Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater EP600 impressions

I’ve had a EP600 for a couple of weeks now and I thought I would share my impressions.

First, let me say that this is not at all what I was expecting from such a big box. I never had a HT subwoofer before, the only experience that I had was with car subs. After convincing the wife that this big box will provide lots of base in our living room (she loves bass), you can imagine the look on my face when after poping a CD she tells me, I don’t hear any difference from before… I have to admit that I also was expecting (wrongly) to hear more bass similar to what you can hear in a car. It is only after a few moments that I realized that it was playing what it was supposed to: all the bass notes without them being louder than the rest.
After being used to its sound, I agree with what a lot of Axiom customers say, although not being known for their subs, they make very “musical” subs. Such so, that the EP600 blends perfectly (at least to my ears) with my M80s, just extending their sound to reach the lower notes.
I placed the sub by doing the subwoofer crawl and it ended up being in the front corner next to the M80, not the best spot for the WAF. I still need to buy a SPL meter and play with REW, and if there is not much difference, maybe I’ll end up moving it to the opposite corner, on the side of our sitting position (I have an empty space there where the wife was hoping I would put the sub), and maybe use a BFD to smooth out the frequency response. Anyway, I’ll need to experiment.
I played with the crossover and seem to like it better when crossed over at 40Hz. To my surprise, there is more “punch” coming from the M80s in the 50/80Hz region than from the EP600, which strange to me since it has a 12” woofer. I can’t really explain that. If I cross it at 80Hz, although it sounds very good, I kind of loose the “feel” of the kick drum if it makes any sense. This is more noticeable when I change the crossover from 60 to 80Hz than from 40 to 60Hz. For movies, I have them crossed at 60Hz, first because I can’t really tell the difference between 40 and 60Hz so I take some of the load from the M80s, and second to help my conscience feel better about the purchase by having it playing something more than the 20/40Hz range
A thing that I have a hard time understanding is the trim level (the sub is a V2). I have it set it to full which Axiom describes as giving it a boost above 33Hz. I understand that that way the frequency response won’t be flat but I like it the way it sounds better. When switching it to flat it’s almost like there is no bass at all coming from the sub. The part that I don’t get is why is the flat setting more suitable for a larger room, and the half and full settings for a medium/small rooms? The manual describes it as compensation for the room loading. If there is too much room loading, wouldn’t a boost above 33Hz load it even more? That confuses me. Also, will it go deeper when in flat vs full?

Originally, I wasn’t planning on buying an Axiom sub and definitely not the EP600 for budget reasons but a friend of mine knew somebody that was selling his and I was able to get a good deal on it which made it hard to pass on. I believe it is a very good sub but for the type of music I listen to, I find that it barely plays anything since the M80s do such a fine job even when playing full range, which is a shame really since it is such a musical sub (when I cross it at 80Hz and can hear something ). For movies, it is doing a fine job as well and rumbles my whole living room when it needs to, always being controlled and never boottoming out (thank you DSP ), although in its price range I believe that some of the competitors would offer more for movie experience, the PB13 Ultra comes to my mind.

In the end, I think that the EP600 is a very, very good sub but if I would have had to pay full price for it, I probably wouldn’t have gone with the EP600, first because I can't afford to spend 2K on a sub and second simply because I don’t usually listen to music that has much content below 40Hz and for movies you can probably find a sub that plays louder and deeper from another company in this price range.
For what I paid for, I am extremely happy with it and believe it was a great buy. I would definitely recommend this sub if you listen to music that has a lot of content below what the towers can handle or if you want to compliment a pair of M22s or other bookshelf as the bass coming from it is unbelievably clear.

After almost a year and a half my 5.1 system is finally complete and I am extremely happy with it.

Cheers,

Bruno

Room modes and nulls. Either there is a null in the 60-80 Hz region where your sub is placed, or your M80s are exciting a room mode and giving you a peak in that region.

It is really hard to tell what is going on unless you measure with a mike and a program like REW.


Again, REW will answer that for you. What you think is flat may not be.

Congrats on the new sub. It sounds like you will enjoy the addition, even if some of what you are hearing is a bit of a surprise.

I would recommend Kung Fu Panda Blu-ray, The Dark Night Blu-ray, Iron Man 2 Blu-ray and last but not least How to Train Your Dragon Blu-ray. These movies will test the midbass capabilities coupled with the mains (that slam presence) as well as extension (see HTTYD) of the sub.

Bruno,

Congrats on the sub! Like my EP500, your EP600 will really shine once you get some kind of Sub EQ...


Dana

Ha anyone watched the mummy 3? I was watching at my parents house and it seemed like it would have great LFE, but they don't have a HT system so maybe I'm wrong. In any case, maybe that would be one to check out as well.

Thanks guys, don't get me wrong, the EP600 is outputting some serious low bass and for movies, it's like I said, I can't really tell the difference between cross at 40, 60 and almost 80. But with music, if I really pay attention, there is a difference, subtle but there. I agree, I need to get REW going and see what's going on, this judgment is made with the help of this complicated tool: my ears

Bruno, keep in mind that when correctly calibrated a sub isn't supposed to be heard as a separate entity; it's as if it wasn't on but the speakers are putting out more bass. This is the way that I have my EP500 calibrated, but a lot of owners want to "hear" what they've paid good money for and set it several dB "hot". This is especially the case in movies as compared to music(e.g., there's no "natural" level for explosions, etc. as compared to deep bass in music).

On the "Trim" setting, I also have it set at "Full". The result except in very large rooms is an overall response that is flatter than on the "Flat" setting. This is because room gain occurs at frequencies relative to the longest room dimension and affects the first 20-40Hz octave in typically-sized rooms, making it unbalanced with respect to mid-bass frequencies. Therefore a boost in those higher frequencies results in a more, not less, even overall bass response. In cars the longest dimension is much shorter and the "room" gain begins at a much higher frequency, which can result in some very loud bass indeed over a very wide range of bass frequencies.

Thanks for the clarification John. So if I understand correctly, the room will create a gain within the 20/40 region, the full trim setting will create a gain in the 33Hz to midbass (let's say 50/60Hz) so overall the 20Hz to 60Hz region will be flatter instead of the 20/40Hz region being louder in the flat setting, correct?

You got it.