Official Axiom Owner's Thread - Page 32

Nice! Those stands look EXACTLY like mine! It's unfortunate you can't use banana plugs though. I don't think there's a way you can go around that problem.

Well I had a chance to finally hear Axioms, after reading about them for about 7 years. Grunt had me over, and his set-up is just about as good as it gets (3 M80's up front, M2's as the front highs, an M500 sub and QS8's in the rear. Plus he has like a 143 inch screen and a room all set up to get into things completely). They are as good as people say. Very clear and accurate (but not too bright like a Klipsch speaker is, at least to me), with good base. Granted he has a monster system, but he was kind enough to let me borrow his M22's that he wasn't using to try them out in my house. That is the fun for this weekend.

I'm hoping to get M22's up front possibly, and the QS8's, and then a nice sub. I have 4 Mission book shelf speakers now that I have had for about 11 years, and they are great speakers, but I think the M22's with the extra mid driver will fill the room better. Hopefully at some point I can get a receiver that does a nice 9.2 system, and put the Missions up front for the highs or something.

Best bet if you are thinking Axioms, look on here and the Axiom forums and find an owner who will let you come over and listen. For the money, it would be hard to beat them. They are as nice as the Paradigm and some of the B&W speakers I have heard, at a much lower price. But that is just my opinion, results may vary!

+1 3 m80s? You just need bomber amps

My current HT setup is:

Mains: M22s
Center: VP150
Surround: QS-8
Rear Suround : QS-4
Room size 1950cbft

I had originally bought the QS-4 for sorround then upgrade a year later. I positioned the QS-4 in a way that some may find wierd but it seems to work. They are sitting on top of the movie cabinets on either side of my equipment rack on there side so that the 4" mids are firing sideways rather then up/down, 1 tweeter fires down towards the listening area, the other reflects off the ceiling. The cabinets put them within a foot of the ceiling.

Anyways, I will be puchasing a new sub later this week SVS PC-12 NSD. Unfortunately I don't have alot of options for placement (left/right front corners). I was told that in these locations this and other subs can be a tad boomy and to rectifiy this I should try using a 60hz crossover rather then 80hz. Has anyone else heard of this? According to the axiom website the M22s rolloff at 60hz so I am wondering if setting them that low would be detrimental.

The crossover point to use is the one that sounds the best to you. If 80Hz sounds boomy then try lower, however, the general practice is to set the crossover point slightly higher than the -3dB roll off of the speaker to unsure that the crossover handles the transition between the speaker and the subwoofer and that none of the bass is being lost because of the roll off. In the case of the M22 I that would usually be a 70-80Hz crossover.

Even though your subs must be in the corner(s) you can still have some control over which frequencies get the most boundary reinforcement from being in the corner by adjusting the subwoofer driver’s distance to either wall, assuming you have a little room to move it around. That will likely have more effect on what you hear/feel than changing the crossover around between 80Hz and 60Hz. Another general rule is not to place the subwoofer so that the driver is equal distance from each corner wall. Having it at different distance to each wall causes different frequencies to be reinforced hopefully evening things out a bit.

Is it possible to turn a bookself VP150 to a on wall VP150?

You can wall mount a VP150, just use a speaker mount like Axiom's FMB or similar. The Vp150 has a center bolt/insert all ready for wall mounting or are you thinking about the actual low profile on wall VP150. If this is the case then no there is no way as the enclosures are very different.

Hello MATA7
What is the size of your HT room?

Thank you
Tony

Can you guys give some brief unbiased comments about the QS8's. I am looking for some surrounds and these are high on the list.

I'm not sure how unbiased I am, but I believe the QS8's are one of the better surrounds available today. Since my room is not ideal for surround placement, I've tried various configurations over the years and the QS8's were the most forgiving.

You get 30 days to try them so there's very little risk (just your time and return shipping if you don't like them).

aw man...reading through this thread has me hooked on the QS8s, any thoughts on if they will have a sale for the holidays?

My front three speakers are Axiom and I was wondering what rear speakers I can mount in wall that would go well with the VP-150 and M22's? I thought Axiom made an in wall version of the QS8 but I don't see that on their website. I don't want to mix brands but in-wall speakers may be required and figured I can't be the only person who has come across this situation.

Greg

In-wall QS8's would not work. The driver configuration has the tweeters on an angle and the mids fire up and down.

You can get inwall M2, M3, or M22's. All would work.

Other than a special finish sale (sold at regular pricing) on occasion Axiom does not have sales.

I just checked axiom's site and the qs8 has gone from $625 to $735 per pair. What the hell happened? What is normal retail on these speakers?

They were recently updated (from V2 to V3).

Still a bargain. Compare them to speakers like B&W DS3's (no longer in production) and you will see they are really not that expensive.

Still says $558 for me http://www.axiomaudio.com/qs8.html However, I own these, and they are as good if not better and an absolute steal on sale http://emotiva.com/erd1.shtm

I just checked a pair of stock finished QS8s and they are showing as $558.00 USD and $585.90 CAD (GST included). What are you looking at?

You can, but be warned. I did this using the fmb, and after 5 yrs, it failed and fell to the floor tearing my screen with it. The mount did not fail, instead it was the mounting point on the speaker that is installed at the factory. It pulled itself straight out of the speaker. Now that I see it, it is far too small for mounting a vp 150, but nothing a simple 50 cent larger bolt could not fix.

Luckily my floor has very thick carpet, so speaker was fine. The screen however...fubar. Axiom did nothing for me btw.

what is the difference between the QS4 and the QS8?

Hello,
Are your M22's / VP150 inwall/onwall or bookshelf? I have the exact cu. ft. setup. My room is 16 x 12 x 10.
I'm looking at the same speakers.

Thx,
Tony P.

looking at either m22's or the m2's along with a vp100 or 150 and some qs4's .
will be powering this 5.1 system with a denon 3310 but also have an ati 1505 if i need it. would like to be around $1200. also where would you place the l/r speakers at position 1 or 2. will mainly be for movies about 80/20. thanks

 

family room layout.doc 43k . file

Ideally the mains should be placed about as far apart as you are from them ie. if you listen from 10' away then the speakers should be about 10' apart. Going with this idea #2 looks to be closer to the listening distance. You may need to have them toed in considerably to help even out pans from LCR. Also that sub position may or may not interfere with the sound from one of the speakers. That sub might also not be in the optimum placement for the room. I would suggest placing the sub at your listening position and run some music through it while you move/crawl about the room. The spot that you hear the smoothest bass reponse will then be the better spot for the sub. This is known as the sub crawl. Just remember you can always tweak the system to sound the way you want it no matter what we tell you.

Adding to what jakewash said is would suggest that you try both positions and see what sounds best for your main uses. IMO position 2 would probably work better for music as it get closer to the equilateral triangle jakewash is talking about. However, when I had a layout similar to yours I found that for movies putting the mains far out to the sided pulled the sound way off to the left or right of the onscreen action when things moved across the screen. In other words if a person on the far left of the screen was talking it would sound like their voice was coming from several feet farther left which I personally found very distracting.

Another thing to consider that could save you some money and in most peoples opinion improve your front soundstage would be to use another M22 or even an M2 speaker as a center instead of the VP150 or VP100. Reason being is that having 3 identical speakers across the front makes for the most seamless sounding front soundstage because of all the audio information the front three speakers share between each other. Plus AFAIK an M22 and for sure an M2 both cost less than either of the VP speakers. Of course you would have to be able to fit one below or above your screen.

Almost two months ago I posted that I bought three M22 in walls and a pair of M2's for surround duty. I was a little skeptical on how they would sound since I never heard any in walls before. Well my brother and I installed them labor day weekend and though there were some hiccups, they sound fantastic! My wife and I are thrilled and they sound better than my Polk RTi10's that they replaced. The Polk's can be a little bright at higher volumes where the Axiom's sound great no matter what. The M2's are amazing for surround duty. These speakers just blow my mind at what they can do. I watched IM2 last week at -5 from reference and it was amazing! My downstairs is roughly 6500 cubic ft and they have no problems filling it. If you are in the market for some in walls you should check these out. Axiom's customer service is outstanding as well. One of my speakers was damaged during shipping and they asked no questions and just shipped out another. That is so reassuring when a company doesn't accuse you of damaging their product right off the bat. Anyway I love my speakers so much I WILL be buying their speakers for my basement theater when I finish it. Of course I do have pics as promised. Their on my step-daughters website at www.elenajasic.com/LR2. Sorry there's no close up shots but they were to show how well they blend in. Enjoy.

hello,

Beautiful set-up. This is exactly what I want to do. However, Axiom tech support wants me to go with the VP150 for the center. I'm not sure why. How is the dialogue with your set-up. That is my biggest 'pet peeve' about HT movie watching. I need to be able to hear dialogue without having to turn up the center channel volume only.

thank you,

tony

Thank you Tony. I personally love how it sounds. I had a Polk center channel before this Axiom and I think it's a little clearer because it's off the stand and elevated. Plus you're supposed to keep your speakers level as much as possible and it certainly is better this way. It just sounds better than the Polk in general as well. If you like the look I think you'll be more than happy with the sound. Right now I have it calibrated even with the other two fronts and dialogue isn't a problem. I think we all experience those "what did he say" moments but that's usually the way it was mixed and you have no choice but to turn it up. So far though I haven't had to. I'm sure Axiom recommended the 150 because it can handle more power and the dual tweeters probably help with those moments. Either way I think you'll be happy. Hope that helps.

Hi Tony,

I think Madaeel has the ideal setup using three identical speakers across the front to create the most seamless soundstage possible. IMO and that of most people this is the way to go if you have room for a vertical speaker either below or above your screen.

IMO the M22 is the best speaker Axiom makes for the money in a smaller room the M2 would perform equally well however as the room gets bigger the M22 can handle things better as a front speaker. An added bonus is that the M22 costs a lot less than a VP150. If you can't fit an M22 as a center an M2 integrates better with an M22 than a VP150 does in most cases. If you must use a horizontal center speaker I would choose the VP100 over the VP150. It has the same driver complement as the M22 and should based on most of what I've read about it have fewer potential issues than the VP150.

Note not everyone shares my opinion about the VP150 but I think it is the most problematic speaker Axiom makes. In two out of the three rooms I tired it in there were sever lobbing/phasing issues with sound from the multiple divers canceling and reinforcing each other across the listening area. As far as I can tell the narrower the room and the farther I sat from the VP150 the worse it got. In only one room were I sat about 5 feet from the speaker and the side walls were about 5 feet away did it blend well with my M22s.

Also note that I'm not some Axiom basher as I happily own 14 of their speakers M2s, M22s, M80s, QS8s, and an EP500, got rid of the VP150.

Cheers,
Dean

Just thought I'd check in, been awhile.

^^^since you're checking in, can you answer my question, what is the difference between the QS8 and QS4?