Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners how to protect the speakers from pet or toddler?

Hello,

I took the plunge and ordered the M60s, VP150 and QS8s without seeing them first, it was probably a big mistake.

I received them last Thursday. After I set it up, I found that I have a problem with the M60s - the cloth grille is elastic and very close to the drivers. I didn’t realized that they would be so close to the drivers when I saw pictures of them before I ordered. I’ve seen other brand speakers with similar grille covers in stores (like Infinity), and they leave much more room between the drivers and the cover. when I pressed a little on the cloth cover, I could touch the drivers. I would say this is a design flaw with Axiom tower speakers.

My problem is, I have a 2-year-old toddler who loves to bang her toys on everything she could reach, not to mention when she looses her balance walking, she would fall on anything and uses it as support. I have the floorstanding speakers in the living room, and her toys and her little hands (with possibly her full bodyweight) are very likely to hit right on the drivers. unless the drivers are designed and built to withstand such impact (which I don't think), I'll need some better protection on the speakers.

Instead of returning the speakers (I do love their sound), I hope I could find a solution to this problem. I’m sure there are other folks on this board who have pets or small children with the M60s? how do you protect the drivers?

Thanks!

I like the flaming molten lava effect. Just dig around your speakers, pour the molten lava into said trench...and voila! Seems to keep everyone away

can you possibly turn them 90 degrees when she's up terrorizing, and then face them front once she's in bed?

Short term problem. Get your self some of those stand up scissors gates (the kind that keeps kids from falling down steps) and wrap them around the Axioms. Should be able to form a circle.

Not sure how aestetically pleasing it would be, but this is the kind of crap that pops into my head randomly...

Get some astroturf, and a few tiny potted plants that look tree-ish. Bonsai would be ideal. Set it up in front of your entertainment center as though it were a front lawn. Then build a mini 3-sided white picket fence with some supports that hold it in place relative to the entertainment center. Make sure the fence is high enough to be a tike-proof barrier. Get a few ken/barbie dolls and epoxy them to the astroturf.

Other themes for the non "white-picket fence" folks. (As well as two halfway reasonable ideas):

Replace the ken and barbie dolls with GI Joes, burn random patches of the astroturf and put toy tanks and some small stone walls, replace the white picket fence with chickenwire.

Build two small stone walls in sections to replace the white picket fence. Line the space between them with plastic and fill it with water. Make a small wooden drawbridge on the inner wall and a wooden gate for the outer wall. Put a plastic dragon/lizard type of thing in the water.

Make the whole thing out of legos, hot-glued together. I recommend the castle series, but something done with the technics set that involved moving parts would be pretty sweet.

Or maybe you could just get some throw cushions, stitch them to a piece of elastic, and put it on the base of each speaker. Maybe something to help "tie the room together" like the dude's rug.

It also might be possible to just reinforce the cover from the back with some chickenwire or stiff metal screen.

Andrew, ROFLMAO. Whew!

Now THAT is the kind of creative engineering we're looking for!

Where the heck is Ray? I'm betting he can come up with something on this. Although the "molten lava" idea is going to be hard to beat.

I say wall-mount 'em. Or maybe hang them from the ceiling with pulleys. Some kind of a "Monster House" contraption, including a garage-door-opener to retract them when not in use? Could you put something rigid over the entire speaker (or just the front panel, even) when she is "in the zone"? Did you keep the boxes? You could decorate them with kid art and slide them over the top. Put them on really robust stands (like 2' of concrete blocks or some other WAF-horror)? Seems like Craig liked his raised up a bit.

Okay, seriously, I know I'm not helping. Don't you think "design flaw" is a little strong? Putting tower speakers in your toddlers world is probably a lot better than putting bookshelves-on-stands in it. She'll grow up, you'll get some matchbox cars in the ports, a bit of grape jam on the grillcloth. So what? Life is like that.

You could buy some M22's and wall mount those, but I kind of like the mitigation measures already proposed by others (turn them, build a separation zone, etc.).

Enjoy the music. Enjoy your kids. Enjoy them together.

Along the lines this thread is already headed...

You could build a false floor in your living room about 18 inches above the real floor. Let your kid have free reign in the subfloor area, and keep your speakers, components, and the rest of your furniture on the raised floor. This you protect your speakers, electronics, furniture, and even your walls from wandering hands, spills, and crayons.

This could also be a solution to austinbirdman's volume knob issues as well.

I remember seeing a picture of something a guy built for this very purpose, but I don't remember where I saw it. His TV was elevated 24" or so and he just built a very nice looking indoor fence across the front of the room. The picture he posted was priceless - his toddler was standing there looking over the fence at the equipment he could not get at. It actually looked pretty nice.

That picture is on AVS in the RPTV section, the thread is called "Lets See Some pics" or something to that effect. Its pretty funny with the white barrier in front of the tv and his daughter standing in front of it.

Heres a link to the thread that I think it is in.

Linky.