Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater My EP500 saga

Hi everyone still no luck getting the pros from my local stero shoppe. I have been playing phone tag with them all week and its starting to piss me off. Well its been a week with the EP500 and I still have to turn the volume past 12 O clock to even get the driver moving during music. It is in a small bedroom so it should blow me away in there right? I have the sub on bypass and the xovers all at 80hz on my amp. I am thinking it might be the amp, the standbye mode quit working completely on it which does indicate some kind of problem (sherwood R772) Since this only my second sub from the EP175 I really am not sure what the performance should be in a small bedroom but for the price I paid it should blow the bedroom out. I wish there was some way I could tell if there is a problem but I guess I wont know til I get the pros out here with another amp to see. My Epic grand master 500 sounds good but the bass isnt that noticeable except during movies as long as the volume is cranked way up. And if I crank it too far it distorts which according to the product discription it is not suppose to do. It really doesnt sound any louder than the 175 which is why I think somethings wrong.

If you want to test the EP500 and eliminate that as a problem here's something you can try:

If you have an iPod or other MP3 player get yourself a 3.5mm to RCA adaptor cable. Turn the volume ALL THE WAY DOWN on the MP3 player. Set the gain/volume on the sub to about 1/4-1/3 of maximum. Make sure the sub is OFF then plug the MP3 player into the sub using the cable. I typically connect the left channel but I don't think it really matters. Turn on the sub and MP3 player then play a song with some good bass in it. Slowly turn the volume up on the player.

You should be able to turn the volume up pretty high on the MP3 player with the sub set at 1/4-1/3 but increase it slowly. With an EP500 you should be able to FEEL the bass from it. Especially in your small room.

If the EP500 works fine then it's an issue with your receiver's subwoofer line-level pre-out. IF you still get very little output with the MP3 player cranked up you can try turning up the EP500. If you need to get past 1/2 with the EP500 before you really feel it slamming then there's probably a problem with the EP500.

Ya I have to do that now go past 12 oclock for everything before I even see the driver moving.

For every input? I thought you said movies were fine. Also, definitely try Foobarred's test there--that's pretty much the definitive test.

Ya the movies sound fine but I still have to turn the volume up past 12 0 clock on the sub to watch them. That cant be normal even the instructions say a quarter turn. Dont have an MP3 player or cord to do that test.

Plug your dvd player directly into the sub and play a bass heavy cd. That is the same as the test noted above. If it works then you have trouble else where. If you get nothing the sub amp is bad.

I emailed JC at axiom about this and he said axiom lowered the gain volume on sub making 12 o clock possible. The instructions say to just do a quarter turn though. I dont know why he didnt tell me this before either he is just telling me what I want to here or what but I still go PAST 12 0 clock to hear the thing.

I still find it very hard to believe you have to place it at 12 o'clock, unless you have the sub channel on the receiver at -12dB. This just does not make any sense. If I placed my old 500 or new 600 at 12 o'clock, the freaking foundation would crack, and that is not far from the truth.

Now don't go getting paranoid friend. I can understand all of your frusterations, believe me, but the people at Axiom are not crooks. They are good people who will assist you with any problems you may be experiencing, including sending out a new sub if yours is indeed bad.

But naturally the first thing to do is make sure there isn't anything else that's wrong. Because if it is indeed a problem with your receiver, then a new sub wouldn't do you much good at all. So take a breath and relax and go through all the steps, including having those people come out and look at it that you mentioned. If it turns out it is the sub, you will be 100% taken care of by Axiom.

If nothing else, Axiom certainly stands behind their equipment!

I do not get the obsession of where the gain control on the sub is (1/4, 1/2, 3/4). The important part is cablibrating the sub properly between the sub and receiver and if it is the case it is at 1/4 or 3/4 it really doesn't matter as long as you are not over driving the sub in distortion. SPL meters are good investment for calibtrating your sub properly
I do not recall you ever mentioning the subwoofer setting you have set for your EP500 on your receiver which controls the voltage/trim being sent to the sub which will effect the sensitivity of the gain knob on the 500 and the sensitivity of the auto/on feature (if it has one).

Are you still calibrating by ear?