Brent Tombari and the Sault Blues Speakers

Some of you may already know this about me from chatting on the phone or via email: when it comes to music, I love the blues.  And when I choose blues speakers, I choose Axiom  Recently I had the opportunity to offer a pair of Algonquin Outdoor Speakers to a member of the Sault Blues Society, an organization that I’m a member of.  I also sit on the steering committee.

It’s a great club.  If you live near Sault Ste. Marie or are planning a visit our way this summer, mark your calendars. Our First Annual Blues Festival is June 8 & 9.

The Sault Blues Society is an incorporated not for profit organization that has been established for two years.  The objects of our organization are:

• to organize a Blues festival,
• to create additional performance opportunities for local musicians
• to provide a venue to have listeners and musicians of the Blues to share their knowledge and experience
• to educate the people of Ontario about the diversity of the Blues,
• to partner with other organizations and associations to support and further common goals

We will be holding our First Annual Blues Festival at the Algoma Water Tower Inn on June 8 & 9, as well as one other fundraising event on May 5. The Algoma’s Water Tower Inn has been one of the Sault Blues Society corporate sponsors since our inception.

We currently have 98 members, I have been a member for 2 years and joined the steering committee the last year.

You can learn more about us here:   http://www.saultblues.com/index.html

Our next fundraiser we will have Al Wood and the Woodsmen an Ottawa Based Blues Group performing at the WaterTower.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5fJZ6lhKEc

Our first annual event will be a 2 day venture, June 8th & 9th, at the WaterTower Inn, featuring Steve Strongman, a gifted blues guitarist out of Hamilton and The David Rotundo Band , a vocalist/harmonica player based out of Toronto.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOTLgfQhvBY

Any other blues fans out there?  Post your current favourite artists below!

The Angled Back on the LFR Speaker

Another thing has had my curiousity piqued about the LFR1100 omnidirectional speaker  . . . what’s with the angled backs?  Granted, the angle is slight, but the rest of our speakers have straight backs.  What gives?

I tracked (okay, hunted) Andrew Welker down and asked him the question.  His reply:

Well, basically any sound coming from the back of the speakers is going to reach the listening position as a reflection of some sort.  (The front section, by contrast, has a high proportion of direct signal pointing directly at the listening area).  So we’re relying on reflections off boundaries for the sound, and for the most part boundaries mean a back wall.

If you imagine most people’s home theater set up, what would be between the two speakers in their home? Probably a TV,  a credenza, an equipment rack, and so on.  If, for example, you were to place your speakers without toeing them in at all, we have a situation: the signal is firing directly at the rear wall, and will create reflections bunched up between the two speakers where the TV, credenza or whatever may be.

By angling the back, even if you have the fronts set up firing straight ahead, it’s forcing the reflections to fire to the left on the left speaker, or to the right on the right speaker, instead of bunching up between the two speakers.  By spreading out the reflections in terms of width, we get a larger, more open soundstage from which to work.  And after all, that’s one of the main reasons we have drivers on the back of the speaker to begin with.

Although we’re not the first to do it, it is still fairly atypical in speakers, and a first for Axiom’s line up.

I hope that helped you as much as it helped me!  Do you have other questions about the design and engineering of the LFR1100s?  Post them in the comments below!

Axiom's Audio DSP

The DSP is an integral part of the LFR1100, and why we sell it as part of the set.  It serves two main functions:

1. The first function is applicable to any speaker – to the LFR1100 or any of our products.   When you use a traditional passive crossover network (not wall-powered but rather passive in that it uses capacitors, inductors and resistors), we are limited in how precise and how detailed we can get with those passive crossover networks.  We can do a good job of getting the overall frequency response linear, both on-and off-axis, to get the Axiom Listening Window to look the way we want; however, the problem in a passive crossover is that you can’t correct every area. The idea of the LFR1100 is to correct every little peak, dip, hump or null to create our most accurate speaker yet, with the added benefit of an expansive, yet accurate, soundstage.

So the main thing the DSP allows us to do is to take a speaker with a passive crossover and go the extra mile with the DSP to correct all those things which we can’t make absolutely perfect, particularly when we go off-axis and we want the family of curves to look a certain way.  Because we’re dealing in the passive world we’re dealing with part restrictions.  There are not an infinite number of  parts available, and to  attempt to address this level of sound detail passively it would take well over 100 parts to get it right.  By way of contrast, a normal  passive crossover has 4-15 parts.

Using an audio DSP  makes all of the curves look textbook-perfect on- and off-axis.  It takes a good design and makes it that much better.  (Aside – we’ll be making it available for the M80 and the M60 in time).

We’re applying that correction to both the front and back sections of the LFR.

2.  Additionally, in the case of the LFR, the function of the DSP is also to make the rear drivers ‘play nice’ with the front drivers.

The LFR1100 speaker pictured front and back

Let’s assume that you have the front section of that LFR system measuring the way you want it to and sounding really nice.  Now we add in the rear drivers.  Even though on their own the rear sound is as accurate and flat as a good speaker on its own, (in fact, in the case of the LFR it would sound quite similar to the M22 bookshelf speakers – note the configuration), when you add the front section of the speaker to them, you get some pretty bad interaction between the front and back sections.

Part of the reason is that they are separated by a distance – the depth of the cabinet in this case (17 inches) which creates a bit of a delay in the sound that comes from the back drivers compared to the sound coming from the front drivers.  You’ll not only hear it in your living room, but it is also clearly seen in the anechoic chamber.

This cancellation has been the major issue with the majority of bipolar-style speakers.  At some frequencies, the sound from the back of the cabinet wraps around the side of the cabinet and combines with the sound from the front of the speakers.  This cancellation phenomenon gives the speakers the really big sense of space that is the biggest feature of that family of speakers.  However, those same interactions tend to distort the tonal balance, which can be especially heard in the midrange, making them not very focused and somewhat distant.

Where that cancellation typically takes place is also in the particular frequency range which helps us in our mind create the ‘image’ – a location of where the sound is coming from.  In a typical bipolar with these cancellations, the image gets very washed out and indistinct.

Also, a point of clarification for those of you who have been asking:  Bipole is defined as the front and rear sections are operating in phase with each other.  A dipole, by contrast, means the front and rear sections are out-of-phase with one another, and that is not what we’re doing with the LFR1100.

Unlike what we can do with a passive crossover, we have far more freedom with the corrections we can do digitally.  In the case of the LFR, we want to adjust the frequency response of the back section so it’s no longer actually flat.  If you were to look at graph of just the back drivers, it would look strange: but that’s because it is specifically designed to avoid those cancellations from taking place.  Instead, what we’re trying to do is to tailor the frequency response of the speakers so you don’t get those cancellations.  We’re making the character of the front section sound the same, with or without the back drivers.

It’s a complex piece of engineering and coding – hundreds of hours in all –  that you simply couldn’t perform with a passive crossover: the sheer volume of parts would start to negatively contribute to the sound of the speaker and waste a significant portion of your amplifier’s power.

I hope that helps you understand just what the LFR1100 audio DSP is doing as well as it helped me!  Stay tuned (pun intended) for more posts on the inner workings of our latest speaker.

Axiom Epic Grand Master On Wall Speaker System Wins Reviewe'r's Choice Award!

Home Theater Shack has just released their review of the Epic Grand Master On-Wall Home Theater Speaker System.  The system earned a Home Theater Shack Reviewer’s Choice Award!

Reviewer Dale Rasco critiqued the system, saying:

“In my opinion, the Axiom on-wall series provides a rich audio presentation combined with a sleek and modern look without sacrificing overall fidelity. They are the perfect blend of fit, function and finesse while still being financially viable for the average enthusiast.”

Also included in the review are direct comparisons between the sound of the on-walls vs his larger Epic 80 – 800 set up, and what happened when things really started to get rocking, during a listening session with Symphony X.

The system was reviewed in Vermont Maple Custom Vinyl, earning Rasco the coveted “Better Half Approval Vote”.  To see pictures of the system, click on the images below.

[Show as slideshow]

Read the full review here:  http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/speaker-reviews/56820-axiom-grand-master-5-2-home-theater-system-review.html#post513860

Andrew’s brother-in-law Tim Nadeau kindly provided us with photos from the show to share with you.

[Show as slideshow]

Here’s a quick video of the room we were in:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwC3-uNNA_M

And an interview we did with James Tanner of Bryston on the BDP-1 Digital Player

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afMUEar6S-s

When you measure a loudspeaker in the anechoic chamber, he explained, you will see a certain frequency response when the front baffle is facing straight-on to the microphone.  As you rotate the speaker in degrees – for example, 15 degree increments – the amount of reduction in energy from the tweeter should remain consistent.  An angling of x degrees and a reduction of x decibels, as it were.

In a conventional speaker, however, by the time that angle reaches 60- 90 degrees, there is a very rapid reduction in upper midrange and high-frequency energy.  So it might appear nice and even to 90 degrees, but as you go further than the 90 degree angle, the highs really begin to disappear. Ideally you’d like for this energy continue reducing in level in an even fashion, but this is nearly impossible to achieve with drivers only on the front of the speaker.

So how to compensate for this problem?  Well, the theory is that if you put tweeters and mid-woofers on the back of the cabinet, you can keep the energy consistent across a wider frequency range, increasing the spectrum of sound being radiated throughout the room.

But the challenge has always been that if you put identical drivers front and back, you introduce some nasty cancellations between front and back.  If you heard early versions of omnidirectional speakers, you know what we mean.

Enter the DSP.  By using a digital signal processing chip, you can code the exact response of the speaker to eliminate these cancellations, and create what we like to call the Axiom Listening Window – smooth frequency response across the family of curves.  What that translates to is even energy in the highs and midrange,  along with the detail and image focus that Axiom speakers are famous for.  Got a home theater with 6 seats across?  How about a big sectional couch?  Imagine if everyone heard the same wide soundstage that you enjoy in the sweet spot.

The goal of the new Axiom Omnidirectional speaker is to create our most realistic, enveloping speaker to date.  Applying the latest developments in DSP technology to a solid foundation of research in loudspeaker design has created a truly unique speaker worthy of being called Axiom’s new flagship speaker.

New home buyers are increasingly requesting home theater rooms when shopping.

A recent article in the San Diego Union Tribute said that among the most frequently-requested features in a new home are home theater rooms. The article speculates that it is because there is so much technology now that we need a place for all of it to converge. I think it’s so much more than a convenient place to store gadgets and gizmos, though: for most of us, it’s our own portal to another place and time. Think about it: how many other rooms in the house are there exclusively for pleasure, and for relaxation?

How do you make your home theater rooms appealing to future buyers? The article suggests you hide all your wiring, and you choose ‘less’ furniture over ‘more’ to make the space look bigger.

I’d like to add a few more tips:

• Have several lighting options available. Although perfectly dark cave-like home theater rooms are ideal during a movie, what about when you’re getting settled in? What if you need to pause the movie while someone refreshes the beverages or takes a bio break? Do you have to throw on full overhead lighting, or can you take advantage of the numerous rope lighting or under-counter lighting options, or even just good old fashioned dimmers, to give you plenty of options for your media space.
• Consider all the uses of the room, not just movie-watching.  Is there a social space like a wet bar or counter with stools for people just looking to sit and chat and listen to music?  What about enough space in front of the seating area for active games of Kinect or Wii?  Can people easily come and go from the room without having to trip over other movie-watchers (although admittedly, this would provide authenticity and increase the ‘movie theater’ feel of the room!)
• Take advantage of today’s high-end home theater offerings to choose in-wall or in-cabinet speakers where appropriate, or if you have a lot of space, look at custom matching options or paintable speakers to create a really unique and personal home theater look.  If black boxes don’t inspire the decorator in your home, don’t despair: there are plenty of options out there!
• Although glossy home theater magazines are fun to look at it, search out other pictures of home theater rooms to give you real-world ideas for your special space.  You’ll be amazed at how creative people are, and you may just be inspired to try something unusual in your room, too!

Source: San Diego Union Tribune, March 5th: HOME THEATERS: DESIRED BY HOME SHOPPERS

Axiom is exhibiting its new home theater speaker at Salon Son et Image

Coming soon to a salon near you . . . Axiom will be demonstrating its ‘top secret’ new stereo and home theater speaker at the 25th annual Salon Son et Image in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, March 23-25th.  The speaker, over 10 years in the making, is a combined effort of Axiom president and founder Ian Colquhoun, and engineer Andrew Welker.

Also at the show, Axiom has been invited to participate in a panel of six of North America’s best speaker designers.  Andrew Welker will represent Axiom on the panel on Saturday.

Axiom will be co-exhibiting with Bryston, makers of industry-leading professional and commercial specialty electronics.

The show average around 8000 visitors each year – more than Axpona, RMAF and TAVES all combined together – and it brings together some of North America’s most discerning customers and reviewers, both home theater speaker enthusiasts and stereo-only audiophiles.  It will take place at the Hilton Bonaventure Hotel Downtown Montreal for the third year in a row.

For tickets and more information on the show, please see:
http://www.salonsonimage.com/EN/index.html
or
http://www.salonsonimage.com if you speak French!

The latest home theater speaker system at Axiom: The Epic60 600 160

Introducing the latest Axiom Home Theater Speaker System: The Epic 60 600 160.  Oh yah, that’s a lot of numbers!  Take the award-winning M60 floorstanding speakers, add the deep-as-the-ocean EP600 dsp-powered subwoofer, the critically acclaimed QS8 surround speakers, and then add our new commanding VP160 center channel.  The result?  A home theater system so perfectly matched and deeply powerful that you’ll be forgiven for not leaving your house all weekend!

The new system is custom-configured for dedicated home entertainment areas.  The advantage of larger speakers over smaller ones is immediately apparent when you hear the system:  suddenly sound becomes spacious, and a new dimension is added to your movies and music.  You are immersed.  You are surrounded.  You are part of the experience.

“We relentlessly pursue the most exciting audio experience we can provide,” said Axiom founder and chief engineer, Ian Colquhoun.  “Bigger speakers mean more emotion, more thrills, more explosions, more romance, more excitement.  The bigger the cabinet, and the wider the range of frequencies you can provide to the home theater listener, the more realistic their experience will be.”

The home theater speaker system can be ordered in standard Boston Cherry or Black Oak, or it can be customized in any of our hundreds of finish, stain and grille possibilities.  Custom painting to match your walls is also available on this system.

We can’t wait to read your reviews of the new Epic 60 600 160!

Superbowl Sound: The best footballparties this weekend will have Team Axioms!

Hosting the big game at your place this weekend? You’ll hear every call if your Superbowl sound is coming from a well set-up surround sound speaker system.

Getting great Superbowl sound relies on a few factors:

1. Power:  without enough of it, your gametime audio is like a quarterback who forgot his Wheaties.  Make sure you you have enough amplifier power to do justice to the speakers.  Not sure how to tell?  Most manufacturers publish at least a maximum amp power – try to get as close to that as possible.  Axiom publishes a minimum power as well, so make sure you have at least that much power going in!  Tip from the Secret Playbook:  The bigger your room, the closer to the maximum amplifier you should be to get that won’t-watch-the-game-anywhere-else-every-again experience.

 

2. Play:  Make sure you’re not using a stereo receiver – or worse, your TV speakers – when the big game is being broadcast in Dolby Digital.  The National Football League led the sports charge with the first high-definition surround-sound broadcast with the 2000 Superbowl.  All NFL games and most other sporting events are now being broadcast in 5.1 surround sound – don’t miss feeling like you’re right in the audience.  Nothing is as authentic as hearing a heckler coming from right behind you with Superbowl audio providing the calls.

 

3. Positioning:  Is your home theater set up properly?  Have you taken the time to do the subwoofer crawl?  Ensure that your front speakers form a triangle with the ‘sweet spots’ on the couch:  your front left and right speakers should be the same distance from the seating position, and slightly forward of the center channel.  The distance from the right and left speakers should be equal from the center channel.Tip from the Secret Playbook:  If your center channel has gotten shoved to the back of a shelf, pull it slightly forward over the lip of the shelf for the big game (really for every time you listen, but I understand the wife vote!) to get the clearest dialog.  Need to invert your center?  Check out our center channel placement video here.

 

4. Proper Balance:  Make sure all your speaker levels are balanced properly.  Sometimes curious fingers get playing around in the menus and suddenly one channel is turned way down.  Check the on-screen display and if you have SPL meter, run pink noise through your speakers.  Check out this great superbowl sound must-have app if  you don’t.