Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Looking for advice on Axioms for an apartment

I've done some looking around and listening, and several forums have referred me to Axiom so I figured I'd come here and read up. Which Axioms would you recommend for an apartment living room about 15x13 in size? Whole place is about 800-900 sq ft.

I'm looking mainly to just get fronts, center, and sub right now. Surrounds I'll probably pick up later

I don't have separates at the moment, it'll be powered by a Onkyo TXNR801 receiver.

Thanks!

You can't leave surrounds behind for an HT, without those, movie watching would not be very exciting. You can actually skip purchasing a sub and a center channel (use a phantom center, as I have read here). Just get M60s and QS4s or 8s now, and save up for a sub and center for later.

Living in an apartment is really an issue for having a sub. This is the main reason I don't have a real ht for now (only a HTIB from three years ago).

By that response I take it that M22ti's or M50 wouldn't be sufficient for a room of that size?

sub isn't a problem, neighbor-wise...I'm on the ground floor, only a tenant above me.

From what I have read here, M22s seems to be closer to M60s in sound than M50s. Since you are buying a sub to go with them, and considerding your room size, M22s would be fine. However, for 2 channel music listening without a sub, I would prefer floorstanders.

cool, thanks. Due to the way things are laid out, I'd say its about 9' from viewer to TV

I really don't listen to alot of music. I'd say 80% is movies or sporting events (NFL or NHL mainly) and the rest is xbox/ps2. When I do its when just I've got buddies over drinkin and playing cards (usually techno or rap/hip-hop)

My only question now is, would the vp150 be "too much" (if there is such a thing) in certain settings?

I don't have a center channel yet, but for a large room like mine (23x20) VP150 is suggested. Probably for your room vp100 would be OK. Others with Center experience will probably chime in soon.

I've had my M22s (with two subs) in about the same size apartment/living room as yours for about three years now, and I've been extremely pleased. My only complaint (and it's one that's common for the other apartment dwellers on this board) has been that I do have to be a conciencious tennant and a decent neighbor.

With those kind of restrictions in mind, the 22s are a fantastic choice. They're more than capable of filling the room (and equally capable of annoying your neighbors), and they're wonderfully accurate speakers. In short, they're perfect for the home you're currently living in. The only question you should be asking yourself is whether you want to stretch for a pair of floorstanders so you'll be just as happy later on when you finally move out of your apartment.

You may find your 80-90% movies/games and 10-20% music habits will change after you get your Axiom speakers. I built my system figuring on those percentages, but found that having great sounding speakers has siginificantly increased my music listening. My M22's are fine in a room larger than yours, and I wouldn't trade them for M60's because of space restrictions. However, I do frequently lust after a pair of M60's.

I run a VP150 for the center and don't think it's "too much" although it was turned down 2-3db more during setup compared to the rest of the speakers.

I meant to comment on the VP150. It's not overkill in the least, and I wouldn't step down to a VP100 (no knock on the 100, but I'm very happy with my 150, thank you).

Agreed. The only way a VP150 would be "too much" is if it looked big and stupid on top of your TV. I don't think there would be *much* difference between VP100 and VP150 in your room but that is just from other people's comments.

For "mostly HT" in that room M22s are perfect. If you think there is a significant chance of becoming (re-becoming ? is that a word ?) a music addict or are likely to move into a larger room in the next couple of years then think about floor standers, otherwise don't bother.

As others have said, if your budget makes you choose between surrounds and center I would go for no center rather than no surrounds. The center helps a lot if you are sitting way off to one side, and helps make up for crappy main speakers by giving clearer vocals, but the M22s are about as clear as any speaker you are going to find at a reasonable price. Every receiver I have seen will split the center signal between the mains if Center is set to NONE in the speaker setup -- but do check with your receiver manual first (or just ask here, someone probably owns the same receiver ).