Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Home Theatre Rookie needs help!

I'm using 4 M1Ti's with a VP50 and an EP125 with a Harmon/Kardon AV120 in my 20x20 listening area. The manual for my receiver says for speakers that can reproduce sound below 100mhz use the speaker setting large. Since the M1's go down to 70, should I be using them in large or small? Also, should be sub be as close to the listening position as the front speakers? I have the sub at a phase of 0, switched to video and the volume set at half. It seems that I can't really hear the sub, is that poor setup, or is the sub underpowered? If it's setup wrong, could someone give me an idea what the sub settings should be at? Thank you VERY much for your feedback!

Hi Jim; you're going to want to set all your speakers to small and make sure your crossover on your sub is set as high as it goes so that it doesn't come into effect. The large setting only goes for full range speakers, which the M1s, or even M40s are not.

If I could give a big recommendation, I'd say that you should try to properly calibrate your system to bring your sub to life and your system more balanced. For $15 you should buy the new Sound and Vision calibration disk, and then pick up the analog radioshack SPL meter for $30. After you get these two items you'll be able to perfectly calibrate each individual speaker level and proberly calibrate the levels on your sub. Without proper calibration you're not going to get the best out of your system. With these two relitively cheap additions to your HT arsenal you'll probably be probably notice a huge difference in your HT experience.

Proper calibration is definitely the way to go IMHO.

Hi Dan,
Thanks for your advice to Jim. You are dead-on accurate on your recommendations. I just suggested the Sound & Vision Home Theatre Tune-Up DVD on a different post and it's invaluable when used with the Radio Shack SPL meter (get the analog version; the one with the digital LCD read-out is much harder to use).

By the way, the Sound & Vision magazine web site, where you can find out more, is not so obvious: it's www.soundandvisionmag.com.

Regards,

Thank you very much for your advice. I already have a calibration DVD, and I will get the sound meter as soon as possible. In the meantime, I set all the speakers to small and put the crossover range to 150. I just finished watching The Patriot and at times, it's completely obvious when the subwoofer takes over, because the sound just suddenly stops from that channel, is that normal? Also, I have the sub at just past half set at video and the phase at 0, but I can barely tell that there's a subwoofer at all. Should I crank the sub level all the way, or should I even have to do that?

hey

about the sub not being loud
I had the same problem and realized my amp's bass setting was set to low. Make sure it's set on even, so that it does not remove the bass it is sending to your sub. if that does not work.... ask Alan!

You might have to crank your sub, it just depends on how powerful your sub actually is. Are we talking something like an 8 inch driver? What sub do you have?

Try cranking it and see how it performs, if it bottoms out you'll know.