Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Do *GOOD* "Lifestyle" speakers even exist?

I started to make a thread, but deleted it as it turned out pretty long and boring, so I will just cut to the chase:

I have had my M60ti's for about a week now, and love them more and more each time I listen to them.

For my movie watching duty, I have a set of Klipsch Quintet's, and I know they are small, and sacrifices have to be made with extremely small speakers, but they are "muddy" to the point of I occasionally have problems with vocal clarity during movies.

Problem is, even bookshelves are too big to hang off the walls in my living room. Are there any clean, detailed small speakers that don't have a "boost" somewhere in the lower range that gives the appearance of "bass"? I think this is why I sometimes can't understand dialog...I have tried many things; calibration, placement, angling (toeing), goosing the center +3db over the other speakers; all attempts yielded subtle improvements, but I still don't have the clarity I desire. I even bought a new center channel, which again was an improvement, but still I desire better.

Is there such a thing, or am I asking for the impossible? I don't expect to get M60ti like sound out of ity-bity satellites, but surely at least I should be able to find Axiom like *clarity* with a small speaker???

After having these Axioms, how I wish I could have an all-Axiom setup for HT, but it just isn't in the cards in my current house...

On websearching, I see that Axiom did have a product called the "Epic Micro". Whatever happend with that product?

-Alan

I believe the problem is that you need at least moderately sized drivers to even handle the lower midrange properly at decent volumes for a moderate sized room. I can tell you that M2s with a good subwoofer make a fantastic system for a smaller room, but I haven't heard anything much smaller that is really sastisfying.

The smaller Axioms were discontinued -- only guessing at the reasons, but I imagine the smaller units were not much cheaper to build than the M2-size speakers and didn't perform as well.

The trend today seems to be high performance in-wall speakers rather than small free-standing speakers. Is something like that a possibility for you ?

These have gotten good reviews.
LINK

I would second the Anthony Gallo speakers as one of the best choices for this situation.

Have you looked at/considered the Axiom on wall series? I have not heard them yet, but others who have say they sound like their std bookshelf counterparts. They would look good and provide a sound you like and are used to. Or would that not work for your environment?

Take care,
Rich

I guess I never really thought about it that way...I just always thought that for good bass, that is where driver size matters, but for midrange, I didn't think driver size was that important.

It just almost seems (and from what I have read, pretty common) that almost all small satellite speaker companies "boost" somewhere at the lower end of the satellite's response to give the appearance of them being larger than they are.

I really do not know that much at all about speakers, and maybe the new M60s just have me spoiled, but it almost seems as if this "boost" on my small speakers are what is mucking up the vocal range.

In-walls are a slight possibilty, but with my odd layed out room, not sure how that would work out...

As a possible alternative to my Quintets, I stumbled onto Paradigm "Cinema 90s". I wonder if they would be any better? They look almost like my quintet's but the 90s have 4 1/2" midbass/1" tweeter, low-sensitivity rated sealed enclosure, where my Quintetes have 3 1/2" midbass/ 3/4" tweeter, high sensativity rated ported at the rear-Although they look almost identical, from a design perspective, you couldn't get much further apart!

Funny thing is, one review I found on them (Cnet) gives them a lesser rating than my Quintets, not that I take anything they review seriously, it does give reason for pause. When I did a websearch for "Klipsch Quintent vs Cinema 90" I did find ONE thread that almost everyone gave a nod to the 90's over the Quintets for better midrange clarity...

I appreciate the link to the Gallos...

-Alan

Hmmm...dialog normally comes out of the center channel, but you're saying it didn't help much changing it? Do you incorporate your M60's in your theater system or is it just the Quintet's? If you do in fact use your M60's as the main left and right speakers, then maybe you could try goind without a center (a 'phantom' center) and let the M60's fill the center themselves. Just a thought!

LOL, sorry for the confusion. I have a mess is what I have!

I have Quintets all around, but center was replaced with a Klipsch SLX. On the "B" channel of the reciever is my Axioms for music only.

Its silly I know, but before I bought the Axioms, I *knew* something didn't sound right with my setup, and once I received my Axioms, *then* I could tell what it was if that makes any sense at all...

When I listen to music with my Axiom/SVS combo on the "B" channel, I couldn't be happier. This is by far the cleanest sound I have ever heard! And I do NOT expect this level of quality out of ity-bity speakers, but when I flip back and do comparison, there is a definate "boost" somewhere that is muddying up the midrange on the Quintets.

I may have posted it before, but here is my room; pics are a few years old, so you don't see the new center channel (and I closed off that open space behind it), the Sub, or my new Axioms, but you can get an idea:


http://warez.msmcs.net/MyHost/DSC00570.JPG
http://warez.msmcs.net/MyHost/DSC00572.JPG

There are some other pics in there, but that will give you an idea...

I just got off the phone with my local Paradigm dealer; They have some Cinema 90s in stock. I think I will try and give them a listen sometime next week to see if there is any notable improvment over my Quintets...

Can't hurt...

-Alan

PS What I *really* need now is a dedicated room, then small speakers wouldn't been an issue!

EDIT-What I am kind of completely baffled by, was years ago when I started this mess called "HT", I picked up a set of Klipsch Pro-Media's for my PC. Those things sounded soooooo good to me, that was one of the reasons I went with the Quintets. They look virtually identical, but yet they sound NOTHING alike. How can the pro-medias sound so good, yet the Quintets sound so bad...

Sonic, whenever I first set my system back up last weekend I didn't connect the center channel for reasons I cannot remember and was pleasantly surprised how well the floorstanders created a phantom center by themselves. I believe I would rather try this approach than using another brand for a center.

Have you gave any thought to the placement of the speakers you have now? Having them so far up and close to the ceiling with the center tucked away in the way you have it I'm sure it's not helping with the clarity issue.