Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Newbie with a ton of questions!

Hey guys (and gals). First let me say what a great site this is! And I love the Boston Cherry finish on those Axioms, awsome!

Anyway, I am currently finishing my basement and planning on putting my home theatre down there. I am about 6 - 8 months away from buying some new speakers for my listening enjoyment. I am considering Axiom speakers as one of my choices. ( Other choices are B&W's or Paradigms, other options are not ruled out either). I will not ask why I should buy Axiom's over those other brands, because I have read the reviews and posts and can make that decision when it comes time.

For now, I have some basic questions to get me to the point where I want to be, a happy listener with the best system that my space and budget will afford.

My room is about 12' x 20' and not completly inclosed or "theatre dedicated", so I have a small attached room to one side and a hallway at the back with no doorway. The ceiling is 8' but will loose a couple inches when I put in the drop ceiling. I'd like to know about how far back on my wall and how high up I should place my rear channel speakers? Also, what size of speaker wire should I be using? I need to prewire the speaker cable before I drywall next week.
I am sound insulating the whole basement and there will be carpeting down there. How do I decide what size speakers I should get? I am running a 5.1 system off a Marantz SR4200 receiver (75w per channel). I would like the rear channel speakers to be wall mounted but don't want to lose sound volume or quality from smaller ones, but don't want big bulky things hanging on the walls either. I have small center and rear speakers now and they pretty much suck, I can't hear the talking in the movies unless I turn it right up, then when the action kicks in, it's too loud!

I won't ask too much more right now. I would really like to hear from anybody who has owned or compared side by side their Axiom's with either the B&W 600 series or Paradigm Monitor series speakers. Also, I won't buy speakers without listening to them first so I need to find out how I listen to some Axioms in my area. I am in Edmonton Alberta, Canada.
Any (and all) help and suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.

Boom, welcome. First, if you look at the auditioning thread you'll note that SeanF is listed in Edmonton. You might send him a PM.

On surround positioning, although you've used the term "rear channel", I assume that you're actually referring to the side surround speakers in a 5.1 setup rather than back speakers in 7.1. The position of those speakers depends on where you'll be sitting. They should be on the side walls about 3' above ear level and in the absence of back speakers should be slightly farther(maybe 2')back than the listening position to lend a little "back" effect.

The size of the wire would depend mainly on the length of the run and 16ga would be fine in the majority of cases.For a good explanation of speaker wire in general by a veteran audio professional together with a table of suggested gauges see this .

Welcome Boom,

John gave you some great advice. I will try to comment on your Axiom vs B&W vs Paradigm question. If you use the search tool, there is actualy lots of comparison discussions on all of these brands and many of the current Axiom owners have owned those brands, so I'm sure they will comment.

In my opinion, the Paradigm monitor series (which I think is being phased out) is not in the same league as the Axioms. Possibly if you were looking at the Studio lineup, you might be a little closer. In my opinion, my m60's sounded much better than the monitor 7's I demoed over a year ago.

B&W is a different story. Now, if your talking the 600 series, again, Axiom has them beat. The 700 series is a better comparison, however, MUCH more pricey. I was about ready to drop some big bucks on some 703's, that is until I heard some m60's. To me they were very comparable, if not giving my m60's a slight advantage overall. I was able to buy 2 m60's for less than 1 703, so it was not a hard decision to make.

Good Luck

Hey,
I talked with SeanF for an audition recently and he's too busy to do one. You can PM PaulM and see if he's available. He lives in St. Albert and let me audition his system just a few weeks ago. It sounded awesome, hence why I'm currently waiting for my system to arrive (... less then 3 weeks to go...). You can also try graphicsman, another guy who auditioned PaulM's system at the same time as me. He's ordering up a setup currently as well. It's almost like Axioms are a really good disease. Once you come in contact with it, you're bound to get it yoursef .

Anyways, If you're putting wire in your wall, I'd recommend putting a gauge or two bigger then what you currently need. That'll give you a little headroom in case you upgrade to a bigger system in the future. Check out monoprice.com for some great prices. They're cheap and excellent quality too. I've got 200' of 12 gauge speaker wire and a bunch of banana plugs sitting in my room right now. The only problem is the insulation on the 12 guage wire is a little to big for the banana plugs, so to fit them in the back I have to trim down the insulation. A bit of a pain, but once it's done it looks to be a great cable.

Thanks for the advice so far guys.
I was planning on using 12gag. cable. and today I read some of the threads and discussions on speaker wire as well as the link that JohnK provided. Very helpful stuff. Should I necessarily use banana plugs or can I just hardwire the cable directly to the amp and speaker? Is one method preferable for a certain reason?

Also, I have a bold question, at the risk of sounding ignorant, and I mean no disrespect... but if Axiom speakers are as great as people here say they are.. why aren't they sold in any stores? Wouldn't it be easier for me to listen to what I might want to buy at a stereo or audio store than to have to find someone who already owns them and them bug them by inviting myself over to their house? I don't know about most people but I would have an issue letting a stranger into my house to check out my stereo equipment. And I have two big dogs and an alarm system on my shack. Seems easier to go to a store.

Can someone explain "ohms" to me. What does it refer to exactly? What is the difference between 8ohms and 4 ohms and what does my amp run at? Again, excuse the ignorance, I havn't read all I want to on it yet. I will be checking more posts.

Last question (for today), in your opinions (I wanna hear it honestly) do you think my Marantz 4200 is enough amp to power a set of Axioms? And what size speakers should I be looking at for my 500+ sq.ft room on a 5.1 system, or should I maybe be considering an upgrade to a bigger amp or a 6.1 or 7.1 system? I'm not overly concerned with being able to blow the doors off, loud volume is not as important as sound quality to me, I got a baby on the way so I won't be cranking it up anyway.
Thanks again.

In answer to your first question, bare wire is just as good as banana plugs, many of us use the plugs because in tight quarters they are just plain easier to work with.

To the second question, Axiom can offer a much better value by selling Internet direct, there are many excellent speakers out there that can only be bought direct, this allows them to put out a superb product at a great price without the associated retail markups.

I'll let one the more technically proficient guys answer your last questions.

Ohm

Boom, as Michael pointed out, the internet direct sales process offers value to the consumer. If sold in typical stores the "suggested retail price" would be considerably higher.

As Rick's link showed, the ohm(honoring Dr.Ohm's pioneering research)measures the amount of opposition a wire, etc. offers to the transfer of electricity. Receiver/amps don't operate only at a specific ohm number, but since when the speaker has a lower impedance in ohms more current flows for a given amount of power, and this causes more heat in the amp, many units don't attempt to pass the tests required by the FTC and UL for official certification at 4 ohms, and are "8 ohm" units. Nevertheless, many units not officially rated for operation at 4 ohms can and do drive 4 ohm speakers well unless extremely high power levels are involved.

The answer to your question about your 4200 is probably yes(Axioms are about average, or slightly higher, in sensitivity), but you have to try it in your specific circumstances(room size, distance of listeners, average listening level, dynamic range of program material, etc.)to know for sure if it's satisfactory. Your speakers will use about 1 watt at a comfortably loud average level, but brief peaks will use much more. That could be 50 watts in many cases or 500 watts or more in extreme cases.

So.. on the back of my Amp, where I connect the speakers, it says "Impedence - 6ohms" and I look on the back of my speakers and they are all rated at 8 ohms... is this O.K... or is this a bad thing? Sorry, but maybe I need it dumbed down a little more for me...

Boom, your manual should be more specific about it, but Marantz is likely indicating that it works well with speakers no lower than 6 ohms in impedance. If that's the case, of course an 8 ohm speaker is no problem from the standpoint of impedance, since less current is used into 8 ohms than into 6 ohms.

Well, that would be great if I had the manual. But I bought the amp out of the back of a van in the mall parking lot for $50 bucks. So I didn't get a manual.

Ha ha! Just messing with you. I'll check the manual, but that makes more sense. Thanks again for the advice.

I compared the BW703s to my M60s. M60s seemed more balanced and better overall. BW were about twice the price as well.

Go for the M60s, Q8s and EP500 subwoofer and you'll be a happy camper. What you save in your mains you'll be spending in the EP500 and really getting that wow effect.

My son bought the 703s and so wishes he'd bought my set-up. I had 60s and upgraded to 80s.

Yeah, the M60s were noticeably better IMHO. To answer the question about buying on the internet, I understand his concern. But its all about value. I live in California so not only are the BWs far more expensive I would of had to pay a nasty 8% sales tax on top of that.

Axioms prices are what they cost. Tax and shipping. That is a major value. Not to mention axiom's unbelievable customer service and upgrade policy.