Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners reducing brightness

Wow are my new Axioms ever BRIGHT! To bright for my taste. How can I reduce the brightness? Will a EQ help. I don't want to send them back if I can reduce this brightness...what should I do? I am using a brand new Denon reciever...it sounds great on my old speakers so I don't think the problem is my electronics.

Bensch, the treble of the Axioms is accurate. It may be that your old speakers are significantly less accurate in that area and that over time you're gotten used to that. The simplest adjustment is to turn down the treble on the receiver, but obviously this reduces the accuracy of the reproduction.

Which Axiom speakers did you get?

What make and model are those old speakers?

CAV104

I agree with JohnK.
I prefer the accurate high end frequency reproduction that the Axiom speakers provide. I have found that listening to other more laid back speakers sounds to me like something is being filtered.
I have yet to come across my perfect speakers where there is no sharp brightness upon the first audtion and yet maintain a truly accurate sound reproduction. Only time will tell with thousands of speakers yet to be auditioned....

Just offhand, if you don't like the speakers, why don't you return them or for that matter, why did you buy them? I'm assuming you did audition the Axiom before you bought, or was this a leap of faith type purchase?

My old speakers are the no longer made Dynaudio audience 40, they are small bookshelf speakers about the same size as the M3ti. My new M60's were going to replace the Dynos. I was surprised to find the little Dynos have better bass than the M60's. I guess the Dynaudios will be staying and the Axioms going. I'm not saying the M60 is a bad speaker, I'm just saying they do not suite my taste. The little Dynos have better bass impact (better for rock), less bright mids and a softer more pleasant sounding highs. The M60 sounds like very accurate hi-fi (all frosting and no cake) and with the Dynos I can get down to the emotional meat of the music. With the M60s I simply do not become emotionally involved in the rhythm and impact of the recording...if I turn the treble way up on the dynos and turn the bass way down they sound close to the M60...I guess it just comes down to taste.

I have to wonder if there is something wrong with your setup, because I can't imagine any smaller bookself being able to even produce as much bass as the M60s I have. What size of speaker wire are you using? Are you sure that the straps connecting the top and bottom sets of inputs are in place and tight? Maybe your signal is only fully making it to the upper range inputs.

Michael

(The only way I would let you take my M60s away would be if you were replacing them with M80s!)

Michael, you may have hit it! About 3 months ago I diagnosed a problem kayizm reported. He had returned M50s for M60s and reported very muffled sound with poor highs on the M60s. Pondering this a bit, I noted that the M50s had only one set of terminals, while the M60s had two, allowing biwiring. After suggesting to kayizm that his tweeters might not be working if the straps weren't connecting the two sets of terminals, he reported that this was the problem and now all was well.

It's possible, as you suggest, that here the opposite problem exists. Now that I read from Bensch that his old speakers are Dynaudios, I know that they have one set of terminals since Dynaudio(correctly I believe)takes the position that biwiring is nonsense. If Bensch isn't familiar with this and has only the upper terminals connected on his M60s, this would mean that the woofers aren't operating and would tend to explain the brightness and poor bass. He should make certain that the connecting straps are tight or use the lower terminals anyway, as a test.

I vote, that if Michael hit the solution dead on, he should be upgraded from frequent flier to first class (old hand in Axiom speak)!!!

I was going to wait for a responce to the 'binding post straps' suggestion, but what the heck..
I'm betting it's the straps, or something to do with the way the system has been set up.. Cross phase wiring, bad or faulty connection, etc ?
Now, to address the brightness issue.. If, after all this, you still find them overly bright, just give it time.. It's been said before, but again, it does take time to adjust to a new set of speakers.. Not that 'they' need to be broken in, but that 'your ears' do.. Like a new pair of sneakers, they never really feel right at first.. You compair them to your favorite beat up old pair, and think the new one are too tight, or they pinch, etc.. Next thing ya know, the new ones are broken in, and in no time they are the only ones you wear.. Same same with a new car, new job, etc..
Bottom line, get those Sixties hooked up right, to a working power source, and get yourself broken in..