I have an EP175 Subwoofer amplifier that failed early 2013. At the time it was used lightly. It was stored inside and from my visual inspection it looks good.
I am looking at reviving it, would it be worsewhile for me to replace the amp? (obviously I am concerned about more failures) or should I purchase a new Subwoofer?

Cognoquest, my experience with Axiom would indicate that it is best to call/email them directly and see what they can do. You will likely be pleasantly surprised at what your options are. In my case, I had a an issue with my EP-175 and they sent me a new board under warranty. However, the cost of the new board (it was on the invoice) would certainly have made it a viable purchase option out of warranty considering the cost of the whole unit. Replacing the board was actually very easy and took less than 10 minutes.

Then there is also the option of upgrading with Axiom's trade up program... Again, call/email them!

TDIPablo, thank you for your quick response, indeed that is an excellent suggestion.

While I am waiting for Axion to reply to my inquiry. I have another question: assuming that the driver holds, what else could fail on that Subwoofer can the cabinet fail i.e. glue etc...

Not likely unless you stored it in a real damp place or in direct sunlight, there should be no issues. Trust me, Debbie at Axiom will take good care of you and present you with options that will be hard to turn down. Depending on the age of your subwoofer, they may be able to swap out the parts or, so I hear, they will have an EP-175 showing up in early July in their refurb store!

Speaking of refurb, they have a black EP500 for sale now...

Agreed... subwoofers are basically a big pile of simple solid components plus a relatively exotic (by comparison) amp board.

As long as you have new amplifier bits the rest should be pretty hard to kill. You might need to tighten screws or something like that, but it's pretty much "amplifier" and "everything else".

No reply yet, I can see a few nice lakes in the vicinity of Axiom Audio Head Office, add a beer and/or cider and I probably would do the same.

In the mean time I should be able to feed this lad passively, assuming 8 ohms?

My recollection was that the subwoofer speakers were often lower impedence than 8 ohms, allowing higher power levels without requiring really high power supply rail voltages... 4 ohms or even 2 ohms.

I don't know if that is the case with EP175, but I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be 4 ohms rather than 8. Not a problem for driving it passively, just something to keep in mind.

BTW if you haven't heard back yet it wouldn't hurt to give them a call (guessing you emailed last time ?).

Thank you Bridgman for the info. It makes sense to use less ohms, I will give it a try soon. Indeed your are correct does not look like my email made much of an impact?

I'd give them a call if you don't get an email response. It is possible whomever is monitoring the box you emailed meant to respond, then got distracted, then forgot (happens to me all the time!). They are certainly not trying to ignore you :-)

Thank you all. Wow what service Axiom provides, multiple emails including layout of my audio room.

Simple question, this might be a slam dunk response and show my lack of knowledge but here it is.

Which option is better:

Option A: upgrade to the EP500, Axiom is sweetening the deal thanks to Ian. It allows me to afford one.

Option B: fix the old EP175 and buy a second one most likely B-stock. I might be mixing sub versions and do not know the impact of doing so.

Here is my audio room plan: Family Room

I would go towards getting the EP500. it will give far more room pressurization than you could get from a dual EP175. I have two of them for a room of about the same dimension and its overkill for what is needed, but it does a wonderful job of offloading the bass from the mains and gives an impressive sound.

If you go with the larger unit, you not only get a deeper sound but if in the future you want more, then you have a path forward, where the dual EP175 really is more a very small room unit and never going to compete.

Yup. Get the EP500.

EP-500 would be my vote if I get to spend your money :-)

I would agree, upgrade.

Another thought is depending upon your listening habits and room layout would be to have dual subs. I have a room about the same size/shape as yours and it was an eye opener when I added a second EP350 to the existing EP350.

Another vote for EP500. I'm not sure it will move more air than 2 EP175's, but the DSP and the extended frequency response would make the decision for me.

My feeling is that mixing subwoofers is not a bad thing... says the guy with mixed subwoofers.

Hello MatManhasgone, Adrian, TDIPablo, BBIBH and bridgman,

Very nice of you spending the time to share your thoughts to my question, much appreciated.

I too was/am leaning towards the purchase of the EP500 and your feedback is a confidence booster.

Best to all

My pleasure Cognoquest. In 24 days, I'm driving up to Dwight, ON, to pick-up my new EP-500. Like you, I am upgrading from an EP-175 and the trade-up offer from Axiom was too go to refuse!

I'm looking forward to my Axiom tour and hope to be able to get a better look at their AxiomAir offerings as SONOS is really starting to piss me #$@ with their constant app updates that mess up the settings, every, #$M@ time!

Also, the EP500 is a sealed unit, where the EP175 is a ported. Not that any of the Axiom subs huff, but I found that the sealed units give a much more integrated sound with my speakers than I have ever achieved from a ported sub.

Yeepee, I have ordered the EP500, the order includes the subwoofer to be finished with real wood. Debbie will be sending a few requested samples of the wood stain to confirm that we are satisfied with our selection, Great Service.

bridgman, it seems that I will have more flexibility than I originally thought for the positioning of the subwoofer. We have two coffee tables on each side of the chairs (not showing in the pictures) with the dimensions of the subwoofer can fit nicely under. If not having the subwoofer built in a real wood finish gives me more leeway with the boss for its positioning. Ref post: What would you do, home theater 101 questions?

Thanks again all for helping me with my selection.

Congrats, Cogno! keep us posted when you receive it.

Congratulations on the new subwoofer. Axiom's wood finishes are really nice... although for what it's worth I have always leaned towards "natural" finish rather than stains. Depends on the wood though - oak is almost always stained, while pine looks better natural IMO.

Then again I'm a knotty pine kind of guy, so you may want to ignore my decorating suggestions

Good to hear you will have additional flexibility in placement - hopefully you won't need it, but being able to move one box around rather than your mains makes a huge difference in being able to fit into a room.

Note to self - I guess I should take some of my own advice and haul one of my subwoofers down to the living room so I am not stuck with the current placement - which is 100% driven by bass response under a cathedral ceiling.

When I put the mains where I wanted them from a room layout POV the result was almost zero bass... and all the bass ending up at one end of the second floor loft rather than down in the living room where the rest of the frequencies lived.

Let me back up in time a little. The construction was a little longer than expected. I have received my Subwoofer about two month ago. I did not open the box knowing very well that it would have driven me mad not being able to use it. No I did not peak, talk about slow torture.

Driving home from work on Friday, good thing I was not biking that day, all exited knowing that this was the big weekend to connect all my gear and pull the Subwoofer out of its box. The skies are looking really, really dark, not good at all. It is starting to hail with heavy winds & rain. I arrive at home the power grid is flickering. I am calling for the Stereo/Subwoofer gods to spare me, please not this weekend. What I did not know at the time is that two hurricanes touched down a few kilometers from our home, ouch.

But the stereo/subwoofer gods must have listened? The storm subsided and our section of the electric grid survived, I was spared. I finally was able to connect, test, and tune my setup over the weekend. This subwoofer is unbelievable it gives me the impression that it can do anything effortless. On top, it is gorgeous piece of furniture, I was going to put it under one of our tables, forget that idea it is sitting between two of our family room chairs and my wife thinks it looks great. Man oh man this is an awesome Subwoofer, I am in heaven. Thank you to all for steering me in the right direction.

Congratulations on the new subwoofer. I'm glad you were able to leave it out in the open - one less source of buzzing and rattling to figure out down the road.

You'll be surprised how many things in your room are able to buzz and rattle if you shake the room hard enough