Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater AV receivers/Amps confusion, please help.

In reply to:

---

worried that once I finish my basement HT/recroom, the room is going to be to big. So I'm curious if adding an amp/amps would help for larger rooms.

---

You have a great system and IMO don't need any more amp power.

Your EP350 powered sub offloads much of the power demands from your amp. Bass frequences take the most power, and your sub is shouldering that.

Just make sure your receiver bass management is set to subwoofer only (not sub+mains), set all speakers to "small", and crossover about 80Hz.

Besides room acoustic treatment, the only real enhancement would be a bigger subwoofer (but I like bass). The EP350 is pretty powerful and probably fine.

If you like surround music get a SACD or multiformat player and some multichannel discs. See http://store.acousticsounds.com/ and search on SACD and DVD-A to see if any of your favorite artists have multichannel discs out.

Thanks guys, appreciate all the feedback, time will tell. Hopefully I'll be done hanging all the drywall in the next week or so, then I can get someone in there to mud/tape/texture the basement. I'm hoping to get some pictures up on my website of the construction process/finished process asap...

ps: I have all the speakers set to small currently with an 80hz crossover on the receiver, volume on the sub at 12 o'clock, phase switch in the up position, and it is totally awesome. I'm sure things will change a bit when I move down to the bigger room. I might even get a second EP350, as the overall room is like 30' x 30' minus the AV closet I put in.....

Randy

I thought I recall reading somewhere(a post from Alan??? I think) that you should set the speakers to LARGE for the M80 and M60. I'm using the EP350 sub as well.

Could someone please confirm this?
Thanks!

I don't recall that, if you set your crossover to 80hz, the M60's and M80's will still play a lot of lowend bass, and as you gradually go below that crossover point the sub kicks in and rocks the house. Some like 60hz and some like 120hz settings, but I think the norm is around 80hz, there is a lot of bass down to those levels and the M60's and M80's are very very capable of those notes.

M60's
VP150
EP350
4 Qs8's

Ok. I found the link.
http://www.axiomaudio.com/archives/subsetup.html

"For Axiom’s larger tower speakers--the M80ti’s, M60ti’s, and M50ti’s--depending on the particulars of room size, start by selecting the "Large" setting on your receiver for the left and right main speakers, and "Small" for the center and surround channels. With these settings, and the subwoofer set to "On," most receivers will route full-range sound, including deep bass, to the main left and right speakers, and bass below 80 Hz to the "Sub Out" jack on the rear panel of the receiver. (Some rooms may benefit from smoother bass by getting deep bass from three room locations--the sub plus the main left and right speakers--rather than a single subwoofer.)...."

Basically, it says experiment with Large and Small to see which one sounds best for your home theater setup. Some room benenfit from the additional subs(Front Left and Front Right) vs a stand-alone sub only like EP350.

I better go home and experiment with Small and Large again.

From my experience, running my M60s at "large" is definitely superior - richer, more natural, just clearly better - for HT. Of course, this is in my house and I really only experimented with one movie ("The Fast and the Furious", I think).

You should get a second movie. That would really expand your viewing pleasure

In reply to:

---

start by selecting the "Large" setting on your receiver for the left and right main speakers, and "Small" for the center and surround channels. With these settings, and the subwoofer set to "On," most receivers will route full-range sound, including deep bass, to the main left and right speakers, and bass below 80 Hz to the "Sub Out" jack on the rear panel of the receiver.

---

question: Many receivers have a "subwoofer setting" in which you can choose "LFE" or "LFE+MAINS. With the above configuration which "subwoofer setting" would be appropriate? Anybody?

Funny this forum has popped up while I've been doing extensive A/B testing with Large vs. Small. I though at first it a fluke with one of my receivers...but now I've had more receivers and the results are the same. Personally the best sounds for every speaker has been Large for all of them. The only problem is that this sacrifices subwoofer activity. Though my friend, who has a Denon 3805, swears he is able to get crossover activity in addition to having his speakers on Large. Perhaps...I haven't heard it yet. If this is the case, I would find this ideal as most speakers sound fuller on Large, and then maybe crossover at 60 Hz as not to get too much doubling of bass activity.

But...I don't have that option so....I'm still uncertain what I'm going to do.

In reply to:

---

you can choose "LFE" or "LFE+MAINS. With the above configuration which "subwoofer setting" would be appropriate? Anybody?

---

This is a very confusing area, worsened by the lack of clear documentation from receiver manufacturers.

If you have L/R MAIN = LARGE and LFE=SUB, it is unclear where the bass frequencies go. Conceptually the two settings are in conflict.

My Yamaha RX-V1400 manual implies that if LFE=SUB (not BOTH) then bass freqs go to the sub regardless of whether the main speakers are set to LARGE.

If LFE=BOTH, then bass freqs go to whatever speakers are set to LARGE, in addition to the SUB.

Various receivers may implement this differently. It's unfortunate it's so poorly documented.

It's possible some receivers don't have the setting LFE=BOTH, rather steer bass both places with LFE=SUB and L/R MAIN=LARGE.

In general if you have a capable sub I don't see the point of redundantly sending bass frequencies to your main speakers. In theory you can get better "blending". But there's also a risk of "bass doubling" if not properly calibrated. Also an 80Hz crossover is so low I somewhat question the "blending" argument; just my opinion.

Even with LFE=SUB and L/R Main=LARGE it's not a brick wall filter at 80Hz. Usually some freqs below that go to your mains. However even that is probably receiver specific. Another area most mfgs should better document.