Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Will I notice a difference If I upgade?

Currently I own:

Reciever-yamaha 1500 7.1
Fronts- jbl s-412
Center- jbl s-center
Sides- jbl s-312
Rears axiom Q4's
2 200w homemade subs.

Would like to upgade to:
Reciever- yamaha 1500 7.0
Amp- Gemstone Blue Diamond 7.1 200W@8 OHMS 400W@4 OHMS
Fronts- Axiom- M80
Center- Axiom VP-150
Rears- 4- Axiom Q8's
Subs- Dual SVS 16-46 CS-Plus 1000W total.

My room is 15x15x20 vaulted cieling with an opening in the rear to a room of the same size.I will be moving in to a new house with a dedicted theather room of undetermined
size within the year.

Would this be a worthy upgrade or would thier be to little
of a difference to justify the money spent?

All input is appreciated.

Thank you, steve

Can't offer much help on the JBL's, although I have a friend that really loves his, not sure which models. Your current system is very nice, but your possible upgrade setup would be pretty awesome. I'm sure some others will chime in....

good luck on your choices


Randy

Denon 2805
m60's vp150 ep350 4-Qs8's
Sanyo Z2 projector
Toshiba DVD
Samsung OTA HD

Steve, lack of familiarity with those JBLs doesn't permit me to make a comparison, but it's hard not to think that you'd be very satisfied with the M80s. The subs are also excellent, but maybe you made some good ones too. The power from the 1500 should be adequate and I'd doubt that the Blue Diamond would be of significant advantage.

I took a quick look on the web to get an idea for what your current speakers are like -- definitely not the little HTIB system I first imagined

I guess my first questions would be (a) "what do you like and dislike about your current system ?", (b) what is the music / HT usage split ?" and (c) how loud do you play the music anyways ?". It's a pretty safe bet that the Axioms will be more accurate than your JBLs but you already have a very nice system so depending on what you're looking for you could easily spend a lot of $$ on upgrades and not feel that you got your $$ worth.

For anyone else reading the thread, the speakers are :

s-412 mains : 4 way floor-stander with 200w amp powering the 12" woofer

s-center : 3 way center -- 2 x 5.25" at sides plus vertically stacked smaller mid and tweeter in the middle

s-312 surrounds : 3-way floor-standing speakers with 12" woofer

I noticed you have the QS4s as rears and 312s as side surrounds. Have you tried swapping those two, putting QS4s at the sides ? If you're doing mostly HT listening, my first thought would be to put QS8s at the sides (to get the power handling & efficiency), move the 312s to the back, and leave the system alone other than upgrading subs.

If you're listening to a wide range of music (acoustic, vocals etc...) it's not so simple because the Axioms are awfully nice music speakers and you probably would see more of a difference.

For your current room I don't think you need M80s or the extra amp -- M60s and your current receiver would be fine. Spend your $$ on the subs. If your new HT might be noticeably larger or you like to play really loudly then 80s probably are the way to go and you might need the amp (anyone have experience here with a 1500 driving M80s ?).

Personally I would spend $$ on the subs, get some QS8s for the sides and leave everything else as is, at least until your new HT room plans are solidified. For 7.1 music the 312s at the back might be better than the QS4s, but for HT the QS4s will probably be better.

The rest of your proposed system would obviously be really nice as well but I can't say for sure it would be a huge upgrade without knowing more about listening habits & musical tastes.

It also depends on what kind of music you listen to.

For example, A friend of mine has sort of similar JBL's, and they play loud and heavy music well. Not so great so classical, however, but not bad. M80's play classical music very nicely in my opinion.

I also doubt that a new amp and new speakers would fill your room better, unless you're playing stuff at a VERY loud volume. Your speakers already have built in amps for the 12 inch woofers so that takes a huge load off your receiver / amp to power the rest of the driver units in your speakers.

Rumor has it that JBL stands for "Junk But Loud"!

First off thanks to those who replied so quickly.

My main dissapointment would be with the s-center. I have to crank it up and turn down the fronts and surrounds in order to clearly hear voices which in turn makes explosions and things of that sort pretty weak. I then decieded just to turn it up until voices where always loud and clear but then explosions almost blew me off the couch and the base cuased 2 of my wifes nick-naks to fall off the wall and break. Any of you married folk out there know thats BAD! I can't seem to find a balance.

After reading many favorable reviews on the vp-150 (and the fact I could'nt find any jbl centers I liked) I thought I go with the vp-150. Then i was worried about matching the vp-150 with the jbl's sooo... I thought I'd get the Axiom m60's but quickly changed my mind for the 80's to ensure enough power for my new theather room. I then decieded to add the blue diamond amp to power the 4 ohm speakers.(unless the yahmaha 1500 could but I don't know that it can.) So alls decieded, that's what i'll get right.

WRONG!

I tell my wife I'm ordering them in cherry which would give me 3 differnt colored speakers. Black, Beach and the new cherry. Naturally she does'nt like that so I sieze the oppertunity to add 4 Qs8's in cheery to match. Unbelieveablely she thinks thats a good idea, go figure.

So now I'm done right. Wrong again. I then tell her I should buy matching subs in cherry and she likes that idea also.Enter the dual svs 16-46 plus.(I know they don't come in cherry, but I,ve always wanted those subs. I'll just play dumb when they arrive in black.(It always worked to get me out of doing laundry)

So that's how i arrived at my upgrade decision.I listen to 95% ht 5% music (rock,rap,pop and country). I like my movies loud enough to feel the explosions without causing to much destruction.

Sorry so long but this should give ample info.

Thanks again for the help, Steve

Heh heh... Hope she isn't reading this post!

>>Enter the dual svs 16-46 plus.(I know they don't come in cherry, but I,ve always wanted those subs. I'll just play dumb when they arrive in black.(It always worked to get me out of doing laundry)<<

Wow.... I'm shaking my head but everything you say makes sense. That's one of the best arguments for a new system I have ever heard

One thing I can tell you is that the Axioms will do a stellar job on making voices clear without having to crank the system, and I expect they will be way better than the JBLs in that regard. That makes me feel a bit better about the upgrade, I don't think any of us wanted to push you into something that wasn't going to have an obvious "wow, what a difference" benefit.

Be nice to your wife, sounds like you have a good one there...

There is always the EP500 in Cherry. It should be able to compete with the SVS if not outperform it.