Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions blown tweeter or just need breaking in?

It's a pity we can't have a brightness control -- a potentiometer to let you change that resistance to taste. My old JBL monitors have both brightness and presence controls, the latter to adjust the midrange. I fiddle with them all the time. Very useful. If I had ideal electronics playing ideal sources in an ideal room with ideal speakers, I wouldn't need to do this ...

Buy an EQ.

heh-heh... apparently I missed some heated discussion while I was in-transit to Tokyo. But seriously, this kind of debate is much more meaningful and interesting than those on the great benefits of bi-wiring with Kimbers. LOL

Oh, regarding the EQ, I see that Pioneer's MCACC is very favorably received by owners and reviewers here in Japan, too. I will probably go for the 45TX as my first receiver. But it will be after I pick up an HT front projector here in the next few days, which will be my first real step towards the multi-channel system... I am excited!

By the way, I have found that most HT projectors are markedly less expensive here in Tokyo. But made-in-Japan receivers/amps are in general sold significantly cheaper in the US... very interesting!

Cheers!

Hey Sushi see how much these 16:9 projectors are in Tokyo
Both have great reviews and are the cheapest, best quality picture 1/4 HD format
Panasonic AE300 or also known as PT-L300U
Sanyo PLV-Z1

InFocus X1 4:3 mode only



Saturn
Time to pack away the board. Time to take out the mtn bike. Ride 365 days a year

I thought I would offer a little help to Jefft. These speakers do need a break-in period. Both for the drivers to loosen up a hair and for your ear/brain system to get used to their unique colorations. Metal drivers can take a long time to get use to...it took me six months before my first pair of axioms started to sound really good. Also, very detailed metal tweeters like those used by axiom do not do rock justice. Hard edged and powerful weighty rock will always come off sounding thin, harsh, bright and a little hollow on these speakers. Axioms are best for things like jazz or very well recorded softer styles. This is the price we must pay for these very detailed tweeters. This is why companies like Paradigm make three classes of loudspeakers....Performance series, Monitor series and the Studios. The Performance series has a very rolled off soft/hybrid dome tweeter and is geared toward rock and popular recordings. The Studios are designed for jazz and classical and have very detailed metal tweeters. The monitor series tries to be both of these. If Metallica is your thing you may want to look for a soft dome tweeter speaker.
However, there is one thing(besides an EQ) that can greatly change and improve the overall sound of metal drivers...and that is a SERIOUS subwoofer that will add the foundation and weight to music. The perceived balance of a bright or lean sounding speaker can be changed by a truly great deep and tight sub . My little M2i's become AWESOME when joined to my Athena Audition AS-P400 subwoofer (a highly recommended and perfect combination btw.) This great combination cost $655 American and will KO most speakers at twice this price.

TheTruth,
You are correct in some aspects and a bit off in some others. Speakers do not need break in to 'loosen up'. This has been audio myth for a long time, at least to those who read and believe in the imperical science.
The speed at which a driver vibrates per second is phenomenal. The mere second you put a sound through the speakers, the drivers are as loose as they are ever going to get.

However you are correct in that the brain requires time to adjust to a new sound. Typically this adjustment period is far less than 6 months. If i recall it is more in the range of hours. Only the individual preferences will determine whether that sound is 'better' or not.

It sounds to me like you enjoy a speaker with more bass (hence your preference for the Paradigm lineup and your comment about adding a sub for overall improvement).
I cannot say how Paradigm has decided to design their speakers but i highly doubt they are configuring their products specifically for certain ranges of music. No customer in their right mind will buy 3 sets of speakers to cover all the bases so to speak.
All metal tweeters are not the culprits for sounding bright, thin, tinny or harsh. More often it is the source music reproduced on a particular set of speakers that creates this perception.
As you state, you feel the Axioms would not be good for rock music. Well most mainstream rock music is not recorded very well. They are recorded for masses of teenagers who like to listen to such music on $200 Sony boomboxes and in cars. Alot of the upper frequencies are boosted as are the lower end frequencies. This is done so the music sounds 'better' on such low quality systems. I can remember trying to turn up the treble all the time while riding around in friend's car on friday nights trying to get an inch of better quality out of the music. He was always trying to turn up the bass knob.
When this 'hot' recorded music is played back on a decent system (Axiom based or otherwise), these overdone frequencies become very evident and hence, many recordings do not sound nearly as pleasant as they may have in the past on a lesser quality system.

For those who do prefer to listen to this type of music, there certainly are metal tweeters that are more laid back than others, including some in the Axioms lineup (M50 vs. M60 for example), however i have personally found that most soft domes or fabric tweeters do tend to roll off the upper frequencies giving a more suppressed upper end that makes the 'hot' recordings alot nicer on the ears.
I just recently bought a pair of Tannoy Revolution R1s which are a perfect example of this effect. They are nicely detailed and certainly no different in their playback of high notes and vocals, but they are alot more smoothed and almost filtered compared to my M60s (or from what i remember of the M22s when i auditioned them).
Would i buy Tannoys over Axioms based on this?
I'm not 100% sure. I do love the Axioms for home theare. The clarity is phenomenal, but the Tannoys would certainly be a bit easier on the ears if many of my music recordings were 'overdone in the oven'. Since many of my wifes' recordings are more non-mainstream jazz, blues, acoustic, etc., the M60s produce a detail than cannot be beat for its price range.

Hi Saturn,

In general, prices of home theater projectors are significantly less here in Tokyo, whereas, interestingly, data projectors (including the models that are quite popular for HT use) are often cheaper in the US.

The Sanyo Z1 costs here around US$1200 picked up, and the Panny AE300 about US$1600 -- both significantly cheaper than in the US. I have to reiterate many other people's opinions that these low-cost projectors are incredible in their picture quality, easily throwing up to 100" diagonal. As long as you have a decent control of ambient light in your room, these cheap projectors blow away those bulky RPTVs.

After doing much side-by-side auditioning in dedicated stores in the Akihabara district, I am leaning toward the Yamaha LPX-500, which is a tweaked version of Epson TW100H, a 720x1280 LCD model with the Faroudja chips. I can pick it up for about US$2800 here (in the US, it usually sells for well over $5000).

Cheers!

Sushi:

Thats definitely about $300-$500 US dollars cheaper for those HT projectors. YOu want to pick me up a Panny AE300.
Last time I was there was in 96 so its been a while. I'd imagine the plethora of shops of gadgets and stuff. Happy hunting and mention which model you ended up getting. I'm planning to get a budget HT projection before the end of the year. It would look great in my new Toronto LOFT which is slated to be done bout year end.

Saturn

Whoopee! I just picked up the Yamaha LPX-500, and briefly tested the unit in my hotel room (wanted to make sure that the unit is not DOA or there is not any dead pixels etc, before carrying it outside Japan). I believe I will be a very happy owner of the projector!

Now, my next agenda is to WOW my wife and kids with the projector, so that they will beg me to set up a 5.1 system! heh-heh...

Cheers!

You don't have a 5.1 setup? I thought everyone had at least that.