Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater M60s playing LFE channel

I've been playing around with various settings on my receiver, particularly experimenting with different options for subwoofer calibration. Out of curiousity, I set my M60 speakers to large, all other speakers to small and set the subwoofer to off. I'm using an Outlaw 990 receiver (and 7125 amp) and the net effect of these settings is to send the full range signal to the M60s, along with the bass from the center/surrounds and the LFE channel in DD/DTS recordings. To test it out I played a couple of bass intensive scenes - Finding Nemo (Darla taps tank) and Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (opening scene where ship explodes).

WOW - I was not ready for the results. For some reason, the LFE effects are significantly magnified through the M60. The output levels are extremely high. I took some measurements using a SPL meter. Playing these scenes with the LFE routed to the M60 (and no sub) hit peaks of 105-110 dB when playing -20 dB from reference levels whereas they hit peaks of 90-95 dB when the LFE is routed to the subwoofer. I did not expect this.

Is this normal? I did not expect the LFE channel to play so loudly through the M60. I don't plan on keeping the system configured this way but I thought it interesting nonetheless. It does confirm that the M60s can play reasonably low at fairly high SPL levels. But I'm surprised the Outlaw 990 sends such a strong LFE signal to the front mains when configured as such.

Any thoughts?

It may be that the volume knob on the subwoofer is not turned up all the way so no matter how strong a signal the receiver is sending it volume level set on it’s internal amp is limiting the spl. I’m assuming here that it’s a powered subwoofer.

It may also be that the M60s are “corner loaded” and receiving a bass boost from room reinforcement.

Just a couple possibilities,

Dean

P.S. Still it’s a nice demonstration how powerful Axiom speakers are.

Should I cancel my sub?

Yes.

in fact cancel your entire order, AV123 is calling your name.

Oh, snap!

HMMmmmm No smiley face. HMMmmmm

I can see the gears turning in your mind as if it were a steampunk computer.

I've always wanted to say "Steampunk".

Sound like a beer.

I've been thinking a bit on this one after my original post. One reason might be that the LFE channel on my receiver (Outlaw 990) runs at a fairly high level compared to the other 5 channels. The receiver's front channels are trimmed by -3 dB whereas the subwoofer's channel is trimmed to -10 dB to level match the speakers to 75 dB. Additionally, the EP500 amp's volume control isn't fully amplifying the LFE signal (the volume control is only at 7:00) whereas my Outlaw amp is fully amplifying the front channels. Therefore, when sending the LFE signal to the subwoofer, it is being attenuated by -10 dB at the receiver and further reduced by the subwoofer's amplifier. Whereas sending the LFE signal to the front mains, the signal is being attenuated -3 dB at the receiver and fully amplified by the Outlaw amp. This might help to explain why the LFE signal is much stronger through the front mains than through the subwoofer.

Does this make sense? I'm not an expert and this is my simple, layman's reasoning. I also agree with the post above that the positioning of my mains relative to my subwoofer might be causing some room reinforcement of the bass.

Is it normal that the LFE signal is much stronger than the other channels?

Thanks!