Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions m80 v2 tweaking

Has any one attempted to upgrade the internal sound deading acustic padding?

Not complaining, but mine was loosly set in - not adheared to the inner walls, and does not cover the entire inner surface. Was not sure if some upgraded acustic padding covering all of the internal walls would make any difference.

These speakers are remarkable - but being a manufacturing engineer, I recognize that some times short cuts are taken in the manufacturing process outside of the engineering requirements.

Basically I like to tweak everything I own. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Love the speakers - the family now loves to have "Dance night" at least 3x a week, which did not happen with my other speakers.

I'm sure Axiom would not skimp on the interior foam and installed the required amount their own design engineer found necessary.

The foam is loosely placed around the inside of the cabinet and not adhered to anything, that is normal. I don't think Axiom is cutting any cost or any of the employees were trying to go home early. The purpose of the padding is for internal reflection issues, they probably don't want it adhered around ther perimeter.

Welcome by the way...

I am in no way attempting to say anything bad about these speakers, discount them or bash them in any way at all. bening an engineer I am always looking for ways to improve items that I own. I have 3 children at home and do not have much time to Tweak and observe - tweak again, ect. Was hoping that some one had already made some slight improvements to these already wonderful speakers. Again I love them!!!!! this is also why I wnat to Play/tweak
thanks

I didn't take it as discounting the qualities of the speaker, I just figure Axiom has already done the work as to how much foam should be put in the cabinet.

MR, welcome. Yes, the urge to tweak seems to be quite widespread, but it should be recognized that in the realm of audio this increasingly amounts to tweaking the untweakable.

Welcome to the forum mrondeau,

I am glad you and your family are enjoying the M80's. I agree with what the others have said and that through Axioms development, design and testing of the speakers has determined the adequate amount dampening material for inside the cabinet.

I am not familiar with tweaking but if you have your mind set on replacing the stock padding I have seen some recommendations for using high-density rockwool in DIY projects.

Cheers!

All the above being true and correct, I'd add that it could not hurt to drop an email to Axiom and ask what would happen if you add new or better dampening material. I don't know if any of the forum's member are accomplished speaker designers, but Axiom certainly has a few could give you some support.

I used to have the mindset that I wanted to tweak everything to squeeze a little more performance out of it. Still do sometimes but I also suffer from the 'reverse what if syndrome'. What if they were better before and I can never replicate that again????

With my moderately, trail modded jeep and my computer the results are instantly obvious and measurable so i admit to still playing around with them all the time but with speakers, the 'reverse what if' fear greatly outweighs the urge to tweak.

All speakers, M80's included, were designed to perform in a specific way by those that designed them. Ian, Alan, and whomever else played a role in designing the M80's knew what they wanted and produced a speaker that met those goals. Their goals.

If your goal is to tweak the sound to your own liking, why they heck shouldn't you? They're your speakers.

I can't imagine that putting in more polyfill would somehow damage the speaker. Good idea to ask Axiom though.

But it's certainly not a permanent change. Maybe it'll change the SQ in a way that you like. Maybe it'll make it worse. Maybe it'll do absolutely nothing. Even if you *think* it helps, then it's a worthwhile improvement for you.

Good luck! Just let the group know what happens. I'm sure there are many who would like to know the outcome of whatever tweaking you do.

Count me in

Hello Mrondeau

I haven't modded any Axiom speakers yet, but I have modded all my Michaura speakers (M60 like M665s, M50 like M66s and M22 like M55s).

I swapped out the capacitors with those of same values but which are recommended by audio buffs, like Solens, Audiocap thetas, Jensens, Mills resistors ... as far as the loose polyfill, I don't think there's any problem with that since its purpose is to diffuse rear panel reflections, but I do believe in damping the cabinet with products like No Rez. I wonder whether dynamat would work to damp the structure as well.

HOw do my modded speakers sound? I have both Axiom M22s and Michaura M55s. I'd say the M55s with the Jensen caps and Mills resistors, No Rez damping materials sound a bit better than the larger M22s. (Same 5.25" drivers but the M55s use the 3/4" Titanium tweeter from the old M1 M2 speakers instead of the 1" Titanium tweets in current use, Michaura uses a hex shaped cabinet instead of the trapezoid Axiom shape.)`

I love Axiom speakers, but there can be no question but that economic decisions have been made which limit the sound quality. One of the main reasons for NOT modding your Axiom speakers is that the drivers are mounted to MDF cabinets with plain screws into MDF. How many times do you think you can unscrew those things before there is play between the driver and cabinet? How long do you think you can blast Iron Butterfly before you get the same loosening? We all know that some speakers use internal metal structure into which the drivers are secured. More expensive? Yes.

We saw how the Skiing Ninja folks and their attempts to upgrade the cross-overs for our M22s were received here. Some folks are just true believers and are offended by the mere idea that Axiom speakers can be improved by after-market modifications.

Anyway, tweak away and let us know.

Hmm, this aught to be interesting. ::grabs popcorn::

I'll simply state improved is a subjective term and leave it at that.

Any speaker can be modded to change the sound to something the modder prefers which in his mind is better, but for me it might not be.

FWIW, the Skiing Ninja is now working on Paradigm Studio 100's.

Here is a thread on different materials for use in cabinets. There is a good explanation on rockwool and why it is preferable and more cost effective to other materials and products such as no rez.

http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/diy-speakers/17489-would-foam-good-walls-diy-cabinet.html

Hello Dr. H

It seems to me that there are several different types of damping materials that can help speaker sound quality: (1) polyfill, wool, foam, etc., material intended to abate reflections of sound waves from the interior surfaces; (2) materials intended to stiffen the structure, or damp structural vibrations.

No Rez, dynamat, actual structural bracing that would be screwed or glued to the existing cabinetry, falls into the second category; felt, wool, polyfill, foam, fall into the first.

I doubt more, or different "padding" makes much of an improvement......otherwise Monster would offer it, along with their other audio enhancing products.

fredk, you may need more popcorn.

scrabble scrabble...

Dang, your right. I'm out of popcorn.

::runs away looking for popcorn::

The OP must be keeping busy with dance night(s)...