Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater why does every say set to 'small'

I just recieved my ep500 and it's way more than I expected. It out weighted my pdr12 by 60lbs! I have Paradigm monitor 11's for fronts and 7's for rears. I found that setting both front and rears to large made everything blend better. I have the ep500 set at half and bypass. The volume is about 8 o'clock. My room is 16x20x8. When I set my speakers to small the ep500 is way too noticeable. It seems like most people like the small setting. Could someone explain if I'm hearing right?

This will explain better than I can. LINK

Puffwar,
Not all people set their main speakers to small. I've used a crossover of 55Hz with my M60s for years. See this poll
Do what sounds good to you. There are no set "rules" about how you have to set up your home system.

Have you used an SPL meter to calibrate your speakers (balance thier volume levels)? What crossover frequency setting are you using?

Puff, welcome. If your EP500 is "way too noticeable" then you haven't calibrated your system correctly and the sub is set too loud. The impression should be that you don't hear the sub as a separate sound source, but rather that the other speakers set small are putting out the bass.

I'm using the bypass on the subwoofer. My reciever, Denon 5700, doesn't have a crossover setting.

Actually, when you set the speakers to small, the receiver sets a crossover of 80 Hz, which is generally considered appropriate. Perhaps there is a problem here with the settings?

It depends on your room size and the listening material - movies, music, classics or the rock.

I have a pretty large room - 28'x16'x9' and I keep the volume on EP500 at about 7 o'clock (receiver level at zero) and the trim on 'Flat'. Otherwise it does sound (and measure) too loud, especially for listening to music. For movies it' OK.

If you have a sound pressure level meter, run the test tones from the receiver and check. But don't rely on the meter too much. For instance, the meter's readings depend on which measuring curve you are using - A or C. The C curve, usually recommended, imitates the human ear for loud sounds. The A curve mimics the human hearing at low volume. The readings at A and C setting are vastly different - what shows as 80dB on C curve can be 65 dB on A curve. It corresponds to the fact that your ears are more sensitive to the bass at high volume.

So, the result is that your ears are a pretty accurate meter as well, trust them. The sub should sound level should be approximately the the same as the main channel, may be a bit louder, depends on your taste. Get it higher for movies and lower it for classical music. Does the human speech sound too chesty? Lower the sub volume a bit. Does it sound that the orchestra doesn't have enough bass support? Raise up the volume. There is no fixed settings.

Setting speakers to small on Denon 5700 sets all the crossover points at 80 kHz which should be acceptable.
I set my M60 at 70kHz and the central speaker VP150 at 100 kHz. To me these settings provide the smoothest transition from the speaker to the sub. I'm not sure your receiver allows for independent settings.

I listen to 70%music 30%movies. My reciever manual says if you speakers go below 80 to set them to large. It has a different bass setting where I can set either 'subwoofer only THX' or 'Front and Subwoofer'. The manual says set it to 'front and subwoofer' if you have front speakers that go down to 20. I have also biwired my fronts and that seems to produce more mids/highs. It's not a huge difference but my wife and I both can tell it's a little more defined.

In reply to:

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My reciever manual says if you speakers go below 80 to set them to large

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Also, on page 19 of the 5700 manual it states:

"For the majority of speaker system configurations, using the SMALL setting for all five main speakers and Subwooofer On with a connected
subwoofer will yield the best results.