Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions EP500 setup and volume levels

Bridgman:

Thanks for the answers. I am not offended by the "start at the beginning" questions. I have done mostly everything that is in the board about setting up the subs, but there is always the possibility I am doing it wrong. My other HT friends are not that fanatic to follow a message board for a year just to learn more about, so it might be good to start the basics with you guys here at the Axiom board just to get everything done the way it should be.

So, the answers to the questions:

1. What kind of receiver ? What are you using for input (DVD, CD etc..). How is the DVD player connected to the receiver ?

I own a NAD T163 preamp / processor, and a OUTLAW model 770 7-channel amplifier. I have available Digital (both Coax and Optical) and analog inputs from the DVD (NAD T572 5-disc DVD changer) to the T163 (I use mainly the Optical, but I had to troubleshoot a <0.5sec skipping at the digital inputs, so I have all the cables, that is another history)

2. How is your bass management set up ? Are the M80s set to Small or Large ? How about the other speakers ?

The T163 bass management is not that exciting. I am waiting to solve the EP500 issue to send the T163 back to NAD for an upgrade to V2, to get a little better handling of the sub and the bass management. At this moment, the bass management is just the Large/Small setting and a sub x-over setting. In stereo mode the T163 cant set the M80s to Large and have the sub simultaneously (that issue is already fix in the V2 upgrade), both in the other surround modes it does, so I mainly leave the M80s set Large. Sometimes, while listening some stereo and depending of the recording, I set the M80s to small and use the sub.

3. What is your crossover frequency set to in the receiver ?

Well, with the EP350 I let the x-over in the T163 at 80Hz almost permanently (sometimes at 100hz for some music, like latin jazz, or rock like Marillion). With the addition of the M22s I should set the EP500 to 60-80Hz I guess... I am trying still, so I dont have the perfect x-over for this sub yet. I dont want to go down to 40Hz in the X-over, because I like the bass strings to be enhanced and, actually with less than 80Hz all the bass strings is going to the M80s, with the recordings I have. Another thing I am considering, is to get one OUTLAW ICBM bass management for the all the speakers but the M80s. With that I can set the T163 to Large in all speakers, and have a x-over only for the sub.

4. What are the settings on the EP500 ? I forget if it has a "crossover disable" switch but if it does is it set to "enable" or "disable" ? What is the crossover on the EP500 set to ?

The EP500 does have a x-over bypass setting that allows to use the preamp x-over. I am using that setting now, but I have also tried using the EP500 x-over, and also tried already the High Level Input with the EP500 x-over. I cant tell a final setting right now, as I dont now where is going to end. I will like it to be bypassed and use the preamp. I tried a Polk sub from a friend just to confirm that the preamp output was not damaged, and is not.

Those are the answers to the questions you ask. Hopefully they will give you a more detailed panorama of the setup I have.

To real80sman, I must say that you're right about a stranger coming to Texas and disturbing the neighbors, and all of them carry guns... Well, I am in the deep south, in the border with Mexico, in a place called McAllen, so things are not that difficult with the Texans. My upstairs neighbors are mostly Mexicans and we already talk about the hours I can play, so they are nice in that respect. But I cant still get that loud because the neighbors in the sides are texans, and the sub rocks the whole building man, everything shakes when I am playing some movies...

Thanks