Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Changes to EP500?

If I had the money, I would, too, but as it stands, I can't afford that level of perfectionism on something that becomes obsolete so quickly.

33guy,
1. I think we are all getting frustrated with our inability to help you. One thing I did was pull up the AV owners manual. There is no setting for speakers large or small separate from the crossover. From page 61 of the manual:

"• You can adjust the crossover frequency within the
range of 40 ~ 250 Hz.
• Select "FULL RANGE" when the selected speaker
can fully reproduce the low frequencies below 40 Hz."

What that means is that the FULL RANGE setting in the crossover menu is the same as setting the speaker to large on most AVs. Since you have selected all crossover settings to 80Hz then all speakers are considered to be small so that's good.

2. You said in several messages that movies and live music play fine, but SACD music does not. Do you have any standard concert DVDs? How do they sound? How do live concerts from your cable box sound? If they sound fine then your sub is hooked up right and working correctly.

3. In looking through your prior threads it's not clear that you have mastered all your OPPO settings. I've had home theater as a hobby for years, but I'm sure I would have trouble configuring the OPPO for SACD so don't feel bad if that is what it turns out to be.

Bill

I would try listening in stereo instead of some kind of 5.1 mode. see how the sub sounds then.

Dude if you spend $10,000 dollars on a computer, you should absolutely expect it to be perfect, I don't blame you one bit. The same can be said for the cabbage you gave for your speaker system, it should be perfect also. Never settle for less when you're paying for the best.

One other point I'll make, when listening to 5.1 the bass signal sent to my EP800 is not nearly as strong as it is in 2.1 audio mode. That's probably why my 'volume' knob is set at 50% instead of 20 - 30%. If I listened in 2.1 I probably would turn it down some since it's so over powering. So try this real fast, set your receiver to stereo and see if it makes any difference in the bass output. If not, then I guess we'll have to wait and see what the pro's say.

Oh and don't worry, my EP800 reached me in anything but perfect condition. I've been hearing a lot of complaints about Axiom subs as of late, a lot of similar issues occuring with the new models. I'm thinking the new amp design may have some bugs to work out of it yet. My 800 for instance had a bad amp that damaged (my theory anyway) both of my speakers. I have since swapped out the amp and one of the woofers, and now I'm waiting on getting my other replacement woofer. For now anyhow the music sounds absolutely fantastic! But movies drive it into distortion. Sounds like exactly the opposite problem as you are having. Rest assured, if there is a problem with your EP500, Axiom will take great care of you!

Ya but on this type of computer ALL the parts are interchangeable for upgrades so I can always throw more money at it.

I dont really listen to too much in just 2.1 but will try it. Axiom should have done more testing instead of rushing out the new models ( I think the new design saves them money in parts) But me being in a wheelchair its a hassle to pack up a 80lb sub to send back. I thought the same thing ( If my sub has problems I bet others do to with new design) My ears dont lie this sub is not working correctly like a $1200 sub should.

That you can, but with technology advancing so rapidly you could have got a $1500 desktop and simply replace it in a few years when it's not up to task with another 1500 machine that will be far more advanced than anything you can buy right now.

33guy,

You said in several messages that movies and live music play fine, but SACD music does not.

Do you have any standard concert DVDs? How do they sound?

How do live concerts from your cable box sound? If they sound fine then your sub is hooked up right and working correctly.

I've been following this thread for a while and something is amiss here. Some thoughts:


The EP500 is not a new design. It has been around for several years now. Its true that they have made some changes, but those are relatively minor. The sub works very well for a number of people here so I think you can eliminate design as an issue.

That leaves the following:
1. Poor room acoustically. The experts you have coming should be able to measure this. If they can't they're not experts. If you have big nulls in your room somewhere in the 40-200Hz region (yes, thats above what your sub produces) it can have a big impact on your bass.

2. Expectations different from how Axiom designed their subs to sound. Axiom is obsessed with reproducing exactly what is in the originally recorded material. Maybe you are used to an 'older style' sound where some frequencies are over emphasized. Getting an inexpensive equalizer for your sub so you can boost some of the frequencies to see if that improves what you hear.

3. The sub is broken. Axiom builds quality stuff, but nobody is perfect and when you ship large heavy objects by courier the get knocked about a fair bit.

Since you have arranged for the experts to come out, wait for them to show up to see what they have to say. I would actually call them to confirm that they will measure in room response of your mains and your sub. If they won't, they are not worth having out to your place.

Another thought. See if your experts can bring something to do a test EQ of your sub to see if they can change the in room response to something more to your liking.

I'm not saying this is the case for you th3at3rguy, but I did recently run into this exact situation.

My bro-in-law was over and had some some cd's he uses in his bass heavy car system. He wanted to hear how the bass compared on my Axiom system (he has heard Nemo fishtank and other subwoofer fun scenes on my system). When we got to the bass parts on his discs there was well...bass, but not BASS! He was quite surprised. That's when I explained to him the Axiom's and my system are calibrated to reproduce the source as closely as possible and not over emphasize any frequency range.

I actually found it quite interesting how drastic the difference was. I have also heard his car system. I was expecting a difference but not that much. And just to be sure I did pop in Finding Nemo right after and verified my EP500 was still able to shake my room with no change to the settings! Good luck and keep at it - you will get this resolved.