Ok, I have no idea where to start or if I'm on right track but for my EP500 settings I have Xover on bypass so my rotel pre/pro does the xover. Trim is set on Flat, volume is at 9 o clock position, and phase set on 0 degrees. Does this sound right? Also on the rotel pre pro I can set xover for each speaker, right now the fronts, center, and rears are all set at 80hz and the sub is also set at 80hz. Any opinions or suggestions welcomed. If you guys want to say what your settings are, that will be cool. I will get into calibration hopefully this weekend with my Avia and spl meter. Oh yeah, and pics too! Be patient axiomites. he he
ereed,
Your settings are a great starting point but you should do some tweaking to really dial in the EP500's performance. If your room is large, then leaving the trim set to flat is probably a good idea, but if it's medium to small, then experiment with setting the trip to half or full. My room is small and I needed to set mine to full to gain the smoothest response.
My room is 16 x 16 feet with 9 foot ceilings and it has open entry to kitchen and hall. Does that qualify as medium or large room?
I would say it qualifies as a medium but you really do need to experiment to determine what sounds best to you.
With my 500 (when I owned one) or my current 600 with the gain to 9o'clock, my receiver's dB levels for the sub have to be very very low to achieve the 75dB SPL to match my other speakers. What do you have the receiver dB levels on? Other than that, it all sounds pretty good.
Axiom recommends "midway" to 9o'clock to start which is about 6.5 to 7 which should put your reciever/pre closer to -2 to 0dB's.
Eric, as far as the speaker crossover settings, the commonly suggested 80Hz should probably be kept as the master setting for all speakers, although your 1068 can make a change for individual speakers. 80Hz is a good compromise, being high enough to relieve the speakers of a significant amount of the lowest-bass burden, yet not being so high that the sub is easily localizable. Since the VP150 might begin to roll off a little above 80Hz, you might also try 100Hz for it, but 80Hz should be satisfactory.
As to the EP500 setting, mine is at about 7 O'Clock, but how you set yours depends on how high the input level is when you calibrate it, and could be higher or lower. You don't have to wait to do at least a rough calibration; don't worry about Avia, just use the 1068's tones with your meter for a 75dB level result between all the speakers and the sub. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes, and you can try the Avia disc when you have more time. One point is that the sub shouldn't be loud enough to bring attention to itself(even if you want to hear all that money that you spent!); it should blend so that the impression is that the speakers are putting out more bass. Also, you should try all three trim settings, since Half or even Full might result in smoother overall bass in your room.
Right now the 1068 has all the speakers set to 0db for now until calibration. I agree the 9 o clock position might be high cause it was awfully loud while watching Saving Private Ryan, but I didn't change it since I was loving the bass. ha ha What do you guys use to get smoothest response from sub? Is there a cd or tool?
For starters you need to get an SPL meter from Radio Shack if you don't have one and calibrate everything to 75dB. If your Rotel offers built in test tones use that, otherwise there are many calibration DVD's out there a person can use.
Ereed,
With your small to medium HT room (2300cf), you may want to set your trim to medium and reduce your output to 6-7 O'clock position! This should give you a flatter room response across the whole sub's range and balance it with the top end better!
I have a 5300cf room, trim at flat and output set to 7:30 o'clock! The LFE and low bass seems to be balanced with this in my room and compliments the overall room audio response.
Yea, bet you Are enjoying the power\finess the EP500 is capable of!!
Ted
Haven't messed with trim settings yet but now its at 7 o'clock position rather than 9 o;clock. Calibrated everything to 75db and the sub is at 80db and still PLENTY of headroom left. WOW! Stay tuned for pics tonight in another post. Movie time now.....I'm thinking pearl harbor so I can enjoy the sub.
