Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler New equipment arrivals

Do you have any interest in sealed subs? You won't get as much output for movies, but. . .wait, I just remembered you have a pretty big space to fill. How 'bout a pair of smaller sealed subs?

I think the Axiom 500 or 600 will work well for excellent music/ht playback. That is based only on hearsay, though, haven't heard either one in person.

>>mdrew, to date i have found the larger subs create a sustained bass note which lingers which is why i'm not keen on the SVS tube style for music. I prefer that short, 'fast' bass sound hence my search for a smaller sub cabinet

Ian talked with us a while about sub design the last time we were up at the factory. He is not a big believer in highly resonant enclosures, which I imagine is why the Axiom subs tend to be good with music.

If you look at a spectral decay plot for an SVS sub (yeah, like mine) the decay around the tune point is extremely slow, half a second or more, while the output drops off almost instantaneously at other frequencies. I think the trick with SVS subs is to make sure the tune point is lower than any musical signal you might play. All of the reviews of the 500 seem to talk a lot about how quick and musical they sound, which I take to mean "the enclosure is not very resonant but the DSP makes up for what would otherwise be a slightly rolled off low end".

From cross-indexing reviews and reviewers the 500 might not be as musical as the best of the sealed subs but it seems to be way over in the "really good" side music-wise.

I guess if I had a different sub maybe I wouldn't always turn the sub off when listening to music

I always wonder why people turned off their subs with music. Now I have a better idea of why.

Me, I've got a sealed sub that I originally bought for music. Even though I didn't know squat, it seems I made a decent choice.

I would assume that with a larger cabinet, you increase the resonance within through sheer volume.
If you a/b something like the SVS tube style sub vs. a smaller, box design, the difference in sound style is quite amazing. In general, you may not hear this as distinctly with all sorts of other sounds playing, but for music, especially the classical material, i've heard the difference. The bass note from the SVS just lingers that x amount of time longer, almost rolling into the next note. The EP350 did not.
However the SVS could handle the LOTR scenes with considerable ease whereas the EP350 fell short.

Did that listening test quite some time ago now.

>>I would assume that with a larger cabinet, you increase the resonance within through sheer volume.

I don't think so. I haven't played with the equations for years but IIRC a bigger enclosure lets you run the same tuning as a smaller enclosure but with a bigger port.

>>If you a/b something like the SVS tube style sub vs. a smaller, box design, the difference in sound style is quite amazing.

Yep. All I'm trying to say is that it's not the SIZE of the SVS that dictates the way they are tuned and sound, it's the design approach. The SVS approach happens to make good use of enclosure volume, but a big sub isn't necessarily a highly resonant one.

We need someone who designed enclosures *less* than 30 years ago to jump in here

Chess,

Don't let the size fool you. The 600 is EXTREEMLY musical. Much more than the 500, or any other home audio sub I've ever heard. PM John (jakeman) if you don't believe me and he'll give you all the techno babble that I don't care about. It hits fast, tight, hard and as loud as you could ever want....and the loud part you can dial down to where it's just a whisper more than your mains or just enough to blend.....which is the way I prefer it. If I had room for one in my great room where my two channel, Wharfedale Opus 2's reside, I'd have one there next to them. Well, the space issue and the $$$ part of it too. It'd have to be in piano black to match the Wharf's at about 3 grand. I'm too busy blowing money on video now, so this is on the back burner for a while.

Well i've got the Marantz 1550 hooked up with the new Angstroms and the little Tannoys on A and B channels.
Pics coming soon.

Another interesting a/b test (this one done sighted).

Finally have some pics of the speakers to post.
Here.

On the Angstrom, does the woofer go on top?

Nice pics. Hope the new speakers sound good.

Still dig the way the Marantz looks.