Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners making M22's and EP350 blend

Hey everyone,

I'm having a problem making my speakers blend.

I hav the M22's on 20inch stands and an EP350 in the corner.

The M22's are sounding a little thin and the EP350 boomy.

To add to my woes, I have a new neighbor that likes the complain. I told him to go away because it was 5:30pm, but if he complains enough there could be trouble.

Can anyone suggest a way to, firstly, get them to meld better, and if possible, get the sub to be less boomy, short of listening to music with less bass.

thank you!

Not Axiom-specific advice, but any subwoofer will decrease in boominess as you move it away from the corner. Try placing it along a wall instead of the corner. If it's still too loud, you might need to move it out into the room somehow (like at the end of a couch or something).

Have you calibrated the sub with an SPL meter? Also, as suggested by the other Peter, try moving it away from the corner.

Another thing to try is adjusting the phase switch.

I ended up buying an SVS, but during my research phase, Sasha at HSU recommended that to diminish the risk of pissing off neighbors, you can place the sub closer to the listening position, like beside the couch. That way, you can often play the sub at a lower volume, and the sub could be further away from common walls, with no real negative effect on the sound of the sub. Might be worth a try.

If the M22's are sounding thin, you can try turning up the tone control for bass on your receiver, or experiment with how close the M22's are from the wall. I have the bass knob on my receiver turned up past the center to give the M22's a bit fuller sound, but my sub definitely provides the low end punch.

Good luck, hope you can work it out.

Any thinness I perceived from my M22s was remedied by adjusting their placement in my room. Moving them an inch or two makes a noticeable difference in how they sound. I think the biggest difference for me was moving them further from tha back walls. I have a large CRT TV sitting between them, so moving them forward brought their baffles more in-line with he front of the TV.

thanks for the replies!

So far, I've set the speakers to large, but i might instead set them the bass a bit higher. They are about 20 inches from the wall, 7 feet apart.

I would try moving the sub but i don't have a long enough cable.

I'll get back to you,

thanks again!

Ravi, I believe that we discussed this before and although I'm not there to hear it, it still appears to me that the 350 level is set too high in relation to the M22s. My suggestion is still to set the M22s small, the receiver crossover at 80Hz and the 350 crossover all the way up to get it as far out of the way as possible. The position of the 350 is probably fine, but the level shouldn't be so high that it's audible as a separate source. The impression should be that the 350 isn't working but the M22s are putting out more bass.

The EP350 should not sound boomy if it is correctly crossed-over, level calibrated, and well-placed. In case you have already covered the former two items, the culprit might be the sub placement as others have suggested.

Have you tried the technique of "subwoofer crawl" to determine the optimal locations of the sub in your room yet? Basically, you temporarily place the sub on your normal listening position, play some bass-heavy music, and crawl around the room to identify a spot(s) where the bass is heard powerful yet balanced, tight and non-boomy.

With regard to the M22s sounding thin, I again agree with others, and it may well be due to the placement. What's the current distance between the M22s, as well as the listening distance?

Try all of these tips, and fear not. Your issue is with placement and/or cross-over, as suggested. Once you get these tweaked properly, they'll sound sweet. It's not a speaker or sub issue.

Once you've got it setup properly, the "boominess" that the neighbor is complaining about will probably go away too. That should please him, as well as you.

Yes, the sub probably is too high.

I'll have to calibrate it somehow

sushi,

I didn't do the sub crawl because there is only one corner where I could have put it, so it went there. Response is great though.

So far, I have reduced the sound on the sub and it's sounding a whole lot better. I can only calibrate by ear as i can't find my SPL meter at work.

thanks everyone!

You did not mention if you set your speakers to small. I previously set my speakers to large and the sub = lfe+main. It was too boomy.

ravi, why not buy a RadioShack SPL meter? It'll be an excellent $40 upgrade for your system!