Gentlemen,

I posted this over at Outlaw Audio and I thought I would solicit your advice as well.

I've owned the Outlaw Audio 990/7125 combination for awhile now. They're paired with an Axiom 5.1 home theater speaker system (M60 fronts, VP150 center, QS8 surrounds and the EP500 500w powered subwoofer). I originally calibrated the speakers (including the subwoofer) using the 990 supplied microphone. I did not calibrate with an SPL meter as I didn't have one nor could I find one to purchase. I've run with this calibration for some time and always thought the subwoofer ran hot - much to the detriment of my wife who cringed everytime the sub (literally) shook the room/house. Not having owned a home theater system prior to this purchase, I assumed the subwoofer was (somewhatt) properly calibrated and everything was normal.

Well, I solicited the help of a fellow Axiom owner (sirquack)and he came by with his RadioShack SPL meter. Testing my original setup revealed a couple of results - my center channel was 8dB too high and was drowning out the front soundstage and the surrounds, and my subwoofer was running at enormous SPL levels. After calibrating the other speakers at 75dB reference level, we noticed that the subwoofer was running almost 95-100 dB and was completely overpowering everything.

Now the problem - we attempted to calibrate the subwoofer level to 75dB and we weren't able to do it. We had to turn the EP500's volume level to the absolute minimum setting and we had to set the 990's subwoofer trim to -15dB. Even at these settings the subwoofer is running approx. 5dB higher (~80dB) than the other speakers. We cannot reduce the level anymore.

I'm connected via the balanced XLR connector. We tried using the RCA connector and (oddly) this produced an even hotter signal.

Any ideas on how to reduce the subwoofer level? Is this normal? I wouldn't expect that I would have to trim the 990 setting to -15dB and set the sub's amplifier gain to its absolute minimum. Even this doesn't get it down to reference level. Could their be something wrong with the 990's subwoofer output? Something wrong with the EP500's amplifier? Has anyone else experienced something similar?

Although my system sounds much better now (after lowering the sub level significantly and lowering the center channel level), I'm concerned that I cannot get the sub down to 75dB reference level. Also, I'm concerned that running at -15dB with no sub amplifier gain will cause the signal to be so low at lower volume levels that the sub will simply shut off.

Any thoughts/advice?

Thanks in advance.

Bryan