Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Thinking of an upgrade... Need a little help

I bought an Epic Grand Master 350 earlier this year. Back in April/June. I'm just not satisfied with the output of the 350. I love bass in the loud movie scenes. The problem i've been experiencing with the 350 is rattling(bottoming out?) on the deep long bass scenes. I will back it down to take out the rattling but then it's not enough bass. Trust me I'm VERY pleased with it. It's great for everything. I just think I like to shake my house a little to much, :-).

So I'm thinking of possibly purchasing the EP500. Unforunately I'm not sure what to do with the EP350 then. Does Axiom do any sort of exchange with an upgrade? If not how would I sell this puppy?

Or would it be wiser for me to purchase a second EP350?

If an upgrade to a bigger sub works well I'll pry look at moving up to the M60's or M80's.

Thanks for any help.

Hey Josh, now you come out of hiding...

I sent you many follow up emails on AVS and Gmail to see how your new Axioms were doing, but you never replied, so I assumed you either sold them or didn't like my suggestions.

Seems like there is still a chance. Anyway, I can't remember what your roomsize is but there are lots of things to get a sub dialed in just right. Position, roomsize, room treatments, calibration...., etc... Many people run their subs to hot, not sure what your issue is on this one.

Anyway, when I upgraded from the 350 to the 500 there was a pretty big difference, just look at the specs and reviews and you can guess why. Now granted my room is huge 30ft x 31ft, can't recal your room size. Positioning and proper calibration is very important. If your sub is in the wrong placement, you can have room nulls in certain spots of the room, and others the bass seems to much.

Axiom, normally lets you trade up, but within a certain period of time. You could call them and see what they say. Two 350s would be another option positioned strategically, it might give you a better/flatter response in the room. But the 500's is an animal.

Anyway, good to hear your still alive and I didn't piss you off for refering you to Axiom.

later

Hey! No way would I ever get rid of them. I love them in every way. They are awesome. I get the wow effect every time someone visits. Thanks again for referring me to Axiom.
Like I said I think I'm just a bit of a bass nut or something. Plus it doesn't help that I'm not an expert at tuning, calibrating, and placement.
I really like everything I'm reading about the 500 and I'm itching to upgrade. But I would like to get some input beforehand because like you said it could be just mistuned or something.

First thing to check is to walk around the room during one of those long bass scenes and see if there is more bass somewhere else in the room. If so, that is your cue to do some more experimentation with sub placement to get more bass in your listening position, which in turn would let you reduce the sub level without losing bass. Even better, set your player to loop when everyone else is out of the house.

Having said that, the 500 does seem to be a really significant step up from the 350. It wouldn't hurt to call Axiom -- just don't be too upset if they say too much time has passed.

"Everyone else is out of the house" your not kidding. My wife isn't very happy after I was done playing around tonight. :-). I wouldn't be upset with Axiom of course. I mean it's been many months over the 30 day trial. Always worth a try.

I will try your suggestions. Should I be worried about any damage to the sub during these high bass scenes? I mean there is sometimes that rattling.

Josh

The room response shouldn't be affected by how loud you are playing, so I would take the volume down a bit to the point where there the sub stops rattling.

Is it a hard, edgy rattle (like something loose) or is it that dull, muted sound you get when the woofer starts to hit its limits ?

The real question is whether it's something in the room rattling, or something in the sub. If it's something in the sub, methinks there may be something wrong, so a call to Axiom is in order in any case. Good luck!

The only way I could explain it is like a empty coffee rattling on the top of the sub box. I'm not sure what the dull muted sound sounds like. Sorry.

My reciever, a H/K 635 automatically equalizes the sub at -8db with the Volume knob around 10-11 oclock. I have the sub set to 80hz, is this correct?

Is it better to up the output from the 635 and back down on the volume knob on the sub? Or the other way around?

Josh

Josh, welcome. When you say that you have the sub set to 80Hz, do you mean that's the crossover you set in the receiver(good)or that you have the crossover control on the sub itself at the 80Hz mark(not so good)? If the receiver is handling bass management the sub's own control isn't necessary and just gets in the way. It should be bypassed or turned all the way up to get it out of the crossover region.

Your 11 o'clock and -8dB settings aren't bad and change isn't essential, but you could lower that 11 o'clock a bit so that the auto-calibration raises the -8 a little to compensate.