I was under the impression that the standard way of setting up the axiom sub (ep 500) was to set the crossover to 'bypass' and use the crossover setting on the receiver.

The denon 3808 has the audessey multi eq auto setup- which I plan on using initially. I will probably tweak the settings from there...

Prior to running the auto set-up, the denon 3808 manual says to defeat the volume and crossover controls on the sub if possible. I take 'defeat the crossover' as setting it to bypass, but what the heck does it mean to 'defeat the volume'? set the volume (gain?) on the sub to 0?

It sounds like a technical writing error. Your living room is a couple of thousand cubic feet and it opens up to the kitchen so you may want to start off with the 500's gain at about 9 o'clock.

Yeah T, although it's hard to believe that there could be an ambiguity or outright error in a Denon manual, that info does not compute. The exact setting before the calibration doesn't really matter much, but setting the EP500 somewhere between 6 O'clock and 9 O'clock should be fine.

thanks, i thought something seemed odd... at least with the defeat the volume part.

The manual then goes on to say that "if this si not possible then:"

set volume to 12 o clock pos
crossover : highest
low pass filter: "off"
standby mode "off"

sound like I will just put the sub on bypass and pick an arbitrary value for the volume (somewhere where you suggested)

I guess after the set-up I could adjust the volume of the sub up or down with the gain knob or the receiver if I am not happy with the audessey setup results...

I plan on obtaining an spl meter from radio shack hopefully too.

Also, if the auto setup sets the m80's to large (which I think it might) should I change them to small like I have seen reccomended?
Thanks

Some like the M80s set to small for HT and large for music, I think this is something you get to decide on, whatever sounds best to you in your house.

I don't know how Denon manuals compare with others but they leave a lot to be desired.

My space is about half the size of yours. I have my 600 at about 10 o'clock with the sub channel trim set to -7 (it goes from -12 to +12), full and by-pass. I use a cut-off of 80Hz for movies and 60Hz for most music.

All of my speakers are set to small. My Denon has a stereo mode and a direct mode. In direct, all tone controls and processing (with the exception of the sub) is by-passed. In this mode, bass comes out of my 80s and my sub. I haven't been able to hear a difference between direct and stereo.

The advice that you will get from most of us around here is calibrate with instruments but let your ears be the final judge. It took me many, many months to properly dial in my system but I kept a lot of notes and learned a ton.

And you still had to check calibration after the Mojo toe-in incident.

my living area is only 2150 cf. it does open to a ktichen about another 1500 cf or so and to a hallway.

I have a 4,000 cubic foot home theatre which is open to the rest of the house (11,000 cubic feet).

so I think you meant to say that my space is half the size of yours...

No, your space is half the size of mine.