Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions EP600 Volume Suddenly Diminished / Gone

Here's the scenario:

Sub is on, but barely audible. Even with the volume at full. It used to rock my world but suddenly no matter what it just doesn't. I was away for 2 weeks and I get home and turn on music.....no low end. I have tried multiple cables, both RCA and Balanced to no avail. Hooked up to an Outlaw 990. If I take those same cables and hook them up to my old M&K Sub it is night and day different so the cables and 990 seem to be fine. I also checked and rechecked every setting on the 990. It works just fine with the M&K. The EP600 has never been abused volume wise either. Sub has always been hooked up to good power protection on it's own dedicated circuit. Nothing was tripped when I got home. I even plugged it directly into a different circuit to check. No settings or knobs on the back have changed. It's almost like there's a mute button that has been turned on some where. My M80's are putting out more low end set to "large" or "small" with sub "Yes" or "L/R + Sub" etc etc etc. I can see the woofer on the EP600 moving, again, barely....it just has no "oomph" anymore.

Seems like an internal thing. Are there any user serviceable parts? At first I thought fuse but don't see one and would think if it did blow something that it wouldn't work at all. Also it's just been sitting idle for two weeks, not like it suddenly died in the middle of cranked music. Just turn on the music and nada, eehh, zip, just about dead.

Hopefully I'm just missing something stupid and easy but I don't think so. No one else ever touches the system besides me, and sitting for a couple of weeks shouldn't change anything. The sub is 2 years old and I travel a lot and have never had an issue before.

I am stumped. Any ideas? Thanks.

There are several fuses in the sub; that's the first place I'd look. It's also worthwhile to give Axiom a buzz.

Thanks, yeah I knew there had to be at least one fuse but I didn't want to start taking things apart and void the warranty. Figured I give here a shot first and see if any one else had dealt with this kind of issue. I'll give them a call.

have you tried unplugging it for a minute and plugging it back in? may not help, just a thought. have you verified all the other knobs on the back have not been altered, like the crossover, trim, etc.?

Before fiddling with it, call Axiom.

Yeah I've tried everything possible that I could think of to no avail. I unplugged it, put it on a different dedicated circuit, check all the knobs, cables, 990, etc etc. So many times that I start second guessing myself. And I'm not taking it apart unless told to do so.

I called them and the guy I spoke to was great,..... as confused about it as I am, but it was nice to talk to some one on a Sunday evening no less. Big thumbs up for their support. He is going to check with some one else in the morning and they will get back to me. I have no doubt that they will take care of the issue but it's frustrating not having my music work the way it should!

If you have to replace the amp and/or the driver, it's a little time-consuming but it's straight-forward. Just be careful that you don't bugger up the bolt holes, observe polarity and keep cables out of the way of the driver.

While you're in there, why don't you do what I've been dying to do for the last 6 months - loosely stuff the top and bottom with polyfill. I've often thought that will tighten the 600 up.

Your sub doesn't have fill in it?

It has a thin layer around the folded duct. That's it. Yours has more?

Mine had a bear in it.....

See post in [off topic] before you think I'm kidding.

No, just the normal fill, like all the subs.

I stuck my hand up there and didn't find anything furry .

That's what she said!

He must have shaved.

...but enough about Richard Gere.

eeewwwwwww.

Well-played, sir! I bow to thee.

Oooookkkkk...that's another one I had to google. How twisted!

Wow, just a bit off topic. Everything from shaved bush to Richard Gere?

OK, back to the subject to vent a bit. My level of happiness with their tech support just went down a bit. It was nice to talk to a real person initially but when I'm told I will be called back, and am not, that doesn't speak well to the confidence factor. So I call them and the guy who was supposed to call me back today is already gone for the day. And the person that I talk to is unable to help. I don't want to be a pain in the butt to these folks, just want my sub fixed. If no satisfaction tomorrow I may just have to vent a bit more. So much for their stellar tech support and customer service...

Robert,

I think once you've been around a little longer you may carry a different attitude about Axiom. In my opinion they provide stellar customer service, and most of us will back my statement. However, they are human and are just like most companies. Without knowing the details it is hard to speculate. Maybe the person went home sick, maybe he is waiting to hear back from Tom or whoever. Either way, I would just chill a bit and realize you will be taken care of.

The last thing we need is newbies to see such replies and start untrue rumors over on AVSforum.

That's why I'm being a bit mellow. I'm fine with waiting a bit and realize that there will be turn around time. No problem. What I don't appreciate is being told that some one, Tom, would be informed of the issue and that I would be called and emailed back today, and then at the end of the day I call them and no one has a clue. If I had been told in the first place that it might be a couple or few days then that's a different story.

And BTW, I've been around for almost 2 years, I just don't post much. But do lurk now and then. And up until now I've been nothing but happy with their products and service. Hopefully tomorrow will bring some resolution.

mellow? wow I hate to see you angry

Robert,

You are absolutely right. Such a commitment probably should have never been made on someone else's behalf in the first place or someone should have called you back to tell you that they are on it and it will take x days or they really don't know how long it's going to take. But I am sure this was not intentional. I've had great service from the Dwight folks.

However, it's really your fault you know. If subbage is that important to you, you should really have a dual-redundant configuration for back-up .

Well the old M&K 200 has been running in this system since early on. It fills things in quite nicely actually. I hooked it up a long time ago to give the EP 600 a bit of help. 2 subs are great. And I'm surprised at how well the M&K does on it's own. (it's 13 years old and still works perfectly after the same amount of time of continuous use.) The room it's in is roughly 14,000 cubic feet and I found a space off in a corner that does wonders to the acoustics with it set out of phase of the EP. However, it's no EP600 and on it's own it's all it can do to provide enough sound in this space. Up until now I've been seriously considering adding another 600 since the difference with 2 subs has been so striking. Some day I'll have 2 identical subs.....of some sort.
( DD-15's or JL Gothams maybe? )

Thinking more about the EP 600 problem though. I have always noticed a slight "electrical" smell, for lack of a better term, coming off of the back panel space of the EP600, not so much a burning electrical smell so much as a new "burning in" or "hot" smell when running a modest volumes. However this smell has never gone away even after 2 years. Any one else ever notice this? Hot board, capacitors, etc maybe?

Also, while turning the volume knob last night in fairly dark conditions, still trying to figure things out,.... I actually saw small sparks that bridged the gap between the knob and the panel. I believe this to be just static coming off me as it is quite low humidity here now but it sure was a bit coincidental and un-nerving. (Yes, I unplugged it.)

It would be unusual not to have an electrical smell actually. I've often wondered if this smell will disappear as equipment becomes RoHS-compliant.

I am confident the sparks were due to static. I have a similar issue with all of my gear.

14,000 cubic feet. Wow! How does the 600 do on its own in that space? Where do you have the gain set on the back? With the exception of your floor-to-ceiling distance, you probably don't have any room modes in that space.

14000 square feet is bigger than my entire apartment. Considered some walls?

CUBIC feet!

MY entire house is about 12,000 cubic feet. You sir, have a huge house. MAybe you should consider the house for sale in the water cooler

Normally the volume/gain knob is set just about half way and it does just fine when I'm sitting in the sweet spot. I put the M&K in because it helped fill in some dead zones as you walk around the room. It also gives a few db boost to the lower end. That and I had it so I might as well use it.

And really guys, the house isn't that big. Just an open floor plan with vaulted ceilings.

Like I said, it's bigger than my apartment, even if I'm enlarging the estimate, it's almost double the size. That's a monstrous room.

Ah just saw the vaulted ceilings bit. That makes more sense...

Just a quick update, Axiom is taking care of it no problems, so as quickly as I am to chastise I am also quick to praise. The gentleman that I've been dealing with, Brent, couldn't have been nicer. He just forgot that he was off yesterday when he initially talked to me. No big deal.

Any how they had me check all the wiring, all was good, then I pulled the amp. Nothing noticeable other than the smell of electrical that I mentioned before. There were some VERY small pieces of plastic or what could have been a fried resistor or piece of circuit board bouncing around inside that black casing of the amp. Tough to tell and it also could have been some left over plastic shavings from the screw holes.

They are sending me out a new amp so I'll report back as soon as I have it.

Once again, kudos to their support and tech dept. They have handled this great.

Ahh- vaulted ceilings- it all comes together now!

Yep, even Brent is human.

So to follow up and close out this thread....

Today I received the replacement amp for the EP600, packed quite well in a wooden box inside another box. And secured very nicely I might add. Any way, take it out, hook it up and put it back in and all is well in bass land again! Yippee Kiya!

I have no idea what went wrong with the last amp as there was nothing obvious but I guess that is the way it goes with such things. There seems to be a slight design change with this amp as there are 4 fuse holders on the outside panel where there were none on the original amp.

So in closing, I am once again a happy camper. Axiom handle this very well. Big thumbs up and Kudos to them! Thank you!

awesome news, also there is no bypass crossover setting, so just put it on max.

"Bypass Crossover" ? For line direct speaker? Sorry, haven't had enough coffee yet this morning so I'm a bit confused. There is a crossover, 40, 60, 80, 100, and 150. I run a balanced XLR and the crossover works just fine. M80's to large and EP600 to 60.

So is there even another version yet with no crossover? Or it doesn't work if you run speaker level in and out? Confused....yes.

Aha.. If your processor/receiver has bass management (crossovers), then you should set the EP600 to as high a crossover as possible, or to bypass if it has that setting available. In your case, it should be set to 150, and the 60 should be set at the receiver level.

Some are now saying set both to 60 (or whatever). I believe Mojo is now using both settings in collaboration.

Yes, that's true. I have my 600 and the Denon set to 60Hz. 80Hz is too "thick" and 40Hz is too "thin" on the 600. I told Randy last week that I had the x-overs at 40Hz but I checked and they're both at 60Hz.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that oddity with the DSP subs.

OK, duh....I know what he was talking about but was just a bit brain dead too early in the morning.

As others have said here I find 60hz to be perfect. My 990 allows for x-over settings on all speakers. Fronts are set to 60hz, center and surrounds at 80hz. 95% or better of my listening is 2 channel and I don't believe I'm missing anything in the 60-80hz range for 5.1 because the 990 seems to blend a lot of those frequencies to the left and right. Even on 2 channel there is a roll off of the 60hz + range that gets sent to the sub. Don't recall the exact specs but there is a significant difference in the EP600 response if I set the crossover above 60hz. It gets a lot muddier or thick if you like. There's just too much going on then for it to handle. The M80's do a great job in that range. Conversely the same is true if I ask the M80's to try and handle anything below 60hz. Yeah I know what they are rated to but then there's the reality of what they sound like below say 50hz or so and what the EP600 can do.

Anyway I guess every ones systems will get tweaked a bit different and every one likes their sound a bit different. Right now I'm a happy camper cause it's all working great again!