I've always had my ep500 at the front of my room and I have always had the phase switch set to 0.

I have moved my sub at the back of the room should I experiment with switching it to 180?

Thanks!

Sure, you should experiment, but unless the differences in distances to the listener correspond to close to the 180 setting the bass won't be better just because the sub is far from the mains. If you hear little or no difference, leave it at 0. The Audyssey auto-cal can do a better job of adjusting the delays in most cases.

Thanks John as usual. I will probably get around to running audyssey this weekend.

have someone switch the phase while you listen in your chair. Pick the setting where the bass is loudest. Best to use rap music where bass is deep and constant.

I think that if I had to use rap to tweak my system, it would remain untweaked, ha!!

Tom
Comox, BC

I concur!

Well. Better rap than Wayne Newton.

like it or not, rap has long bass tones making it easier to hear differences. Now put on some Tone loc

Once you have the best placement in the room for the subwoofer and have it level matched with the rest of the speakers, then you can mess with the phase. At this point I ran some test tones (Rives Audio test CD, corrected for the Radio Shack SPL) and got out my Radio Shack SPL meter. I ran through the test tones from 20Hz up to about 100Hz (my crossover is set at 80Hz) and noticed that one of the two settings had a flatter frequency response close to the crossover setting, so that is the phase that I chose. I can't remember if it was 0 or 180 degrees. But, there was a big difference in the numbers going from one to the other in my room. I've also read that you put on some bass heavy stuff and choose the one that sounds the loudest, or something but I couldn't notice much of a difference, with my ears. However, there was a big difference in how one or the other measured, in terms of a flatter frequency response near the crossover, which determines how well the mains and sub are integrated. At this point you could run Audyssey or whatever room correction EQ you have in your AVR. I think that you will get the best EQ results when everything is in the best location and such before you run the room correction EQ.

i could add to what Nick says that if you use Odyssey, you should leave the phase control to 0, Odyssey will take care of phase.

I think you are referring to Audyssey.

Oh, the irony.

Oh, the Irony of the Odyssey of Audyssey.

So, driving my mini van into my square room won't help my sound?

No, but applying Audyssey to your Odyssey may allow for reduced standing waves in your intake manifold at your most desirable RPMs.

I'm sorry Dave, I can't open the pod bay doors.

Yes, Audyssey's Dr. Kyriakakis terms the 0/180 adjustment to be relatively crude(although one is closer to being accurate than the other)and suggests that it be left at 0, with Audyssey then making a finer adjustment.