Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners New M2is, Using 2 as center channel.

Hello All,

Hope you are all well. I just recieved my new M2i speakers, and they sound great. I purchased them to be used as my center channel. I have them wired in parallel as a 4 ohm load into my Harman/Kardon AVR 630. The main seating area is 7.5 feet from them. They are sitting ontop of my 32" TV 16 inches apart, and angled slightly inwards. I have them in the conventional vertical position. They sounded funny when on their sides. Much better when vertical.

On a side note they are very easy to wire in parallel with those 5 way posts. Just had to use a spade to the first, then banana to banana to the second.

These little speakers in tandem make a great center channel solution, at only -25db volume on the HK I am getting up to 75db peaks in vocals from the pair. At -20db volume the levels go over 80db and become too loud, unless you want to listen from the dining room or kitchen, lol. Let me clarify, it was very loud, but still very clear, no distortion detected at these levels. I have them crossed over at 80hz, and the trasition to the sub is seemless. It really sounds like the base is coming from the M2i and not the sub.

The clarity of these speakers is incredible. Due to the mains being 8ohms and the center at 4ohms, you have to compensate the center channel up quite a bit. Mine are set at +6 over the mains.

I did test one M2i as a center by itself, that was unsatisfactory, it needed the sonic reinforcement of the second to sound full.

Since they sounded so good, I tried them as mains. They are a little small as mains, but still sounded very good. Had to crank them to -17db volume to get into the 75 to 80db range. That was from a distance of about 11 feet away, since I moved them from the TV to where the mains are located. Honestly I did not think I could get that level of sound out of them, especially from 11 feet away!

The room they are in is 18 wide x 12 deep, seating area is along the long wall.

Hope this message is useful to anyone thinking on trying these little speakers for themselves.

Later,

TonyM

Thanks for the info!
I'm a little curious as to how you have them wired. The way I've pictured it, wiring in parallel would mean that both speakers are wired independantly to the same pair of jacks on the receiver. Unless H/K changed the posts from the 525 to the 630 (I can only hope!), the H/K can't take spades. Do you have the speakers connected to one another somehow?

Hello Kcarlile,

Hope you are well. The first speaker wire from the HK to the right speaker has banana on the HK end and spade tip on the speaker end. Spade is inserted into the binding post and screwed down. The left speaker is connected to the first in parallel with a speaker wire with banana jacks on both ends, just plug them into each speakers banana jacks.

There ya go, all wired up. Just make sure you have them in parallel, red to red, green to green. This will yield a 4 ohm load.

Later,

TonyM

Ah, right. Welcome, btw.

I was toying with the idea of doing this. Have you had any problems with shielding? What do you have for your main speakers?

Hello Kcarlile,

I had a slight problem with shielding, but when I angled them inward the problem was resolved.

My mains are a set of sub-par Yamaha 3 way speakers with 8" Woofer, 5.25" mid, and 3/4 radial tweeter. Hopefully by April next year I can replace them with a pair of M22s.

This holiday season I am replacing my terrible sounding sub with an SVS 16-46Pc Plus.

The center channel before this upgrade was 2 identical Yamaha speakers as the mains. It is amazing that such a small speaker can outperform such large ones. The midrange on those yamahas has a lot of dips in the vocal range leaving you straining to hear dialogue, turning it up just made it louder, not clearer. The M2is solved this with flying colors even at very low volumes. It is quite amazing.

Later,

TonyM

Tony, awesome thread - thanks for the info. Please give more feedback as you live with these and add new equipment ... and put up some photos if you can.

Birdman

I am surprised about the shielding problem - aren't M2is video shielded?

Birdman

The M2's are video-shielded. There should not be any problems with them near a TV. I'm curious now as to how well they are shielded?

Hello Austinbirdman,

Hope you are well. Axiom states that they are shielded, but they interfere severely with my 32" tube TV if at a 90 degree angle to the tube. Once I angled them inward slightly the large green rings on the screen faded. The shielding problem seems to go away if you slide them backwards about 9 inches from the front of the tube also, but that is not an optimal placement.

The sound quality of these little speakers still astounds me. I chose them over the Axiom VP100 and VP150 because you can cross over at 80Hz without difficulty. I would have to choose a 100Hz crossover with VP100 or VP150. Not sure why Axiom does not have a port or dual port on the VP100 or VP150 to allow them to play lower frequencies.

I am glad you found my information useful.

Later,

TonyM

In reply to:

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I chose them over the Axiom VP100 and VP150 because you can cross over at 80Hz without difficulty. I would have to choose a 100Hz crossover with VP100 or VP150.

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Interesting to say the least. I hate to say but I was not aware of the 100 and 150's limitation in this area. You have me thinking now..................DAM...............I start thinking and it usually means I'm buying something!