Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Speakers came today!

FedEx was here at 10am today and I had them up and running at 11am. Not even hooked up the QS8 yet, just the M60's and the VP150. I've had them on all day and only turned them off tonight about 11pm.

I wish I could say they blew me away, but that didn't happen. In fact, I was disappointed in how they sound. My opinion is based on music only so far, not movies. But music is my biggest concern and what I enjoy most. I'll hook up the rear speakers tomorrow and see how they sound.

I don't think you could find a better built speaker then these, built like a tank and they're beautiful to look at. I really hope I end up having to eat my words and start liking these speakers, and that could happen. I will say a few hours later they sounded better but still not great. And keep in mind I'm a newbie at this and could have something setup wrong.

I could also be having problems with my Onkyo receiver and it's not the speakers at all. I'll try to explain. About a year ago we had new carpet put in and when the guys moved my old speakers they didn't un-plug them and broke off 2 of the little male (RCA) post from the end of the cable inside the receiver that I couldn't never get out. In fact, one of the them fell inside the receiver out of sight. Also last Christmas someone put a book on top of the receiver which covered all the air vents, the receiver was on but not playing at the time. It took about 20 to 30 minutes and I started smelling (hot) no smoke or fire, just hot, very hot! Anyway, I wasn't using it much at the time and it still worked so I figured it was OK. But over time I think it was getting weaker and weaker. I noticed today I had to have the volume set to 60 just hear it at what I'd call a normal setting, and before it seems like it was at about 30 to 35. My plan is to buy a new receiver, maybe even this week. I'm thinking about a Denon 2805 or Denon 2106, any thoughts?

I'll keep these for a couple of weeks and see if they grow on me, and try to hear them with a new receiver before I say it's the speakers 100%. Needless to say I really want to like them and maybe I will. If so, I'll without a doubt retract my findings so far and even ask to have this post deleted. I think Axiom is a great company and a pleasure to do business with. So any new readers please don't take what I've said to heart, I really hope there's a bigger picture here and it will turn out with a happy ending. Thanks!

R.T.

Before you go too much farther in your "testing", make sure you are listening to a well recorded, mastered, & produced cd.
There are several posts here, with many examples.

You give no idea as to how the M60s were setup. I also didn't see any mention of a sub in the setup. Could it be possable you were running the 60s as small in the receiver menu without a sub. It sounds to me like either a setup issue or the receiver is going kaput.

Have you even calibrated the speakers with your receiver? How do you have the setup menu's in your receiver set?

This is exactly what my reaction first was.

Then I calibrated and gave them a little time.

I learned the hard way what people meant by "find a good recorded CD". I really never appreciated the huge difference in quality of how the recording was mastered.

I first popped in some old classic rock favorites and was very disappointed. Didn't try good recorded stuff until after I calibrated the speakers.

Big difference.

Well I have some good news and some bad news!

The good news is there's nothing wrong with the speakers and they sound great! I was so happy to hear those speakers come alive and fill the room with beautiful music.

The bad news is I need a new receiver. I played with this thing all night trying to get the settings right to make it sound good and no matter what I tried it still sounded like crap. So today my wife's Boss let me come to his office and pickup his Denon receiver. As soon as I turned it on I knew it was my receiver, his sounded great even without doing a setup. So I ordered a refurbished Denon 2106 just a couple of hours ago and should have it by the end of the week.

Guess I'll see if I can send my old Onkyo out somewhere to get it fixed because there's no place around here that can work on them. You guys know of any place? It's out of warranty so I don't know if Onkyo would take it in or not. I noticed today there was a tapping noise going on, you could only here it at the beginning and end of a song. Once the music started it covered it up. Also, for a while today, when I turned the volume up using the remote, the numbers would go back-wards, and the opposite would happen when I turned the volume down, numbers would go up. So I gave up on it and like I said ordered another receiver.

I appreciate all the input and I'm sorry I had to waste everyones time trying to fix a dead horse. My hats off to Axiom for making such nice speakers and I'm glad it was the receiver and not them. Oh, I hooked up the rear speakers today too and there awesome also!

Thanks again!

R.T.

For what it’s worth, I had a similar reaction the first time I listened to my M60s. My previous speakers were a pair of jbl’s bookshelves that I’d had for 15 years and got very used to their sound. The M60s sounded ‘different’, particularly I was having trouble getting used to the mid-high frequencies region the M60 produced. It was no coincidence, the jbls are famous for muddy mids and overly bright highs, on the other hand, the M60 are famous for their detail mids. For me it was just a matter of training my ears to what good balanced speakers should sound. Not sure how long it took, but it was worth it.
I fell in love with the M60 low freq. response and ‘stage’ immediately though.
~Jaime

Glad to hear it all worked out, even if you did need to replace the receiver. Don't worry about wasting peoples time -- your first post seemed very fair and if nothing else we might have coughed up a good idea somewhere along the way

Sorry about the demise of your reciever, but very glad you got what you hoped for out of your speakers. Happy listening