Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Installation complete!!!

My speakers arrived yesterday (M60s,VP150,QS8 in Boston Cherry). The M60 boxes were trashed, but that is apparently normal. With the double boxing, the speakers were fine.

I set everything up temporarily since I was not sure were to put the surrounds. I soon found out that I didn't have much of a choice, so today I ran all the speaker wires. The left surround had to be installed on an outside wall, so as expected, it was tricky. I thought I was home free with the right one since it was on an interior wall. WRONG!! I had to drill through three 2X10s in my basement to get into the wall. I am very happy to say.....I am done!!!

Next I need to read my Denon AVR manual to set everything up properly.

A few comments about the speakers and Axiom Audio:

1) Axiom's customer service is first rate. I called them numerous times and each time I was treated great. I also e-mailed Alan Lofft several times. He really helped me make a lot of decisions regarding what to buy and where to install them. He called the QS8s very forgiving with regards to their placement. He was right!

2) One of the M60s has a white-ish mark on the front. I will call Axiom about that before I try to clean it myself.

3) I am not one who is well versed in describing speakers. What I can say about my new speakers is I am hearing sounds from my CDs and DVDs that I never heard before. The clarity is amazing, even when I cranked them up and they aren't even broken in yet. I can't wait to play some CDs I haven't heard in a while to see how they now sound.

A few questions for "longer" time Axiom owners:

1) Does everyone use the carpet spikes? It seem to me they make the towers more unstable.

2) How about the speaker setup? I see I have to set the sound level for all the speakers. I tried that and that's not easy.

I am sure there will be more questions as I really get into it.

That's about it for now. I am tired!!!! Thanks again to all the people that helped me get this far. I just need to finish the setup and start saving for the sub!!

Thanks!!! John

If your using the speakers on the carpet, you should use the spikes. it shouldnt make them more unstable, unless of course you dont have them all level or dont have them sticking out enough to completely penetrate the carpet and carpet pad. You'll be able to feel when they have penetrated the carpet, especially if you have concrete slab underneath.

If you're on carpet, definately use the spikes. Also, on your receiver, if you also have a sub(you didn't mention it), most of us would suggest you set your M60's to "small" and let the sub handle all the frequencies 80 Hz and below.

Bob

Congrats John!! Your comments are very similar to my first impressions last week, and several others I read previously. The consistency is reassuring. If you get an SPL meter from Radio Shack (analog is preferred) and an Avia disk, you'll be amazed at the improvement calibration makes in the audio. You move from hearing the sound to being immersed in it. Enjoy.

By the way - don't forget some pics!!

what sub did you end up getting?

I didn't get the sub yet. So many people seem to get the HSU or SVS, I'll probably look at those first.

To comment on/answer some of the other reples to my original post:

- Since I don't have a sub, I have my fronts set to large. This brings up more questions. Is the VP150 considered a large center? Are the QS8s considered large surrounds? I currently have them set up that way.

- The spikes seem to be hitting the subflooring beneath the carpeting. Maybe I was expecting too much. The M60s replaced my Cerwin Vega C7s, which have a footprint about 3X the M60s. Those old bad boys didn't rock at all!!

- I'll go to Radio Shack and get the analog SPL meter.

Time to repair some of the "extra" holes I made in the walls.

Thanks again, John

I think most here would agree you should set your center and surrounds to "small." the terms "large" and "small," in this case, aren't directly referring to physical size of the speaker. It has more to do with the frequency response of the woofer in a given speaker and, of course, that DOES have to do with the woofer's size.

Your receiver has a built in crossover. If you set your center and surrounds to "large," then frequencies lower than they can reproduce will be sent to them, and your receiver has to work a little harder than necessary. If you set them to "small," they are sent frequencies they were designed to reproduce, and all the low frequencies are sent to speakers that can handle them, which in your case, at the moment, are the M60s. My receiver has a fixed crossover setting of 80Hz. If yours has a adjustable setting, 80Hz is a good place to start. Others here, who have adjustable crossover settings, can better advise you on that than I.

In the future, when you add a sub-woofer (and indeed SVS and HSU are the places to begin looking), you should set your M60s to "small," and let the sub handle the low frequencies, which is exactly what it is designed to do.

Some prefer to set the M60s to "large" and then turn off the sub when listening to music, using the the sub only for movies. You can decide which you prefer for yourself.

Oh, do I know about those "extra" holes. I recently hung some family photos; 11 of them to be exact. I think I've got 33 holes. YIPES!

Not to hijack the thread, but...

The best solution I've found for the 33 holes to hang 11 photos problem is a level with a laser in it. The laser can be adjusted to a spot or a crosshair (for handing pictures, cutting holes for can lights, etc.) I bought a kit at Costco for under $20 US. You can also find them on E-bay. The company's name is "LazerPro". Likely, that's not the real company's name, just the name of the folks that put it in the packaging.

It recently dawned on me that the laser level will be very handy for getting the toe-in of my soon-to-be-ordered Axioms idential.

Robert