Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners EP600 too close to listening position?

Any thoughts out there about placing an EP600 directly behind a seat? This would be a couch only used by guests on movie nights, straddling a corner of the room so there's a triangle of floor space behind it. I'd never really thought of an EP600 before, but have been offered one at a substantial discount and am mulling it over. From the specs it looks as though the driver would be at lower back level, behind the couch back if place vertically. Would that be too deafening / uncomfortable for someone sitting a foot or so away from the front face? It could be aimed parallel to one of the walls to lessen the impact, or even place on the floor so that it'd fire out between that couch's legs (7" clearance). Alternative sites would be next to glass sliders, or next to the DLP set between the mains. I'd see what worked best when it arrived, but am curious about whether having it right behind seating would even be potentially feasible.

The thing is gigantic. Next to the DLP will destroy the WAF.

All together now - "there's no way to tell until you get it and experiment with placement in your room"

It'll be fine. Go for it. You know you want to. How bad could it be?

Well, it's a 61" so it sits quite a bit higher than the 45" of an EP600. Plus since the rear of my shelves are angled it could kinda tuck behind the TV too and blend in with the bookcases on either side.

Understood -- just want to have a feel for whether or not this is even feasible. I'd been looking at SVS and av123 subs until now -- had figured that I couldn't begin to afford an EP600 but then this opportunity popped up. I'm assuming that the unit would sound great at modest volumes? I have a medium size room and won't be shaking the walls much for the lizard's first few years.

Never had a pregnant wife, have you?

Oh yes, I did. But I was never "brave" enough to try to acquire AV bling during that period.

You should never be able to tell where a sub is located in the room (other than just knowing it’s over yonder because you put it there or can see it). Depending on your particular room, it may work out for you where you describe, but it may not. I can tell you that I had the 600 about three feet away from the couch (directly behind) and it drove me nuts. I could tell it was there. I’d love to keep the darn thing there as where the room likes it, it takes a lot of space. Which, that in itself is a pretty strong case for going with multiple, smaller subs verses one large sub. Sure wish I would have gone with two or three 500’s verses the single 600. Oh well, live and learn and there’s always the ‘next’ house that I’ll build.

I agree with Mike, but will add that you should calibrate your speakers/sub to eliminate any sense of the sub being nearfield.

I wasn't thinking of it being audibly localizable so much as the physical effects of having the driver so close to a listener/viewer.

I've thought about the highly-regarded MFW-15 from av123 as an alternative, but with their price increase and shipping it's only <$100 less expensive than this EP600 would be. Either would likely be more than I'd remotely need, though if place vertically the EP600 would have a distinctly smaller footprint which is a plus. >$2k for a vassallo EP600 is more than I'd go for, but I'm feeling that the price on this unit is too good to pass up.

I tried my EP500 about 4 feet in front of my seat and thought it sounded great but the air it was blowing on my legs was quite annoying. So I moved it directly behind my seat about 2 feet back and because the air isn’t blowing directly on me I can’t tell where it is.

My EP600 is 3ft from the left seats in both rows, and about 7ft from the primary listening position. If you adjust the delay and dB levels correctly you should not have a problem. This does not guarantee that position is the best for your room however.

Actually it's configured for horizontal placement, it seems, and apparently isn't convertible so it wouldn't work well for my space Still, $900 for high gloss rosewood ....