Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions It just doen't sound right

I found it amusing when he brought up the fact that "...once you open your mind to the wires making a difference, you will start to hear a difference." "...and you will begin to hear the music the way it was intended" to which I responded "or least the way they want you to hear it, as the wires must be coloring the sound to a certain extent or else there really isn't a difference."

Thanks everyone for their comments. Very good points. However, I don't think it is the wires. I feel like the issue has something to do with the 5.1 movie soundtracks. Music in 2 channel sounds quite good. In fact, I had my system tuned to a classical radio station last night, and I thought my wife had put on a CD, it was very clear for a radio signal. I'm only noticing it during movies. Also, their seems to be a harshness during certain dialogue in movies, so I feel like it is definitely something with the DVD playback. I may try playing with the DSP settings, althoug I'd rather not since I'm manipulating the dolby digital signal, etc. If that doesn't work, i will try another DVD player. I know more callibration is needed as well, so I will continue to to tweak it there as well. However, I've heard other systems that were not even callibrated right that didn't have this issue. Still, I do think it's best to make sure it is callibrated right. Most of my callibration has been done by ear so far, so I'll need to pick up that SPL meter soon. I will say that setting the center and surrounds to small and crossing them over(even though I don't have a sub yet), as well as lowering the trebble on the remote did help some, but I'm still hearing the "s" sounds and harshness at times, the dialoge still has a strange sound to it. I'll try some more tweaking this weekend and report back. I hope I can figure this out soon. I've heard great things about these speakers and am really hoping I can enjoy them. It's just been a little frustrating so far. Thanks everyone.

What are you running for the player and receiver? I glanced quickly over the earlier posts and I either missed it or wasn't asked.

I'm using optical to the DVD player

...just a thought. The M60v2'S have dual terminals so they can be bi-wired. Does it make a difference which set is being used? I'm not planning on bi-wiring, but just curious if this would make a difference.

Soundman,

Welcome. About the dual terminals: Check to ensure that the gold links are in place between the two sets. You can use either set, but sometimes the gold links between the two sets become dislodged and don't make electrical contact, which would cause only the woofer or midrange tweeter section of the drivers to operate. That would produce very muffled or very garbled sound quality.

Put your ear close to each driver in each M60 and listen to be sure each driver is working. Use wide-range music with lots of bass, midrange and treble (cymbals, etc.).

Regards,

I think I may have discovered the problem! My processor has 3 optical connections built in which can be assigned to different audio sources (DVD, CD, ETC) Well, after looking into it, my DVD player was assigned to "CD" not "DVD". At first I didn't know if it would make a difference, seeing as the precessing was smart enough to recognize that it was playing a Dolby Digital audio source. (there's a red light that lights up whenever a multi channel source is playing). So, it was playing it, and processing it in 5.1 surround. Well, I tried switching to "DVD", and the sound is much improved! How simple! The system still needs some tweaking, which I'll be doing with some more calibration, but it sounds 10 times better then it did. How silly of me. Thanks everyone for all your imput. A little more calibration and a nice sub, and I'll be well on my way. :^)

"Soundman,

Welcome. About the dual terminals: Check to ensure that the gold links are in place between the two sets. You can use either set, but sometimes the gold links between the two sets become dislodged and don't make electrical contact, which would cause only the woofer or midrange tweeter section of the drivers to operate. That would produce very muffled or very garbled sound quality.

Put your ear close to each driver in each M60 and listen to be sure each driver is working. Use wide-range music with lots of bass, midrange and treble (cymbals, etc.).

Regards,
_________________________
Alan Lofft Axiom Resident Expert"

Thank you Alan,
That was a very helpful hint. I did notice one of the gold links were dislodged when I first set everything up. Fortunately, I caught it initially. Great point though. That's something that could easily be overlooked.

After reading his post I too looked quickly to make sure I didn't have one strap out of whack just incase.