bass at the intro and it was just superb. Very nice defined bass, hard hitting (probably not as hard as the EP800, but still right there). From there I switched over to The League instrumental, again mostly electronic with wide ranges of material, but lots of good bass. Very impressive, again the EP500 is very smooth, balanced and integrates with the Bryston's like it's a Bryston Model T placed at the back of the room, the sound is just immersive. There is an obvious first cousin relationship going on with the Axiom driver and the Bryston's. They just play right.

One thing I 'think' I am hearing and not imagining because I want to; the use of the XLR cable seems to have dramatically improved the overall response the sub, it's cleaner, more detailed and the bass seems much tighter, could it be me? Or is the driver breaking in smile

The Def Tech 15 inch sub played with more low end impact, but it was a muddy presentation vs. the EP500 which no matter how high I turn it up, it doesn't change. The Def Tech had to be carefully watched, the level could not be over 60% or that was it, total mud. How is the EP500 vs. the Paradigm monster 15 inch 4500 watt sub I demoed here? No where near the power or output, but cleaner sounding, it just works with the T's. The Paradigm over powered the room and everything was vibrating, not what I am looking for at all. And the EP500 vs. the SVS PC 13 Ultra? The Ultra put out a lot of nearly low frequency output, with a lot of slam like a disco, but again, it was not as silky smooth as the EP500. If someone is looking for extreme output, the larger brothers of the EP500 might be your choice, but again I am trying to round out very high output Bryston's, not over take them. The EP500 appears to do this well. When I graze around the room as Mojo likes to call it, I cannot tell where the EP500 is or if it's even on. But when I turned it off, wow, it seemed thin and naked in the room; so it's doing its job well. Again, it's as if I have another Bryston Model T at the back of the room on steroids for the low end.

With experimentation on crossover settings, the 150 hz. setting works best with the T's. Again it totally blends. If I move to 80 Hz, the Bryston's stand out, you can really point to them as the EP500 is doing only lower bass ranges. But at 150, the EP 500 becomes another Model T in the space. It's interesting to hear.

So the question is, to add another EP500 to get even fuller similar material, or do I add in the EP600 or 800? for more chest slam? What do I do?

BTW, vinyl rules here! this EP500 with the T's and perfect original analog vinyl is just the cup of tea for me; the sound is so silky smooth.

Slim

Last edited by Slimpikins; 12/12/17 02:56 AM.