I’ve had a EP600 for a couple of weeks now and I thought I would share my impressions.
First, let me say that this is not at all what I was expecting from such a big box. I never had a HT subwoofer before, the only experience that I had was with car subs. After convincing the wife that this big box will provide lots of base in our living room (she loves bass), you can imagine the look on my face when after poping a CD she tells me, I don’t hear any difference from before… I have to admit that I also was expecting (wrongly) to hear more bass similar to what you can hear in a car. It is only after a few moments that I realized that it was playing what it was supposed to: all the bass notes without them being louder than the rest.
After being used to its sound, I agree with what a lot of Axiom customers say, although not being known for their subs, they make very “musical” subs. Such so, that the EP600 blends perfectly (at least to my ears) with my M80s, just extending their sound to reach the lower notes.
I placed the sub by doing the subwoofer crawl and it ended up being in the front corner next to the M80, not the best spot for the WAF. I still need to buy a SPL meter and play with REW, and if there is not much difference, maybe I’ll end up moving it to the opposite corner, on the side of our sitting position (I have an empty space there where the wife was hoping I would put the sub), and maybe use a BFD to smooth out the frequency response. Anyway, I’ll need to experiment.
I played with the crossover and seem to like it better when crossed over at 40Hz. To my surprise, there is more “punch” coming from the M80s in the 50/80Hz region than from the EP600, which strange to me since it has a 12” woofer. I can’t really explain that. If I cross it at 80Hz, although it sounds very good, I kind of loose the “feel” of the kick drum if it makes any sense. This is more noticeable when I change the crossover from 60 to 80Hz than from 40 to 60Hz. For movies, I have them crossed at 60Hz, first because I can’t really tell the difference between 40 and 60Hz so I take some of the load from the M80s, and second to help my conscience feel better about the purchase by having it playing something more than the 20/40Hz range
A thing that I have a hard time understanding is the trim level (the sub is a V2). I have it set it to full which Axiom describes as giving it a boost above 33Hz. I understand that that way the frequency response won’t be flat but I like it the way it sounds better. When switching it to flat it’s almost like there is no bass at all coming from the sub. The part that I don’t get is why is the flat setting more suitable for a larger room, and the half and full settings for a medium/small rooms? The manual describes it as compensation for the room loading. If there is too much room loading, wouldn’t a boost above 33Hz load it even more? That confuses me. Also, will it go deeper when in flat vs full?
Originally, I wasn’t planning on buying an Axiom sub and definitely not the EP600 for budget reasons but a friend of mine knew somebody that was selling his and I was able to get a good deal on it which made it hard to pass on. I believe it is a very good sub but for the type of music I listen to, I find that it barely plays anything since the M80s do such a fine job even when playing full range, which is a shame really since it is such a musical sub (when I cross it at 80Hz and can hear something
). For movies, it is doing a fine job as well and rumbles my whole living room when it needs to, always being controlled and never boottoming out (thank you DSP
), although in its price range I believe that some of the competitors would offer more for movie experience, the PB13 Ultra comes to my mind.
In the end, I think that the EP600 is a very, very good sub but if I would have had to pay full price for it, I probably wouldn’t have gone with the EP600, first because I can't afford to spend 2K on a sub
and second simply because I don’t usually listen to music that has much content below 40Hz and for movies you can probably find a sub that plays louder and deeper from another company in this price range.
For what I paid for, I am extremely happy with it and believe it was a great buy. I would definitely recommend this sub if you listen to music that has a lot of content below what the towers can handle or if you want to compliment a pair of M22s or other bookshelf as the bass coming from it is unbelievably clear.
After almost a year and a half my 5.1 system is finally complete and I am extremely happy with it.
Cheers,
Bruno
