Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions advice on receivers

Hello Mav and welcome to the forum.

Depending on where you are in Ontario, SPL meters can be difficult to find locally.

You can get an analog SPL meter here for $59. It is one of the best investments you can possibly make. Well worth the money IMO if you are interested in getting one.

http://www.sonicboomaudio.com/cables-acc...f7b4109b96d2b03

Mav,

One other thing to consider if you do decide to get a different receiver some day...Most of them will come with a mic and setup routine that will do an ecellent job setting the distance and dB levels of each speaker. I usually go back and verify with my meter, but 99% of the time, the built in setup will be just fine.

Most newer and better quality subs play down in the low 20hz range and some even go lower than that, they really add more rumble and shake for HT. Yours would be good for music with the lower point in the spec at 35hz. The EP350 specs out at 27hz and in room is sually in the low 20s. My PB13 Ultra reached down to 15hz in my room - generally anything below 20hz is considered subsonic - you don't hear but you feel it. So with your current sub you are missing out on at least 15hz worth of sound and even more feel.

All subs will sound overpowering when turned up beyond the mains output level, this is why an SPL meter is required. It will allow you to veryify you are not running the sub hot(higher than the rest of the system). As Randy noted the newer avr's have setup programs that set the system very close to even on all channels, but most seem to still have problems setting up the sub woofer correctly and certainly not to the liking of everyone using it, as some just like more bass than others.

The question is how does your sub sound with the rest of the system? I thought my old sub sounded pretty good until I started down the path of no return when I started demoing subs, then I realized just how much I was missing

Last time I checked, we're pretty much using the same book.

I too wonder if by describing his sub as "overpowering" if perhaps it is just not well tuned.

I know nothing of your sub and it could very well be be perfect but I have heard cheaper subs, especially cheap HT in a box subs, that rattle or sound boomy and end up drawing too much attention to themselves. A good sub should smoothly blend the bass into sound from the other speakers. At high volumes it might rattle the room but you won't get the impression that the rattle is coming from the sub.

Just something to consider. "Does my sub sound fine, I just need to turn it down to match the other speakers" or "does it not sound right when turned up to match the other speakers.?"

Funny you should mention that. I was in Future Shop today looking at bluray players when one of the sales people cranked an HTIB system. Sounded awefull!! It was painful on the ears without being articulate at all.

I'm glad I ended up here before buying a sub.