Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Concerned about M3Ti's

Hi all, I'll start off by saying I've enjoyed my M3Ti's and have even defended them against (paid?) naysayers (avsforum Ailemental (sp?)) but something is bugging me. I use the speakers about 50/50 for music and DVD's certain music sounds great on the speakers while other music sounds fairly poor, I've brought this down to the source material being the problem as a lot of music has literally blown me away on these speakers (not to mention I listen to alot of metal and rock which is poorly mastered). Now on to my concern... while watching DVDs I get a very shrill distortion sometimes in movies when people shout or talk loudly almost as though the speaker is blown. I have no idea whether or not the source is to blame or whether the speakers I received might be damaged. Is there any kind of test for this because some things sound great but in many dvds I get this shrill distortion when people talk or shout, as I mentioned, and it's starting to drive me crazy. I would like to try and figure out if the source is to blame or if the speakers I receieved might be damaged before I send them back. I've heard cheapy blown speakers before and in some music they still sound ok (as in you can't tell they're damaged) but for others you can definitely tell they've been damaged and it reminds me of what I'm experiencing with the M3Ti's I just received, some times they sound great but at certain times they sound as though they are heavily distorted. I wonder could the source cause this problem or did I receive damaged speakers. I've never played the speakers loud at all, I don't live in such an environment where I would be allowed to do so, so there is no chance that I could have damaged the speakers by overdriving them. As I said before, some things, I'd even say most things, sound great. But, that shrill voice I get in movies is really grating my nerves and makes me not want to show of my new setup to people without fear they'll tear it to pieces.

Oh I'm using a panasonic XR-55 to drive the speakers via SPDIF out from my PC.

I really appreciate any input or advice.

Shrill is not an M3 quality. Could be a bad voice coil or blown tweet. Don't know about SPDIF or running them from your PC.

hmm is there any kind of test for this to see if there is indeed something damaged on the speakers? I'm 1 day past my 30 day return to Axiom (I love the speakers otherwise don't get me wrong) Just voices in DVDs are really bugging me. As i said before I've never once played the speakers loud, my reciever isn't even powerful enough to drive the speakers at their full power so there is no chance I could have damaged them just playing movies and dvds at fairly low volumes over my Panasonic XR-55. Again I would like to hope the source material is to blame but I'm really not sure.

Hmm on second thought I'm almost 90% sure the source is to blame now. I just listened to a clip that sounded overly distorted on my M3ti's over some pretty high end Sennhieser headphones and it actually sounds pretty distorted over the headphones as well. I guess the blame can goto poorly mastered DVDs, it kind of sucks they sound so terrible though since I have to now be selective about which movies I choose to show off my setup to friends. (I never noticed any shrill voices that seemed distorted with movies that use DTS) Thesre aren't obscure foriegn movies from ancient times either, but popular movies from the 80's and onwards.

I think I would be looking at the output level from the computer to the receiver.... my guess is that your overdriving your input levels on the receiver.

Have you tried turning down the output level of your sound card by a few Decibels?

People often think of high-wattage and sheer volume when they think of distortion, but frequently it's mis-matched line and preamp levels that are being overdriven. In the consumer world, line-level is a standard that's universal enough to ignore. In the world of professional audio, that's really not the case at all and I'm constantly matching levels because very little has a "fixed" output level. If you're using a computer as a source, I wouldn't be surprised if it was overdriving internally or putting out more than 1 volt at line level....

Hi RMC!

Glad to see that you may have discovered the problem!!

Otherwise this may have been a first!

In over four years of reading these posts, this would have been pretty much the first time I recall reading about someone not liking their M3s

Hi RMC,

I absolutely agree with Mark about excessive line levels from your computer sound card overdriving the inputs on the Panasonic. I don't really advocate using computers for home theater playback of DVDs as the sound cards can be wildly variable in quality and generally don't meet the standards of audio-video playback gear.

As to the Panasonic, I have not used it. I'm somewhat apprehensive about digital amplifiers for wideband amplification, although if designed properly, they can be excellent.

It's certainly not a problem in the M3ti's. But I'm a bit concerned the overload distortion in the XR55 might have sent distortion components to the M3ti's. Your headphone test is excellent, but try borrowing a conventional DVD player (or CD player) and use the Panasonic's analog inputs to see if you hear any of the same problems with your M3ti's. If you do, call or email Axiom's service manager Joe Vassallo (joev@axiomaudio.com).

Regards,

Those neutral Axiom speakers. Crap in. Crap out. Sounds like the same problem I have when burning music to CDs. Sometimes the cd quality is just not there. Glad you found the problem!

Well I hooked up a stand alone dvd player to the receiver and it still sounded a bit shrill but I'm really still not sure where the fault lies. The sound card I have in my pc (Chaintech av710) won't allow me to adjust the master volume when using SPDIF so I cant test to see if the output is going too high. My PC is the basis of my HT system with TheaterTek over a 24" 1920x1200 display so I can't really make any changes there. Are there any better sound cards that I could use? Oh if I didn't mention it before I only ever notice this when people shout or speak loudly in movies (maybe 1-5 times a movie). I've played all sorts of music at much higher levels than my DVD's and never once noticed this shrillness. Yesterday I even ran a program called "sawcutter" that you can use to generate different wav frequencies and played some extrememly high frequencies over the speakers without any distortion so I would think if there was any damage or fault in the speakers these high frequency wavs would point that out better than some compressed DD streams over DVD's. I'd still like to try and figure out the exact cause though. It seems odd to me that so many dvd's would do this.

I have a pair of M3s and have a somewhat similar experience. I have M3s driven by a Yamaha HTR 5730. I listen to music only. I Have Joss Stone's CD "Soul Sessions". On 1 or 2 of the tracks, I can't remember which songs. She hits a couple of notes that, IMO, don't quite fit. They are hard to listen to. I would say they are "shrilly"-not quite distorted. I have played a ton of music on these beautiful M3s with no problems-even at loud volumes. It just seems to be a couple of notes from 1 or 2 songs.

I just keep telling myself it's the fault of the microphone that she recorded the CD with!

Ill be interested to see what you come up with! Good Luck!