Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater EP500 settings with Epic 60 towers, VP150 center

Hello,

Hope everyone is doing well, long time without posting.

I’m still rocking my Axiom Epic 60-500 system (7.1), and have always been extremely pleased with it.
I just happened upon an article written by Alan Lofft (hope he is doing well) titled “Receiver and Subwoofer Crossover Setup” and it had me thinking that my sub setup has possibly been wrong all these years.

My Yamaha RX-V3800 receiver has all speakers set to “Small” for speaker size, Bass Out is set to “Subwoofer”, Bass Cross Over is set to “80Hz”, and Subwoofer Phase is set to “Normal”.

On my EP-500 v2 sub, the back panel (new amp design) has the following settings:
Subsonic Filter = OFF
Crossover = 150
Phase = 180
Volume = slightly over 50%

-In Alan’s article he says: “But you do want to set the subwoofer’s crossover to its maximum rotation so you remove it from the circuit. This is done to avoid "cascading" two crossovers, which might cause uneven and erratic deep bass output.”

On my old amp panel I could set the crossover knob to “Bypass”, but on my replacement amp panel, the knob only allows “40, 60, 80, 100, 150”.

What should I have the crossover knob set to?

-Alan also says: “For Axiom’s larger tower speakers—the M80s, M60s, and M50s depending on the particulars of room size, start by selecting the "Large" setting on your receiver for the left and right main speakers, and "Small" for the center and surround channels.”

My towers and center have always been set to “Small”, should I change my towers to “Large”? And what size should my center be set to?

Thanks!

I miss Alan's no-nonsense writings. It's refreshing to read factual articles at face value while the rest of the audio universe is pushing dubiously fictitious content. It was quite a coup for Axiom to secure the former editor of Audio Scene Canada, Sound & Vision, and Audio magazines. The fact that all of them went under shouldn't stain his reputation.

Your ears should be the final judge of whether to keep a tweaked setting. Generally speaking, the higher the sub frequency is crossed over, the lower the volume should set. The phase should probably be set to 0º, and the crossover to 150 Hz to let the AVR take full control. Subsonic filter should be turned on for music and most films; horror movies might be a playback scenario when you ought to turn it off.

AVR's nowadays use 10 Hz increments rather than Small and Large speaker crossover settings. I've heard pro's and con's of using both. I personally use the equivalent of Large for my front channels and Small for surrounds, otherwise it's too easy to localize where the sub is in my room.

If you can't tell where your sub ends and your mains begin, you'll have won.

Thank you, I will keep tinkering.
Going to try setting towers to “Large” tonight and see if I hear an improvement.

I should probably get a newer AVR with 4K and Atmos, but the Yamaha has been so great.

The subsonic filter is intended to remove parasitic infrasonics associated with turntables that may be picking up vibrations from road noise. Leave it off if you want full content from the x.1 channel.

Thanks, I have had it off since purchasing, so will leave it off.

Let us know which configuration you eventually prefer, Zak. All things being equal, you shouldn't be able to tell the difference, but rooms are seldomly equal.

Floyd Toole and Gene DellaSala both crossover their tower speakers at 80 Hz...which makes me wonder why they bought such giant speakers in the first place.

Maybe they like to listen loud in the far field and therefore need higher dynamic capability than a bookshelf can offer.

Also a competently designed tower sounds more full than a competently designed bookshelf and casts larger images.