Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater new system and subwoofer hook-up

ordered an epic 60 yesterday after purchasing yamaha rxv1300 receiver. when speakers arrive, do i want to wire to high level or low level settings?

Dan, you should set all speakers to "small" on your 1300 which will then send material under about 90hz from all channels out the low level sub output. A coaxial cable is used to connect the sub out to the low level input on the EP350, which probably is best located in the corner closest to the M60s. The crossover on the EP350 is unnecessary,since the 1300 is handling all crossover duties; so, it should be turned up to the max to get it as far out of the way as possible. The speakers would be connected to their respective speaker terminals on the 1300, using regular speaker wire.

If you are asking about the EP350, it is recommended to use the line in instead of the high level. It is also not necessary to hook up both L and R line unless your receiver has specific output for L and R. Use the sub preamp from your receiver and L on your sub.

thanks
ordered last friday, and fedex delivered this morning. can't wait to get home tonight.
dan

john, messed around with all speakers set to small, and cranked the sub all the way up. my 20 year old daughter was blown away. she said it sounded like a night club! however, it was too much for me and my wife; actually hurt. reassigned the m60i's to large, but still had to keep the sub at a low level. our rear ends were vibrating in the chairs. if you're familiar with the yamaha receiver, these are the settings we use. stereo for cds and radio, and home theater #1 enhanced for dvds. are these correct. there are so many choices that i listen and watch with the yamaha manual and remote in my hand.
thanks in advance
dan

Dan, you may have misunderstood part of my previous reply. The M60s and all other speakers should be set "small". Since the 1300 is then handling the crossover duties at about 90hz, you want to get the sub crossover out of the way by turning it(not the sub level control) all the way up to the 150hz area. The sub level control certainly shouldn't be turned to anything near maximum. It should start near minimum and be slowly increased until the sub is loud enough that it begins to draw attention to itself, then backed off slightly. Hope that you and your wife's ears survived the experience.

Nice to see someone else with my receiver/speaker setup. Welcome to the club!

Twodan,
I agree with your assessment of the sub sounding like it was too prominent when the M60s are set to small and the sub crossover is turned up hence i also have my M60s set to large with the sub cross turned down to around 50hz.
However you may want to be sure the volume/gain control on the subwoofer is not set past the 50% mark or so, at least not for your first sound tests. You should start with the volume low and turn it up to a desired level as you listen.
My ep350 is set around the 20%-25% mark right now but my room is not very large.

On your receiver make sure that the gain is left at zero. Volume setting is adjusted on the subwoofer only. As suggested by everyone, you should start no more than 50% (at about 12 o'clock position) and with the use of sound level meter, you can calibrate the sound to properly match the volume of the other speakers.

This will avoid the overpowering effect of the sub.

thanks for the input. i realize i need a professional to "tune" the system to realize it's fullest potential as i don't feel i'm qualified to do it.waiting for my new free toshiba tv to arrive, and the purchase of entertainment center. i figured that way connections, settings, and trimmed speaker wire lenghts could be factored in.
i love the speakers now, while my wife thinks they are "too crisp". my reply is that we can now hear all the music.
i did turn down the sub to lowest setting, and followed joe's advise in the faqs, and set volume at about 10 o'clock. much better, but U2 certainly does love the use of bass in their recordings.
dan

Twodan,
the setup for a home theatre system is easier than you think. There are helpful home dvds to walk you through the basics of 'tuning' your own system.
CHek out this link to an older post on the Sound and Vision dvd :
S&V dvd
The discs (S&V and the Avia) can be found at Amazon.com.