AVS Forum banner

Official Epik Subwoofer Thread

2M views 21K replies 1K participants last post by  elmalloc 
#1 ·
Well guys....as the saying goes:

".... and so it begins! "



As some of you may already know, Ascendant Audio has been very quiet for many many months, and it's owner, Chad Kuypers, has been missing in action for a VERY long time. Some of you guys from the DIY world will remember Ascendant Audio from their driver offerings, such as the famous Avalanche XBL^2 drivers, as well as the the Havoc and a few others.


Well, the cat is out!!! (Sorry Chad....we the people can't keep our mouths shut when we discover a good thing...
) so THIS is why you have been missing in action, huh?


Epik Subwoofers is about to launch in the next few days apparently, and seems like they will have several offerings to start, which range from 4 different 15" ported alignment, to a flagship large 18" ported box. I'm sure there will be tons of info in the next few days, specially Pictures, price, measurement numbers, performance numbers, etc.


looks like the URL is up too, but nothing up yet: http://www.epiksubwoofers.com


Given the performance and price of Chad's past offerings, such as the avalanche, can only mean one thing: a great commercial subwoofer lineup at amazing prices.


Anyways, thought you guys might find this bit of news VERY interesting indeed. I hope Chad, Scott, and some of the other guys decide to chime in and show us more info.


It's a great time to be an A/V enthusiast indeed!!!
 
See less See more
3
#9,981 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Bley /forum/post/17581970


So, your gonna hold out for a couple days or so....

HAHA! The main reason is I want to wait until I've got these dialed into my room as good as I can first. I havn't really had all that much time to experiment with placement, the spot they are in now is good but I've walked around and found spots that are much better. I've got a large and bad mannered room though.


Quick question for you though Tom, are you running your HT on a dedicated circuit? I'm just wondering if I added two more if I'd start tripping breakers!
 
#9,982 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by lilmike2069 /forum/post/17581997


HAHA! The main reason is I want to wait until I've got these dialed into my room as good as I can first. I havn't really had all that much time to experiment with placement, the spot they are in now is good but I've walked around and found spots that are much better. I've got a large and bad mannered room though.


Quick question for you though Tom, are you running your HT on a dedicated circuit? I'm just wondering if I added two more if I'd start tripping breakers!

a 15 amp breaker can handle 1800 watts.


a 20 amp breaker can handle 2400 watts.


running 2 all out along with a TV, PS3 and an AVR will put you right around the limit of a 15 amp breaker.


running 3 all out along with a TV, PS3 and an AVR will put you right around the limit of a 20 amp breaker.
 
#9,983 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by lilmike2069 /forum/post/17581997


HAHA! The main reason is I want to wait until I've got these dialed into my room as good as I can first. I havn't really had all that much time to experiment with placement, the spot they are in now is good but I've walked around and found spots that are much better. I've got a large and bad mannered room though.


Quick question for you though Tom, are you running your HT on a dedicated circuit? I'm just wondering if I added two more if I'd start tripping breakers!

No seperate circuits. I will be doing that in my dedicated room though.
 
#9,986 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by goonstopher /forum/post/17583355


Hmmm... almost thinking I might get 2 mfw's instead...

I'm running a MFW with my Conquest and it does improve the overall bass. Looking to add a 2nd MFW to complete the HT.


Bill
 
#9,988 ·
How does one go about hooking up a 3rd subwoofer. Right now I have a Y out of my receiver and then going to each subwoofer. I was thinking of daisy chaining the 3rd but, the Epik amps only have two inputs?



Thanks.
 
#9,989 ·
Run the Y like you have right now. Then a Y off of each lead from which you have now which will give you 4. You will only use 3.
 
#9,992 ·
OK, so I finally got around to REW tonight. I wasnt sure if I should start a new thread with my setup, measurements, and tweaking since there are a lot of pics. For now I will post them here since it is about the Sentinel, but if anyone prefers that I just start a new thread and move all the pics there to prevent cluttering up this thread, then I will.


First of all, for those that don't already know, I've got Dual Epik Sentinels and a Denon 2310CI with MultEQ. I have a very open floor plan. The main room is about 21'x23.5'x8'-14' vaulted ceiling, which is also open to a 10'x20'x8' kitchen (12' wide opening). HUGE volume to fill. The couch is pretty close to being in the center of the room... I thought this would cause big problems... we shall see in the results.


When I first received the subs, I spent about an hour and a half experimenting with some locations and have not moved them since. Now that they've broken in, I may experiment a little more later but I am quite happy with where they are.


For measurements, I used the Analog Radio Shack SPL Meter with REW and a calibrated Sound Card file and Calibration file for the RS Meter. No smoothing was added to the plots. I performed a quick test with the Duals as pictured here, level matched by eye-balling the gain dial on the amps:




To get an idea of the room size and layout:



Once I performed my quick test I turned the left one off and left the right one on. I adjusted the AVR volume until the subwoofer test tone was targeted to 75dB. Here is the response of the right Sentinel alone with Audyssey MultEQ on:



I was very surprised at how good of a response I was getting considering my room and listening position. Very good low end extension in room also.


Then, I turned the right sub off and turned the left one on. Rather than adjusting the AVR volume until the SPL Meter read 75dB, I adjusted the gain on the Sub. Afterwards, I ran REW and got the following response out of my left Sentinel also with Audyssey on:



So the next step was to measure with both on. For this measurement, I did not adjust the AVR volume down to 75dB so you will get a true representation of how much gain duals is giving me versus a single.



What?!? At 14.9Hz I'm getting the original 75dB target! And I've only got one or two very narrow nulls or dips. On average, the difference in the best performing single and the duals was about 6-7dB.


Just for fun, I decided to see how much work Audyssey was actually doing. So I made a measurement with Duals with Audyssey OFF. Here is the result:



Audyssey clearly made a HUGE difference and allows these sentinels to show their S#IT! Needless to say, I'm a very happy camper. I'm very pleased with the overall output and am a little surprised at how much low end extension I'm getting. Thanks Epik!
 
#9,994 ·
lilmike - Thanks for the pictures and the graphs, I think this is a great thread to have them in. I'm no expert but from the other things I've seen the graphs look like the Sentinels are doing a really good job in your setup.


Any pointers on learning more about REW, where to get it, how it's used and how it can help my setup when my subs arrive?
 
#9,995 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by irishluck73 /forum/post/17585431


Any pointers on learning more about REW, where to get it, how it's used and how it can help my setup when my subs arrive?

It's a free download available at hometheatershack. You need a computer with compatible sound card (which most are), SPL meter (radio shack is the most popular and least expensive) and a few cables. hts also has a REW forum and instructions to get you up to speed.
 
#9,997 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by deepstang /forum/post/17583762


Tom, how would you compare the output of a SINGLE Sentinel to the SVS PB12-NSD?


Also, can someone give me their thoughts on comparing a Sentinel with the HSU VTF2-mk3 . Thanks!!

Sorry to do a shameless bump on my eariler post, but I am on the fence again with subs. I have a strong feeling I will be returning my ne PC12-Plus back to SVS and will buy another sub. Since I am pretty happy with my slot ported, 175watt 10" Velodyne I was tempted to get a second and co-locate.


I was wondering how (1) the Sentinel would compare agains the HSU...and more importantly, your thoughts on how the Sentinel would compare to my current Velodyne. I am beginning to think that there is something to all the electronics and processors in the Velodyne. I think it is more than an amp and driver. Any thoughts?
 
#9,998 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by deepstang /forum/post/17586382


Sorry to do a shameless bump on my eariler post, but I am on the fence again with subs. I have a strong feeling I will be returning my ne PC12-Plus back to SVS and will buy another sub. Since I am pretty happy with my slot ported, 175watt 10" Velodyne I was tempted to get a second and co-locate.


I was wondering how (1) the Sentinel would compare agains the HSU...and more importantly, your thoughts on how the Sentinel would compare to my current Velodyne. I am beginning to think that there is something to all the electronics and processors in the Velodyne. I think it is more than an amp and driver. Any thoughts?

Sorry I haven't been able to do a PB12-NSD vs 1 Sentinel comparison but, I already know what will win in sound quality. If your happy with current Velodyne then get another if you need the added headroom.
 
#9,999 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Bley /forum/post/17586831


Sorry I haven't been able to do a PB12-NSD vs 1 Sentinel comparison but, I already know what will win in sound quality. If your happy with current Velodyne then get another if you need the added headroom.

Agree! If you are happy with the sub you have and want more, then go with a 2nd one. You will pick up another 3 db by having two subs in the same room.


Bill
 
#10,000 ·
I know it wasn't aimed at me but it is still applicable,


I am more than happy with the sub I have and want more but another dynasty is too much money and wow just overkill unless you are trying to fill a stadium although I have yet to hear anyone with dual dynasty's. Supposedly they should beat a single conquest on ever level but is just out of my budget (600-800, 1000 if it is some sort of amazing steal)


I am actually intrigued by the tweakcity 18' sealed sub because one review I read of the 19ov.02 (my current planned diy sealed platform) to the pb13 ultra (my long lost love I sold and gold standard on SQ) was not very positive on my main SQ issue of overhang/ "stop on a dime" which really destroys the dynamics.
 
Top