Hey, I was testing my new system in my basement (not completed yet, just wanted to hear it) and I had a concern with my sub (EP350). My basement HT room will be about 2500 ft^3 and i just did not seem to be getting the performance i heard in a room about half its size. I know its going to be a bigger room, but seemed to under-perform. I was using a pre-out from a crappy receiver, and I have nothing in hte room yet and I did not position it at all, just shoved it in a corner. Will adding furniture, carpet make a HUGE difference? I still felt bass, but not what it did in my previous setup. Is the 350 just toooo small for that room?. its about 20x20x7. I do not have the money to upgrade to a EP500, so i was wondering if anyone has a 350 in a similar sized room, and if the naked room had a lot to do with this? (the performance wasnt HORRRIBLE, just not anywhere near what ive heard it at)
I wouldn't worry too much about it now. Once all the furniture and carpet are in there, your room will have a different acoustic character. You'll also be able to play around with placement to dial in the performance further at that point. The EP350 is no slouch and should be able to handle that room pretty well unless you're looking for constant visceral gut punches from it.
Can you please expand on what you mean by "underperform"? What were you listening to? Music or movies? And what do you feel was lacking? Remember that many subs have an exagerrated hump around 40Hz to 60Hz (and some like Bose above 100Hz) so that they sound more impressive but certainly not accurate.
Well...underperform in a sense that it did not have the same impact it does in my current setup upstairs. Im not too worried YET, because it was such a jerry-rigged test, but it caught my attention. I was listening to some music at the time. I was also told at work by an audio guy that some of 'impact' from a sub can come from the fact that upstairs, it is on a wood floor, and the sub somewhat shakes the floor, making the basement act like a huge enclosure to get some extra impact, whereas the basement, it is on concrete and does not move. Any truth to that? (more of a side question)
I am not saying that i am dissatisfied with it, it still sounded great. Maybe i just expected too much?
have you properly calibrated your system with an SPL meter?
I know that after I set up my father-in-law's system with the EP350 in a 4700 cu.ft. room I was quite impressed with that sub. It did its job VERY well. I calibrated the whole theatre to 75 DB, and the sub to 80 db.
The room will change once you add furnishings and carpet. For a short time I had a 350 in my 8,000 cu ft room and it did an "ok" job, but nothing like the 500 or 600.
Also, you may find that a different position, other than the corner you tested, will be the best spot.
Try walking around the room into different corners and such. My room is unfortunately square, it's basement, so a lot of concrete and it has very little in it except a couch and a coffee table for now. There is a big shelf full of AV gear but fills in the one alcove, adding to the squareness, heh heh.
Anyways, I have huge differences in bass impact depending where I stand. I have to turn up the sub to get 75 db in the normal seating positions but should you sit in a rear corner for some reason, you would find the sub volume almost too loud for comfort.
I'd wait until you get all of the rooms furnishings and stuff in place before you play around too much. If it's staying as is for while, calibrate to your listening position now but remember to do it again once the room has been changed to any degree.
Quote:
Well...underperform in a sense that it did not have the same impact it does in my current setup upstairs.
I'm not trying to be difficult but what do you mean by the "same impact". Can I suggest that you move the upstairs sub downstairs and compare side-by-side?
Quote:
Im not too worried YET, because it was such a jerry-rigged test, but it caught my attention. I was listening to some music at the time. I was also told at work by an audio guy that some of 'impact' from a sub can come from the fact that upstairs, it is on a wood floor, and the sub somewhat shakes the floor, making the basement act like a huge enclosure to get some extra impact, whereas the basement, it is on concrete and does not move. Any truth to that? (more of a side question)
Well, he's right about the shaking the floor part but I don't think coupling to the basement is an important factor. Anytime your room moves with your speakers however, it's not a good thing. It simply creates distortion that colours the sound.
Sorry my words dont make sense...they dont to most people. Im saying i took my EP350 from upstairs, and put it downstairs, where its future permanent location will be, and it sounded weaker. Sorry if i confused you
Ok. I understand. A 350W sub should definitely be able to totally rock a 2500 ft^3 room. Continue experimenting with placement and settings.
I am having in a similar situation as yours. For some reason, the output of EP500 doesn't seem to be putting out a lot. This could be with my receiver and source settings.
One of the experts at Axiom told me, to test out the output of the sub, you should put the coaxial cable of sub to the audio output (where the composite cable (either red or white) goes to the DVD player, and play a track on it.
Let me know if enough output comes out of it.
One unavoidable difference is that "upstairs" floors vibrate and "basement" floors generally do not, so that will make a difference. You can get around this to some extent by building a small riser for the seating, and to a greater extent by putting the sub on the riser behind the seats.
Other than that -- placement makes a huge difference. Did you post the room dimensions, or just total volume ? EDIT -- ahh, here we go -- 20 x 20 x 7.
Any chance your seating position is in the middle of the room, particularly between front and rear walls ? If so, try moving the sub immediately behind the seats.