Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater epic 80-600

Ok for starters, you need to calibrate by ear. Go into your speaker setup menu on the Yamaha. Then, as you pan from FL - C - FR - RS - RSB - LS - LSB, raise or lower the volume on each until they seem the same volume.

Next, fire up that Pink Floyd disc, and start with the subwoofer at 1/4 volume. SLOWLY turn up the bass until it sounds good to you.

Next - fire up a movie. Then let us know what you think...

bridgman is giving you the right scoop, you will get through this ...

>>i mean there are cannons fired, sword fighting, choppy sea water ??????

I can guarantee you will notice a big difference on the cannons once you have the calibration done right. The sword fighting and choppy sea water both seemed pretty quiet to me, ie the kind of sounds that the Encore would have handled fairly well.

After spending a few minutes on calibration, go watch the helicopter crash in the first Matrix film. Turn it up loud.

where can i find the avia disc and the spl.....and with regards to the m80s i did whatever was written on the axion manual....i believe it said 40.....and the sub setting at 9 o clock position.

Hmmmm, very odd you weren't blown away by watching DVD movies. I'm curious, what do you think of the EP600? Almost everyone around here who has heard has nothing but great things to say about it. Try cranking that baby up and let us know if it shakes the house. I'm not totally sure but Energy would have nothing equivalent in terms of subwoofers to the EP600.

As for DVD's to watch, defintely check out Lord of the Rings FoTR (part 1). The intro has some good sound effects but some of the BEST scenes in the entire trilogy is the Cave Troll/Balrog scene. I simply love that scene and have viewed it many, many times....never gets old. This scene is near the beginning of FoTR on disc2 in the Extended Edition.

Pop in some more action DVDs and crank up the volume. Let us know your impressions then. Is the clarity really good? When friends first heard my humble setup, they were amazed with the level of sound detail (ie. wood creaking/cracking and swords clanging against metal, etc.). The surrounds speakers add a whole new element to movies...they are simply awesome.

I picked up the Avia disk via Amazon because I happened to be out of town anyways when I first heard about calibration. I expect any place that sells lots of DVDs would have Avia... there are also a couple of other good setup DVDs but I don't remember the names, maybe Home Theater Essentials ?

The SPL meters come from Radio Shack; something like $40 US, I think. They have both analog and digital models... both have advantages but I went for the analog one. I find it easier to read but IIRC you have to switch ranges more often than with the digital.

i will do all that tonight......hope neighbours don't complain too much....my wife said they were already asking her questions about those big fedex boxes!!!!!!
i will keep you guys posted
and thanks for all your advice

In reply to:

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start with the subwoofer at 1/4 volume

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Yikes! With an EP-600, that's liable to blow the house down. I'd start just a tiny smidge above zero and then go up from there.

it looks very impressive......its very heavy......sound wise i am working on it....i am sure with help from you all i should be able to tweek it to prefection.

ok i got go home and try all these great suggestions...i will let you guys know what happens