Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Avia Disc & Sub-Woofer Calibration...

Oh no, I can see it already... here comes the Mains = Large, Sub = LFE + Mains versus Mains = Small, Sub = LFE + Mains discussion again.

I believe the reasons I've seen stated in the past for running the M80s on large versus small is b/c people have a hard time mentally cutting out all of the low end from the M80s since they're such highly capable full range towers. (I too have this mental hurdle that I can't get over and run them on large with the subs set to LFE + Mains)

Jason

I must have missed that particular thread Jason, I've always valued Mike's insight and knew he would have had a good reason for it.

LOL - I'm not sure if Mike said it or if it was someone else. I'm happy to put words in his mouth though.

I'm pretty used to people putting words in my mouth. I enjoy hearing about what I say. (joys of living in a small town)

I have tried the M80’s set to small at differing crossover points and set to large as I have them now. I prefer them set to large with LFE + Mains. My “preference” could be nothing more than perception or some other pseudo psychological rational. I am OK with knowing that though and am sticking with running them large. Until someone can come up with a sound and compelling reason to not run the M80’s at large, I will continue to do so. I have plenty of power (350 WPC / 4 ohm or so), so that’s not a consideration.

I do not think folks give the M80’s the credit they deserve in regards to low end bass. Most just default to the position that their sub does better because that’s what subs are designed to do. I’d encourage anyone running a set of 80’s to run them without the sub and throw in a known, hard hitting CD with some good kick drums. Crank it up and then just crawl around the perimeter of your room. I guarantee you will be impressed. Sooner or later you will find a spot in our room where the bass from these speakers floors you. (then you can call Randy and talk about bass traps)

PS: Rick - not real sure why you are screwing with anything. My set up still does not sound as good as you had your's a couple years back when I dropped by.

I have found my M80s set to large and LFE+ gives me a boomy bass, but I know this is due to the dual corner loading I have, as the M80s are against one corner and the sub in the corner to the side of them.

How come Jason didn't get sent to his room?

Mike, I'm totally with you philosophically on this deal. I think many people too easily accept the notion of simply not using the extended bass capabilities of full-range speakers. If your amp has adequate headroom, I see no reason why the 40-80Hz bass from a subwoofer would somehow be "better" than the 40-80Hz bass from your M80's.

The same principle applies even in my weird room with the M60's. I have tried running them "small", but much prefer the response running them full range with the appropriately REW/BFD-tuned sub.

I do run My M80s at 60hz and sometimes 40, but even at 40 it starts to get boomy. I guess if calibrated with 40 hz settings the boominess may go away, oh great, I have talked myself into even more tweaking . I finally have my old XP box back together and running so I will be experimenting with REW in the near future.

It's a domino effect Mike, whenever our power goes out the H/K resets the channel adjust mode so that all speakers default back to 0db + or - gain while all other settings (crossovers, distance and etc.) keeps whatever I previously set. (weird, huh?) The power went out a week or so back and I dusted off the Avia disc and SPL meter to re-check the speaker adjust gain and thought I'd re-check the subwoofer calibration but whenever I couldn't understand the calibration process I brought the question up here, and whenever you mentioned that you had your mains set to large ... well, you know the rest of the story.

I did write down and store the speaker adjust settings this time though.

It's the roll-off. Although the M80 may be capable of producing a 40Hz tone, it will produce it 6db quieter than a 100Hz tone. The EP500 however would not have this limitation.

The bass response for the M80s are +/- 3db @ 34HZ, so how would it be down 6db @ 40HZ?