Hi all,

I just received my first DVD player (the new Pioneer DV-563A) and Axiom surrounds to go with it. This for the first time allowed me to play with the Avia calibration disc. I was disappointed, however, that the Avia did not include frequency-specific test tones that I could use to equalize the volume of the mains and sub at crossover (80 Hz). I am under the (perhaps delusional) impression that this is something that I am supposed to do. Is it? If so, which test disc would you recommend that would allow me to do this? Thanks!

I use AVIA's 200Hz-20Hz sweep tone to judge how well my bass management system settings are doing. A sweep allows you to listen to the transition through the LFE setting, rather than just a single LF tone. As 80Hz is fairly unidirectional, you would have a hard time accomplishing anything with a fixed tone, except to verify that the sub and/or main speaker was indeed firing.

Thanks for the reply! I ran through the Avia sweep last night--and discovered, somewhat to my horror, that my sub's response is all over the map as the frequency moves down!

Be that as it may, someone, somewhere, once also told me that the proper way to set the sub's overall volume was to match it with the mains at the crossover frequency (in my case, 80 Hz). Is that wrong?

As far as a new test disc goes, I did end up getting one anyway, as part of the CARA package--horrified by my sub's rather unflat response curve, I decided to play with room acoustics a bit. The CARA test disc does have fixed-frequency tones as well as other tests. And the CARA software looks like it will be fun to play with. (I can't wait to "draw" my Axioms!)

Clint,
Welcome to the Axiom forums. I've attended your website several times over the past months.
Your mission statement at Audioholics is refreshing:
"This site is a direct result of what happened when a group of Engineers got frustrated with marketing gimmicks in the Audio Industry and took it upon themselves to pursue the truth and educate the masses."

Yeah, Audioholics is one of my top favorite AV-related web sites (although I don't participate in the forums there). Thanks for the great site!

The Audioholics site is one of my favorites as well.