Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater New On-Wall HT Setup is Alive

Well, thanks to all for the wealth of advice as I pieced together my new HT setup. I am now the proud owner/operator of a full W series home theater setup. W22's, W150, QS8x4 and EP500 all ordered from the factory outlet.

Pics to come later when I have access to them and when I can figure out how to add them to a thread!

Here's the short report that I hope will be helpful for any other newbies or lurkers out there, and just plain ol' fun for the regulars:

Let's get the bad out of the way 1st - One of the W22's had a 'blown' woofer upon delivery. Also, the cosmetic defects on my FO order were a little more noticeable than I was expecting based on all the info here in the forum. To be fair, on most of the speakers they are not noticeable, however I can clearly pick them out on one W22, the W150, the EP500 and one of the QS8's - all others I don't where the defect is. However the locations of the noticeable defects are in positions where they will not be noticed during regular movie watching. Most tend to be towards wall facing edges so unless you're inspecting the speaker you won't see it. That's really it for the bad.

The good - Axiom has more than lived up to it's reputation of over the top customer service. The 'blown' W22 was replaced in record time. (Thanks JC and Axiom!) I called in the blown speaker and left a voicemail message at 830 pm on a Tuesday night. JC called me back an hour later apologizing for the delay in response! I had a replacement W22 delivered to my house by 930am on Thursday morning. That's about a 36hr turn around time for anybody that's counting - of course it helps that I'm not that far from Dwight, but still...

I listened to the W's for a few days just to get a feel for them before committing to cutting open my walls for a proper installation. I did some basic comparo's to my previous HT speakers (entry level Polk's) and as expected the Polk's were simply blown away. I heard entirely new elements to guitar and strings that simply weren't present before. My wife could immediately hear the difference as well.

Well, to make a long story short, all speakers are now installed properly and the system is roughly calibrated, but not tweaked yet (BTW, does tweaking ever end or do you always play? )

So far the system has exceeded my highest expectations. this weekend we watched Journey to the Center of the Earth on Blu-Ray. While I won't comment about the movie itself, we were completely awestruck by the entire system. The dialogue was clear and easy to hear and the bass and surround effects were spectacular. At one point when the movie has situated in a cave with water dripping all around, both my wife and I looked straight up at the ceiling above our heads where we could swear there was a water leak! Of course there was no speaker located there - quite a testament to the ability of the QS8's! In the dinosaur chase scene the couch was literally shaking with each step of the the big T-Rex - another magical moment. Let's just say I can't wait to throw in a really good reference quality Blu-ray (say Dark Knight?) and see what can really be achieved.

The system has also just lent a clarity and 'airiness' to music as well. I have never heard Sarah Mclaughlin's (sp?) vocals sound so sweet. Also my father in-law has been rediscovering his Eagles Farewell Tour DVD using the DTS audio track. He keeps commenting on how clear it sounds. On the flip side i have learned that some blues tracks I loved I can't listen to on this system because they are apparently not well recorded and I can hear that now too!

And to answer the age old urban myth - not too bright or harsh unless it's there in the recording. Clear is the term I would use.

Thanks again all - apologies this turned out to be a bit of a novel, but I hope some will find this post useful.

If you're at all dissatisfied with their appearance, you should tell Axiom. I'm sure they would work with you.

As far as the performance of the system, I'm glad you're enjoying it!

That's great to hear. I frankly was unsure if Axiom's in-walls would hold up the well earned family reputation. It is such a different envirornment in the wall, as opposed to a box that you can control. Great to hear.

Oh, and posting pic: I just got this down so I'll share my method, although no promises it is the easiest. Get a photobucket.com account - its free. Upload your pics (very easy), and then past the IMG code into your post (but delete the double [img] that will result when you post) and you are good to go.

OK, here's a link to an online album for some photos. Shows a bit of the construction stage as well.

On Wall HT creation

Anybody else manage to embed photos in the thread using Picasa? My preview of the post didn't show the image so i went for the album link instead.

Thanks for the tip Zimm, I tried preview with and without the [img] tags, but no luck.

Very nice!

CV, I am not dissatisfied with the appearance given where the defects fall for my specific installation. I agree based on my experience with Axiom that they would probably work something out with me. However it's more effort than it's worth given nobody will notice on casual inspection.

I also did order from the FO knowing that I would not receive cosmetically perfect samples, so I am trying to be reasonable here. I only mentioned it to give an honest and rounded opinion for anybody else out there considering the FO.

Fair enough. Have fun with your new system.

Thanks for posting cb. I've been curious to see what the in-walls look like.

Thats a very sharp setup and I am glad you are blown away by the sound.

cb your set-up looks very nice, enjoy.

Yeah, I am happy with the look of the system. As it's a smaller HT room it's hard to get a good pic that captures the overall effect. Also there's still more finishing to work go as evidenced in the photos. Funny how that work seems to slow down now that there's a functional system in place!

As for sound quality, keep in mind that I have not heard the other full sized Axioms for comparison (M50/60/80). I am fully aware these are not full range speakers and expect to always run them with the sub (never 'pure' stereo). That being said they blend excellently with the sub. I am impressed that I can have the sub located behind my couch and it does not draw your attention away from the front sound stage.

Originally I was looking at the Paradigm Cinema 330's. Without the benefit of a direct A/B comparison, these Axioms to me sound more natural and relaxed than my impression of the Paradigm's. What led me to the Axiom's originally was my quest for a better surround speaker offering than the Cinema's provided - and the rest is history now.

Typical to the Axiom's, I could not find a better on-wall solution within my budget. My setup ended up costing a bit more than the Cinema's, but not as much as stepping up to the next level in the Paradigm lineup. Plus my wife and I love the curved look of the W series and the very low on wall profile.

I'll repost the album link when I have more pics added to the album.

- Dan