Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater New Setup

I'm new to this forum and Axiom as well, so I'll try and keep it brief. But I tend to ramble at times. I'm looking to make the jump to a well sounding, budget minded 5.1 setup. Initially I was going to go with a Paradigm Cinema 110CT. $800 HT in a box. Very good WAF(wife approval factor, took me a sec to figure that acronym, it's great!) I had liked the reviews that Paradigms got, but that was before I happened upon Axioms last week. Mentally, I think I'm sold. The plan is M22's, VP100, QS4's, and an EP175. Through the outlet I'm looking at ~1350. Some how I need to convince my spouse to up the budget. Along the budget line, one way of cutting costs would be to use Paradigms for the surrounds. I would use the Cinema ADP surrounds which are 4-driver 1", 3.5" dipolars. What opinions are out there on this option? How much performance would I be sacrificing by going outside the Axiom family for surrounds? They would be used primarily for movie apps, as I'm not that in to multichannel music, YET...
Anyway, look forward to some advice and enjoy the humor in these threads.
Sips

Welcome Sips,

For me, I can't imagine parting with my Qs8's, for another brands di-pole or bi-pole speaker. Axiom's quadpolar design is very unique, and I am not aware of any other manufacturer with such a design. You get the top/bottom woofers, and the left/right tweeters firing all in phase. The result is, for me, the best surround experience I've ever heard. Actually, they are probably my favorite speaker of my setup. If there is anyway you can swing it, that would be trick

By the way, welcome! Hope to see you around a lot.

What receiver are you planning on using, and what is your room size?

Randy

Welcome!
Tell your wife that if you get the Axioms now the upgradeitis bug will not bite as bad (for a while)!
Plus it will be more difficult to get your money out of a HTIAB.
Good luck!

Randy,
room's 13w x 15l x 8.5h; however, there is no wall at the back of the listening/viewing position as it opens into our kitchen area. Right now for a receiver all I'm running is a Sony AVD-S50ES, which is a progressive DVD player receiver with 100W x5. The one thing some people have said is that with the room opening to the back I may want to go with a bigger sub to fill that air space, but I'm already jeopardizing the WAF as it is.
Sips

oh yeah,
thanks rockhead and sirquack for finally saying SOMETHING about my post. I was begining to wonder if something smelled funny. JK, thanks,
Sips

Biggest problem I see is that the CT surrounds have a small woofer (3-1/2") and are designed to be used with a fairly high crossover frequency, ideally something around 150 Hz. If you have a receiver that lets you run different crossover frequencies for each speaker set (in other words a Harmon Kardon) that wouldn't be too bad but otherwise you're going to have to choose between cutting the Axioms off higher than necessary (M22 and VP100 run with 80-100 Hz crossover) or cutting the ADPs off lower than ideal and living with a bit of a frequency response hole between (say) 100 and 150 Hz. Shouldn't be a big deal though...

The ADPs would have to be quite a bit cheaper for this to be a good idea... but it is one of the four time-honoured ways of bringing an HT system into budget :

1. Cheaper surrounds (usually OK if response is fairly close but not so good for music)

2. Non-Axiom sub, usually from a mfg closer to where you live (shipping a sub is expensive), maybe a HSU STF-1

3. Use an M2 for a center rather than VP100

4. Use REALLY cheap surrounds for now ($10) and replace with the surrounds you want when budget permits.

What do you have today in the way of a receiver ? EDIT - you answered this while I was typing...

Other interesting systems to consider :

3 M3s across the front, QS4 surrounds, EP175 - 1173 from FO

2 M3s, VP100, QS4 surrounds, EP175 - ~1250

2 M22s, VP100, QS4 surrounds, STF-1 - 1200 from FO/HSU

upgrade to QS8 surrounds - 1300 from FO

3 M2s, QS4 surrounds, STF1 - 1000 from FO

bridgman,
okay, I'm getting hooked and I havn't even pulled out the debit card. I think for the best bang for the buck I should just go ahead and go with the QS4's. Sounds like they provide a great sound field and they will definitely perform better than the ADP's if I get into SACD, since my receiver will play them. Now for one of your suggestions: The stf-1 sub. I went to their site and saw some snippets of reviews (one said it was ...superior to Axiom's EP 175) Am I relying too much on these reviewer's comments, or is it that good of a sub? I noticed it only had an 8" woof, compared to the 175's 10". My friend says size doesn't matter, but is this true when comparing subs ...the stf1 and ep175? Thanks so much for the alternative options.
Sips

Bridgman,
Help me understand something here. You were talking about frequency responses of the surrounds and having a hole if I crossed them lower and used the ADP's in the rear. If the only option I have with my receiver is speaker size in speaker setup, doesn't that mean the receiver internally crosses at whatever frequency it is programmed for say, small surrounds? If that is the case do I understand that I don't really have a way of really controlling the x-over freqs to the surrounds per se?

re: STF-1 vs. EP175 -- it's tough to say. Bigger is better when it comes to filling a large room with bass, particularly if you are into shaking walls and furniture. On the other hand, a smaller woofer in the same size box can often do a better job of going down into the lower frequencies. The STF-1 is a surprisingly good but smaller subwoofer; it may be "better for the size" than the EP175 (in fact it probably is) but I don't think it would be better overall. Having said that, unless you have to shake the house I think you would be real happy with a matched Axiom system and an STF-1.

But what do I know ? Until recently I was running M2 mains, VP100, QS8s and a big honkin' SVS 20-39PC-plus. In all seriousness, if you expect to become a bass addict one option would be to go for smaller mains (M2 or M3) and spend the extra on a bigger sub.

The more likely scenario, however, is that you will play some music on the system, be blown away by how good it sounds, start digging out all of the CDs you haven't listened to for a while, and be real glad you got M22s and the matching surrounds (in which case the STF-1 is probably the perfect purchase).

It's hard to say, every addiction plays out a bit differently

I'd go with the STF-1. They're both renowned for how good they are with music. However, any sub with a -3 dB point above 30 hz, isn't worth much more than $500. Since they're both good with music, go for the STF-1.

You could get a B-stock HSU STF-3(read: huge ) for $480 - $505, shipped. This would be an awesome deal, I think.