Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners M60's... Large or small ???

I picked up my M60's and M3's the other day and when i finally got to run the set up on my reciever yesterday it set all my speakers to large... I had been led to believe that it was better to have them set to small?? I started poking around here and came across Alans article about large and small settings.. In it, he says to set your mains and centre to small, but adds only if they are bookshelf size... With the Setup I have now what should i use for my settings! I'm finding with 2 chanel music that i almost don't need the sub.. I just turn it down a hair when listneing to music, and up for movies..But the M60's which "Im Lovin" seem to do a pretty fine job in the base department on there own.. And on another note does anyone know where to get a sound meter around Toronto.. I check the local Source (radio shak) and they don't have any around here or on the net .. I have always let my reciever do the tuning but wonder If it would help to have a sound meter???

Avdude

Generally speaking, you want to set them to small for movies. Let the sub handle the bass department. As for music, it's a preference thing. If you don't want the sub for music, set them to large and let the M60s run full range--no sub. If you want you can still run the sub, just a matter of how hard you want the receiver to work.

Hi,

The rule of thumb and what most of us do on these boards is set all of our speakers to small, use a cross-over of 80Hz in the receiver, set the sub to by-pass and then start tweaking from there. The higher the cross-over, the less work your receiver has to do. But you don't want to set the cross-over too high either so 80Hz is a good compromise. For some music, I find that a 40Hz cross-over works better for me.

A meter is definitely a good idea and they are certainly harder and harder to find in Canada for some reason. If you have a St. John's Music or a Long & McQuade try them. In the meantime, use the tone generator in the receiver. Set the sub higher than all the other speakers by about 3dB (I have mine set 6dB higher).

After calibrating my speakers, I found I had to tweak my QS8s to get the surround performance I was looking for. You may have to do the same. I have my rears turned up 4x higher than the calibrated setting and the sides 2 to 2.5x. And I find that depending on the source material, I still may have to tweak to get the best effect. And you may have to turn your centre up by 2.5 to 5 dB. But don't let it overwhelm the presentation either.

Let your ears be the judge as there really is no right or wrong. After a few months of tweaking, you will become familiar with your system and you'll know what adjustments are required for different material.

And remember to toe in your M60s .

My Denon sets my 80's and vp150 to large as well. However, I change them to small with a crossover of 80hz in the receiver. As mojo mentioned, turn the sub crossover knob to bypass. Also, start with "flat" on the trim.

My Denon only allows for one crossover setting for all speakers, however, some receivers allow you to set seperate crossover figures for each speaker. If yours does you can experiment and possible use 60hz for the 60's but still have them on "small".

If you want an SPL meter go to Electronicsforless.ca. That's where I got mine. They are located in the norht end of Toronto.

Thanks guys .. Ok so far so good then .. I imediately changed the speakers back to small after the auto calibration set them to large.. I got the amp crosover for the sub set to 80.. Mojo, I never even thought of L & M ... Good Call, I will check them out on Tues when they reopen .. I have also thought of thought of grabbing one that is a package deal with the avia or one of the other HT discs and a sound meter that is available on one of the A/V sites.. But after my LPA-1 duty charges i am hesitant to buy much more than cable's and stuff from Monoprice.. Darn UPS's brokerage fee's kill any kind of a deal you might get from south of the boarder..

While I am at it what do you guys think!!! Grills on or Grills off!!

I don't think you have kids and if you don't have pests (sorry I meant pets ) or drunken friends , I'd leave them naked. Looks good...nice toe-in.

My kids are only around part time and they are 15 and 12 sooooo... they should know better.. no Pets but some friends do bring dogs over every so often .. As far as drunken friends ... they all have jobs so if they happen to do any damage, they will foot the repair bill .. This issue has been discussed before after previous drunken missadventures..

Avdude

Have you tried toe out? Can't tell but it appears you have them pretty severely mojo-toed-in?

. That was real good, Randy. It's even funnier with a few beers in me on a beautiful summer day .

Last night I had about 8 bottles of Michelob Golden light in me while cranking up the tunes and cruising the forums on my big screen and playing a little pool.

I get the best imaging when the speakers are aimed about a ft behind my head. When seated the inner side of the speaker cabinet is lined up with each ear.

If you have them intersecting in front of you that is severe MOJO.

Yeah but isn't that American beer? There's no alcohol in that stuff is there ?

Randy, about a week ago I changed mine slightly so that they are now intersecting about a foot behind my head. I feel that it has given me slightly better imaging.

Avdude, I don't think it will really make a difference for movies. But you should definitely be able to hear a difference with a good 2-channel recording.

Instead of Molsons, try Rickard's Red...the poor Canadian's substitute for wine .

Ok .. i will try it and see what happens .. I actually moved the left spk to right beside the audio rack and the right speaker closer to the sub and toed them so they intersect behind me..This also puts them even. the other way the left was about 2 feet ahead of the right because of the wall that juts out on the left side of the hall way .. My only concern is that the left will suffer from not having a wall behjind it .. it sits very close to the hallway opening now.. I do love a Rickards red but not from a bottle, i am more partial to the stuff on tap .. it's even cheaper ... I have been a dedicated Molson export drinker for 25 years .... No need to change a good thing now ..

Avdude

AVDUDE, you may want to try pulling your centre channel to the front of your stand....

I really enjoy my HSU and think it's great, the EP500 can definitley pound more and push more air though. I returned the 500 for a couple reasons but mainly the extra cost vs performance. The HSu comes really close, and since mine hides behind the sofa the color mtaching doesn't bother me

Yup .. I'm not sure why it was back there for the pic...probably because I took the pic right after everything was set up.. But it was moved to the front, days ago.. I even have it raised up in the back slightly to fire it directly at the seating position .. But i never really noticed a difference flat or tilted .. But there was a difference between forward and at the rear of the stand ... I was kinda hoping to put my TV on the stand behind it, but the speaker is slightly to high to do that .... My only option was to rearange the rack and put the CC on the first shelf down, but the tweeters would have been blocked on both ends .. so the Tv stays on the wall and the CC gets it own home on top of the stand ..
Thanks for the imput guys .. Good eye to catch stuff like that ..

Avdude