Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo my audio system is running, but...

Thanks for the suggestions.

Wid, I did set the front speakers R/L as large and all the other speakers including sub as None in the Denon receiver. I also set the receiver as Direct CD or steoro mode when it amplifies the analog audio signal from the DVD.
I checked the DVD-player manual again, I don't think I need to do any setting if I just use it as a 2-channel CD-player.

Bridgeman:
1. I don't know what is DID sound. I did try some audiophile CDs on this system and some of the tracks really sounds good at loud volume, but again I was not feeling I was melt by the sound.
2. I think I am sure I wire M60 in phase. The red outlet in speaker is connected to the red inlet on receiver, same for the black outlet and inlet.
3. The room may be the key. Actually I bought this system for my future home. That is why I chose a floor standing speaker. Right now the system is in the main bedroom of a two-bed room apartment. The floor of the room is 10 ft by 14 ft with thick carpet. Nothing is on the wall. I just put the two speakers 6 ft away. A queen size bed is behind me.

I really hope I just have some setting problem or room dimension problem. Please help me out if you see some clues. Thanks

Is it possible to move the system to a different room just to try it out ? You have a first rate system there so it might very well be the room.Nothing is" weak "in your system imo.

Settings sound OK at first glance. In my rooms I find the M60s need to be a couple of feet away from the wall to sound their best, which is going to be hard in your room.

If your bedroom is like mine I imagine the "listening position" is sitting on the edge of the bed ? If you are sitting at the head of the bed with a bare wall behind you then try (don't laugh) holding a pillow behind your head to block the reflections from the wall behind you. In my bedroom that makes a huge difference in imaging... I basically don't get any unless I'm either far away from the wall or treating the reflections with the pillow.

Let's see... other things to try :

- keep the speakers away from the side walls as well as the corners, but try to have different distances to back and side walls. I know this is hard in a 10x14 room but you do get cancellations (frequency response dips) at a frequency determined by the speaker-to-wall distance so it really helps to keep the spacing different..

- on the other hand, you want the two speakers to have pretty much the SAME separations from walls so the two channels will sound the same

- speaker separation should be approximately the same as distance from speakers to ears, or a bit less... in your room this means the speakers are probably going to be fairly close together

Do you have the speakers on the 10' wall or the 14' wall ?

It is REALLY hard arranging a room to be useful as both a bedroom and as a listening room. In my case, I had to put the bed sidewards against the wall in order to get a good listening arrangement, but didn't like that for sleeping... and I *have* to sleep ;(

>>I don't know what is DID sound

Sorry, DID is just "did" in big letters, ie have you heard a system in that room which did sound good, ie which had the sound you like ?

There are two parts to the question, obviously :

1. Is the room the problem ? (it's probably at least part of the problem)

2. Other than "good", was there any particular thing you were looking for from your new system, ie bass, imaging, clarity ?

I know that sometimes I can find the sound of a good stereo a bit disappointing, for example...

No Doubt -- Hella Good -- on my crappy car radio, the combination of synthesizer bass, electric bass, percussion and breathing blur together to make a really neat sound. You really have to pay attention to figure out where the sounds are coming from.

On my upstairs system (HK receiver, M40s, everything is crystal clear. It's easy to tell that the synth bass and electric bass are playing different, complementary lines and that the two instruments are positioned differently in the soundscape. Instead of just hearing heavy breathing over top of everything else, you can hear the difference between breathing in and breathing out, and (I think) a bit of turbulence as Gwen breathes out over the mike cover.

Is it better ? Hard to say... I think I actually like it better on the car radio. Then again, I bet the album was mixed for the car radio so this is not really a surprise. Gwen tends to sing too close to the mike and that is really apparent on more accurate speakers (can you say ssssssibilance ?) but the "bright" sound comes across very well on a typical radio.

Now, cut to something obviously mixed for a good audio system, say Yes -- Tales from Topographic Oceans (or, for example, any well recorded jazz album). Completely different story here... the better the system, the better the album sounds, period. Everything blends beautifully and the most accurate systems do the best job of conveying the original performance (or what the musicians and engineers envisioned for the final mix).

There is a small downside to having an accurate stereo; it's like getting glasses and realizing that some of your friends are really ugly

I do think playing with speaker placement and the room arrangement a bit will really help though...

Alawayswithme, here's some more thoughts:
When I had my M60s in a 14' x 14' bedroom they were very different sounding than in the down stairs HT. Very warm and bassy; pleasant, but not the wide open soundstage I was used to in the larger room.
Between the small room and the M60s proximity to the wall, I would bet therein your problem lies.
There is also the possibility you simply don't like the Axiom sound, but that seems unlikely as you don't find the speakers objectionable - just underwhelming. Try them in a larger room, well away from the wall behind them (one or two feet), at a friend's house or something to get a better idea of what they really sound like.
Good luck.

alwayswithme
Just so happens I connected a Denon 2910 to my system yesterday and didn't even think about playing a redbook cd until after I read your post. I did play one (a couple!) a little while ago with the Denon through a similar H/K receiver as yours in both 2 ch stereo and multi-channel modes from the receiver and thought they sounded extremely good. Granted I am running the 80s but I also have a pair of 60s and I really don't think the difference in the speakers should remotely cause the problem you are describing.

You've got yourself a great system and I'll chime along with what the other folks here have been saying, it's either the room acoustics or somehow, someway you just don't like the sound of the 60s...providing everything is properly connected, which it sounds like it is.

Good luck and I do hope you will get it all worked out soon.

Humor me and stick your ear up to every driver in the speakers. Are they all working? I've certainly heard of problems with this, either binding straps or connections inside working themselves loose.

Is this your first "real" audio system you have (apart from mini/bookshelf ones)? If yes, it is so strange you cannot hear a difference in sound compared to your JVC!! There must be something wrong with the connections. What exactely you don't like in the sound? Bass, highs, muddy sound?

Ooh, ooh... it's an apartment, right ?

Any chance you have the speakers backing onto large windows / wall of glass ? If so you are going to get extremely lame bass and should try to move the speakers to another wall.

Bottom line is that you have a very good system there so unless all of your CDs are "unfortunate choices" or there is something wrong with room / placement / configuration you should be hearing some mighty nice sounds.

I think you have three options :

1. Drag the system out into the living room and see how it sounds.

2. If you have somewhere to post pics, doodle up a drawing of the room, speakers and listening position and post it here.

3. Give us a sample of the kind of CDs you have and we'll recommend something known to be well recorded so you can play with that first.

4. Get depressed and drink heavily, then try #1 or #2 when you wake up

a big thing is the fact that you have nothing on the walls, when i moved into my last house, i set my HT up right away, and there was nothing in the house, and it didn’t sound anywhere near as good as it did when i was "moved in" if you put some stuff on the walls, to direct/redirect the sound, the room will sound MUCH better, that is part of the reason why the movie theaters have cloth on the walls, deaden the walls.. when i added drapes, and a few other items, the room sounded much better.. try that, add just a few things on the walls, i bet the sound will be quite different.. also, what is yoru listening position in reference to the speakers, are you even with the speakers, above the speakers? I’m gona guess, that the speakers are making quite a bit of music go right into the bed your talking about... as far as "audiophile" quality, that’s B.S. mp3's sound as good on my system as multi channel dvd audio.. also, you don’t have a sub woofer, at all..