Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Tricky Center Channel Issue

See photo for my living room and current set up - M5HP on-walls for LR, and GoldenEar SuperSat 3C for the center (JBLs for rears, next up on the replacement list). Ignoring the fact that the room is an acoustic disaster, the GoldenEar is simply too small to reproduce voices at sufficient volume. I would love to be able to match the M5HPs with an Axiom center, but not sure it's feasible.

The TV is on a MantelMount, so the center channel needs to be mountable and small enough to fit below the TV / above the Mantel, which gives a maximum of ~8" height. Moreover, I won't be able to use Axiom's standard wall mount bracket. I don't believe Axiom offers anything that fits the bill, other than maybe an M22 on-wall turned sideways, but a) I'm not sure it would fit, b) the mounting hardware is still an issue and c) I'm not sure it would be any better than the GE given the volume of the room.

Are there any Axiom options that I'm missing? If not, has anyone had luck finding non-Axiom speakers that pair reasonably well with Axiom? I could just bump up to SuperSat 50c, but I haven't been entirely in love with the sound out of the 3c.

All suggestions are welcome!

First of all, I don't agree your room is an acoustic disaster. It's big and lends itself nicely to spacious sound. I would have dropped the M5OW closer to ear level. Nice place BTW. Love the wood-burning fireplace and nature-scape outside.

This isn't too difficult I don't think. Place a VP160OW with its wall-mount bracket on the shelf just under your TV. The only concern there may be heat from the fireplace. On the other hand, I have my active LFR1100 dressed in walnut natural satin quite close to my heat-rated gas fireplace that I use all the time and have never had a problem with the functioning of the speaker or the finish.

Avoid a bookshelf speaker turned sideways.

Thanks for the response! (Also, thanks for the advice ~18 months or so ago that steered me towards the M5s - they've been great).

I'm half kidding about the acoustics. Having a big space to play music loudly and take advantage of the hardware is a blast, but the vaulted ceiling and loft overhang etc is less than optimal. That said, I'm less concerned with optimal than I am with Fun, so no real complaints. As for the aesthetics, all credit to the prior owners, who added this room not too long before we bought the house. We lucked out!

Believe me, I'd love nothing more than to get a VP160, unfortunately it doesn't work with the set up. See below picture for the TV positioning when pulled down - anything on the mantel winds up behind the screen (a speaker mounted on the mantel would also get fairly hot). The center channel needs to be affixed on the articulating mount, limiting the height to 8". I suspect I'm going to be shopping in the DT Mythos/GE SuperSat/other slim speakers category, but would love to shoehorn something like an Axiom OW on there instead, since I think it's a better compromise than going all the way to the super slim products. But it may be a pipedream.

Hmm...yeah. It's more difficult than I surmised. I am glad the M5s worked for you.

Could you place it above the tv and have it angled/firing downward? Maybe build a wedge to mount to the stone and the center mounted to the wedge.

I’d think about mounting a vp160ow above the TV and a much bigger TV for that space (if you can swing it). I’d also mount both so they just clear the mantel. Think ideally one aims for eye level to be a quarter up from the bottom of the screen (need to look that up ).

I agree with Mojo on lowering the M5ows.

This is an interesting idea. I hadn't considered mounting it above, but I don't see any reason why not. It's a difficult install job (read: beyond my abilities), will have a to poke around to find someone who can do it. Definitely going to look into this.

@rrlev Agreed re lowering the M5s. They are already lower than the original mounting point (the prior owners had small speakers with articulating mounting hardware so they were located very high), but I need to move them more. Been procrastinating because I hate drywall jobs, but not like I'm leaving the house much these days... And yes, the TV is a holdover from our prior home. At some point it'll be replaced with a larger screen. After the center channel, and the rears, possibly an amp, and patio work, fixing some flooring, redoing closets... ugh. Homeownership.

There is no rule that says you can't use two speakers for a center channel. I did this for years with two M22 bookshelves. You just run them in parallel with the center channel wires. Split the wire close to the speaker. I mention this because it appears to me (without a tape measure in your room) that a couple M2's on either side of the fireplace might just fit and not look weird.

Both of the above ideas may result in unnatural sound. If either idea appeals to you, you may want to experiment with a temporary install before drilling any holes.

You might not have to move the mount ... just lower the tv on it. The speakers are a bit harder ... no problem for a DIY’er ... but if your not handy ...

Mojo if he angles the center down a tiny bit I bet it would fly.

Get rid of the chunk of wood serving as a mantle. Room for center then. The hearth is chunky enough without the mantle imo.

Agreed because the air speed at the bottom would be greater than the top resulting in a rising pressure differential thereby giving lift.

Good idea, Trevor. Or cut out a portion of the mantle and wedge a 180 in the resulting gash!

The mantel protects the TV from the heat when ya have a fire going

The 180 will double as a terrific heat shield.

I suppose having your 180’s bottom char is better then watching your expensive TV melt

Change out the mantle then maybe. Looks 6” tall.

The whole setup is pretty janky.

As a first step I would turn the M5HP's upside-down to get the tweeters closer to ear level. It's possible that change alone will be enough to fill the center sound out enough - probably not but IMO worth doing anyways.

It's hard to tell from the pictures but are the two M5HP's the same distance from listening position ?

+1 for "beautiful room"

The best center channel arrangement I've had so far has been an over/under set up. One above my screen, one under it. I had two M22's bellow, and a VP150 above. It really anchored the dialogue to the center of the screen. Then I bought a VP 160 and I could not timber match that speaker to the VP 150 above the screen, so I removed the 150. The 160 is by far a better speaker though, so the trade works. But.....If I could mount a second 160 over my screen, and adjust the delay to match the bottom 160, I'd do it. But I don't have enough room about my screen for a 160, so I'm not worried about it.

You could easily mount a small metal heat shield to protect the center from the heat if you removed the mantel.

Build a shelf out of a series of cold water pipes adjacent to one another. Lay the 180 on top.

I skimmed through this forum, but from looking at the pics (and beautiful pics they are, a catalog / photo shoot house this is) I would put a VP-160 at the very bottom, where the fire logs are. Thats my two sense, as uneducated as it may be.