Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Dual EP800 vs SVS Ultra 16

BTW, for anyone who has interest; I think that I have found the solution to the Axiom and Bryston subs not having an auto on feature. I was told that they don't fully shut down, but go into a 'sleep' mode when not in use unless you use the 12v trigger which means running another long lead from the main amp and if you do it only reduces the power consumption from 30 watts to I think 18 watts if I recall the numbers.

I like the idea of having the sub amp off completely when not in use and the only way to do that is to physically go behind the sub and hit the power switch off. If I end up with multiple subs, I'll have to cycle each one whenever I use the system.

Lutron makes a wireless 15 amp or 20 amp outlet which comes either as split or duplex. If I get the split one, I can plug the sub into the side which is electronically switched on/off via the Pico remote and the Pico can be synced to upto 10 devices. So if I install 3 outlets around the room, and plug in each sub to a specific outlet, sync the pico to all three outlets, I can hit the Pico to shut down the power to all three outlets. Beware that if you install the duplex outlet which means top and bottom of the outlet are controlled, anything down the circuit from that outlet will go off too. If you don't want to effect the entire circuit, but only the individual device, get the split and use just one outlet on it, the other will remain hot and all the device downstream will have current too with being shut off when you shut off the section of the outlet wirelessly.

Also, these outlets are surge protected! That affords protection to the sub amp. No idea on cost yet, its new, but I am guessing around $50 each. This circumvents the 12v amp trigger line and cuts power off to sub completely which should save on electrical bills over time. I did a lot of research on this subject to figure out how to "add" auto power on feature to the Axiom subs.

It's hard to find online, no one has it listed yet, but the Part number for the split device is CAR2S-15-STR for the 15 amp outlet, The 20 amp is same number just with the 20 vs. 15.

I don't see surge protection in the pdf below. Be aware that transient protectors can affect the dynamic power demanded by loads like subs and amps.

http://www.lutron.com/TechnicalDocumentLibrary/3691034.pdf

I asked the technical guy at Lutron if this was also surge protected, he said yes it will trip under a surge hit. I am not sure how it would effect the performance of the sub if at all.

I will say that I purchased a simple Tripplite single outlet surge protection plug in unit which then becomes an outlet socket. I read that it was decent and I tried it with my 500 watt DefTech. I could see no ill-effects, so if it's similar to the wireless outlet, I assume it should be ok to use. I also used one on the Big SVS PC13 Ultra and again no issues.

When you add more energy you just have to have a plan to manage it properly. More isn't always better, but can be if decay is properly managed in the room. Otherwise just buy Cerwin Vega stuff and crank it till nose bleeds.

The towers in my room took some wrangling to get right. Without EQ and treatments they wouldn't be as impressive. Just freaking big and loud. They would do better in a larger space where low frequency loading was less an issue for example. It took work to make them behave as I wanted.

My old Cerwin Vega 12T towers were amazing, loved them and they sounded really good, especially when played loud. They had 12 inch down firing woofers at the bottom of the tower. And really nice black walnut veneer finish. It's too bad they need a rebuild, but they date back to 1975, what can you expect?

I still have them in the basement.... hmmmm, I wonder what would happen if I modified the cabinets to accept Axiom 12 inch drivers, 5 inch mids and the tweeter? Also replace the crossover with the matching Axiom unit. That could be a cool experiment.

The CV crossover has individual attenuator pots for the tweeter and mid's. You can adjust the level of each section independently.

I was shaking my head Trevor when you started building those monsters because I knew your room size. But then you worked all that magic in the room. Amazing! I wonder how much better they'd sound fully active. It'd be easy given the x-over is external.

I've been thinking about retrofitting my Bose 601 series II with Axiom drivers and an active x-over.

...he didn't just say Bose? did he?

Oh yeah! I traded a bottle of beer for both of them when they were 4 years old. I powered them up and at the first bass drum, the port exiting the so-called "free space array" puked up a dead moth.

Do you want to know what they sound like? Just throw three sleeping bags over your Axiom Air, and you too can experience the muffled sounds and missing octaves that only Bose 601 Series IIs can deliver!

Hard to say. I took a bunch of measurements and they are pretty well behaved now in the room. I think the major bottleneck is the amps ahead of them. But I'm stuck with those for the foreseeable future