Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater ERD-1's Versus QS8's

I followed the emotiva forum with the UMC release to see what would happen - my gut was telling me that it would be a problematic product as well as over-hyped so it made me interested. After the public drama, it wouldn't allow people to view the forum unless you were a member. To be honest I have not followed anything since that time.

So what exactly is the knock on Emotiva then, their customer service? I'm just curious, as I haven't seen much complaining about them besides the incompatability between some of their amps and the M80's. Dave you say you had two failed amps, did they give you the run-around when they went bad?

I'm only asking because if the amp failures are a deal breaker for you then you may also want to steer clear of Axiom subs as I've read dozens of complaints about Axiom subwoofer amp failures in the 16 months I've been on this forum, and experienced 3 of them myself.

However no matter what problems I experienced with my equipment, Axiom was always quick to rectify the situation. Failures are just part of the wonderful world of electronics unfortunately. How the company you're dealing with handles the situation determines how frusterating the whole ordeal will be.

Micah,

Emo was very professional and worked with me on the amps, ended up giving me a full refund. They do have great customer service.

"So what exactly is the knock on Emotiva then, their customer service?"
No knock at all here...

However, call me paranoid but would I buy from them again? I'm not sure really. It's kinda like when you have a bad meal at a restaurant...you hesitate to go back. But with the customer service I got from Emo, when it came right down to it, like a restaurant, I would probably give them another shot...

Remind me, Dana. Did you get your Odyssey amps from Randy?

No, at the time Randy did not know I was looking @ Odyssey. I bought the Khartago mono's new from Odyssey. Had Randy known I was looking at the Khartago's and had I known he was selling them, I would have bought them in a heartbeat! I'm very happy with them thou. Even today, they still freak me out, love them!

They're very pretty and seem to be a good deal. Here's hoping I get the chance to experience them sometime.

Emo's CS is just as good as Axiom's by all accounts I have read.

Micah,

It's funny you bring up Axiom subs. I have the EP350 and I haven't had any issues with it. However, some here don't hesitate to say there are many better value/performance subs out there.

I am one of them. I really have kinda been underwhelmed by my EP350 ever since I bought it. That being said a few weeks ago I started looking at other subs to add to my EP350, cause I want 2 subs in each corner. I have over 4500 cuft to fill.

So here's what I did. For $290.00 (retail $329.00) bucks I purchased a BIC PL-200 Subwoofer.
It's the new big brother of the highly regarded value sub, the H100 which kinda of has a cult following if I dare say...
Here it is...

http://www.bicamerica.com/showpage.php?brand=1&type=8&spkrID=86

Now, please keep in mind I love my Axioms, But, I have to just say this...for the money, and I have to repeat, for the money spent on Axiom subwoofers, I don't think they are a great value, nor do I think now (after buying & testing a cheap PL-200), they perform all that great. Again for the money spent...

So, don't take this that I think they are crap or don't perform. Top of the line Axiom subs do very well, even high rankings on Craigsub list. I just can't see spending that kind of money on Axiom subs when there are so many choices out there.

Now, back to the BIC PL-200. I took a chance on this thing cause there is not much information out there on them, just a few users who seem..well..how do I put this.."younger".

Anyway, below is my comparison of the PL-200 versus the EP350 that I posted over at avs as well as amazon. I really am blown away by this sub...

"Well, I finally got my PL-200 today. I have been testing and calibrating for the last couple hours.

As promised, I said I would report back with a comparison of the PL-200 versus my axiom EP350 sub. PL-200 = $329.00 and my EP350 = $758.00

The results surprised me, but not so much really. I will just go ahead say this. The PL-200 kicked my EP350's arse!

Now, keep in mind, I have much more testing to do. I first adjusted both subs to 75db using my digital sound level meter. C weighted & set to slow. The first thing that caught my attention was while running my test tones starting at 80HZ down to 15hz for each sub independently, was my EP350 would not even register any decibels at 22hz. The PL-200 easily hit 76db @22hz. I knew then the Axiom sub was in trouble.

Then I went on and ran MCACC at full auto, tweaked my levels, then ran MCACC advanced mode keeping the speaker settings.

I first played a lot of favorite songs, from the deep bass of "Peg" from Steely Dan to Dream Theater to Queensryche to Metallica's Black CD. The PL-200 filled out my room (4500cuft) nicely, no boominess, no muddiness, just clean well rounded tight bass. Kick drums hit hard and in my face. I pretty much compared a lot of songs with and without the Axiom sub.

I have each sub in the far corners of the room right outside my axiom M80 towers. I must say I'm lovin the PL-200 so far.

Unfortunately, I only have 1 Blue ray disc at this time and it was Twilight New Moon. Not the best movie for lows. But, I'll have to wait for some more movies from Netflix to test the PL-200 further.

But what I did hear (both subs running) was nothing short of amazing. I can't imagine how Dark Knight or Transformers will sound. Because some of the wolf fighting scenes in Twilight rocked the house, everything was shaking. I could "feel" and hear the walls rattle.

So to summarize the PL-200 with just a couple hours of use, I would say this:

If I had to do this over again, I would have just bought 2 PL-200's instead of the Axiom and saved some money. The PL-200 is an incredible value and when cranked up some, will produce test tones down to 20hz and 18hz nicely. The Axiom EP350 just can't do that, and it's more than twice the price. I'll try to report back here when I get some more bass intense movies, plus I need to tweak some more.

As a side note, I'm really thinking about replacing the PL-200 stock amp with the 500 watt Bash amp, just for fun. But believe me, the stock amp rocks! This is more than enough low end thunder that I will ever need. I just can't see investing $1200.00 plus for a high end sub. One of the reasons I went for the PL-200 to begin with was I wanted 2 subs and I can spend the money I saved, on the Velodyne SMS-1 Sub Eq. I should be ordering the SMS-1 in a couple weeks. This will round out my system for awhile."

So anyway, to keep this thread on topic, this is kinda the reason I posted about the Emo ERD-1 Surround speakers. Seems there "may" be better value and performance in surround speakers as well, again.."for the money" Just my opinion all...

Dana

I’ve read at least 3 cases at Audioholics where Emo did not honor the trial period or some warranty issue or so the posters claimed all those threads were deleted. One long time member (don’t remember who now) opined that a couple of his friends also had return CS issues with Emo.

They constantly announce products w/delivery dates only to push them back again and again. Their current problem is their UMC-1. They routinely fail to deliver on promised firmware updates. Not good CS IMO.

According to Emo lounge members posting at AVS the owners make fun of people on their forum who are having problems with their products. The moderators (no not Emo employees but representing them) are now some of the most rabid fanboys who now heavily moderate negative posts after they became so prevalent that the forum fanboys couldn’t shout them down any more and they lost their IT guy.

AV123 also got great marks on CS until. . . .

I see way to many similarities between those companies. Including who Emo got it’s start with. Having done background investigations I can assure you that who one associates(d) with tells much more about them than almost anything else.

I’m not saying that no one should buy Emo, hell if AV123 has something you want buy it. Just do so with a full understanding of the situation.

Dana, it may be that the the ERDs are in fact "in an entirely different class" from the QSs. They appear to be a fairly routine dipolar design, while the QSs use upward and downward in-phase firing mid-woofers(possibly inspired by Allison designs of the 1970s)which uniquely combine very wide dispersion with an element of directness to suit various source materials well.