Hi:
I am new to Axiom forum and found awesome information here.
I am thinking of getting VP150 & QS8s. I have floor standing Pioneer (8 Ohm) speakers for fronts. Will this work?

I need to get a new receiver and would like to spend around $800. Any recommendations?
I use Sony 46XBR2 with PS3 for Bluray and Dishnetwork HD and will need HDMI on the receiver.

Planning to put Monster Cable THX 14 Gauge Speaker Wire.

Any inputs appreciated.

Regs,
Avi

i got my Yamaha RX-V1800 1 month ago and i love it, it decode all new HD Audio and have 4 HDMI 1.3, i think that you can fiend it online for about that price

Avi, welcome. Sure, in particular the QS8s would add a lot of enjoyment with surround for both music and movies. Generally, new mains would make the greatest single improvement, and M60s would be suggested if you might consider replacing the Pioneers.

As for a new receiver, there're several excellent ones in that price range, certainly including the Yamaha 1800 which was mentioned if it can be found at that price, but let me draw your attention specifically to the special now at Vanns on the Onkyo 705 for about $650 with free shipping.

Also, forget about buying the Monster speaker wire. There's no good reason to pay that much and probably you should simply go to a local source such as Home Depot or Lowes and have them cut you what you need.

The QS 8's and VP 150 are excellent speakers. As JohnK mentioned save the money you would spend on Monster wire. You may also want to check out Monoprice.com for speaker wire their prices are reasonable.

No doubt ... MonoPrice Speaker Wire

That's what I would personally do, for sure.

In a perfect world the center speaker should match the sound produced by the two mains. I wouldn't cancel the whole plan over it though. Just think of it as future incentive to upgrade to M60s later.

And for God's Sake, please don't waste your money and give further encouragement to Monster Cable. They are one of only two companies I will outright bash online for cheating unsuspecting consumers of their hard earned cash.

Uograde to 60's...pshaw. upgrade to M80s!

I would vote for the Axiom bulk wire myself, it is the most flexible wire and not too badly priced. I haven't seen anything like anywhere else.


Once you hear the difference from the Pioneers to the Axioms you will know what me mean by the fronts should sound the same all across.

Welcome aboard!

Thnx all..

I put the monoprice 12 AWG wire..it is awesome.

Alan helped me plan the equipiment for the room..
getting
- M60s, VP150 & QS8s.
- Denon 3808

Not sure on the SUB though..Axiom, HSU or SVS

I don't think you can go wrong with any of those subs. All good choices.

Avi,

Welcome! You will be blown away by this upgrade. How big is your room, that will help us decide on a sub. If you order 5 or more items from Axiom you get a 5% discount, plus, if you order from the factory outlet it is another 10%.

Welcome Avi, your going to enjoy your new speakers, as stated Axiom, HSU and SVS are all good.

Don't forget Outlaw Audio for your sub. Dr. Hsu collaborated with Outlaw to create most of this product line. Great prices on new and b-stock.

Sorry for the late reply..been tied up finishing the nursery. Baby is due any day now :-)

Had to put the buying thing on hold for now. Will mostly get those in may. Attached is the link to the room layout

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3118/2329845598_32682d8b73.jpg?v=0[/img]

BTW, i am getting a Denon 4802 from a friend. He is downgrading
Any insight on that?

Regs,
Avi

Image help as the img tag doesn't like anything after .jpg

HO HO HO !!!!

I have been good this year and Santa has been kind. I placed my M80 order, used the $100 certificate on the factory store. Now the 3 week wait.

I have not ordered any SUB yet. Will i be okay with the M80 for the bass for now? Not sure on which one and where i can put a Sub..so holding off.

Will get the rest of the room ready and once the movies play, maybe wifey will see the lack of bass

Thnx for all the help...Merry Christmas

Regs,
Avi

I bought M80s first by themselves, and they kept me happy until I was finally able to afford a sub. I was surprised at the bass they put out at times.

Avi, you'll be quite satisfied with the bass from the M80s. Congrats!

Of course, once you get your sub, you won't be able to live without it, but the M80s put out plenty of bass.

M80s = great bass, you will be enjoying the in no time. The sub just has more impact for movies and can be felt more with music.

Congrats Avi. You have been most patient. The M80s put out very respectable bass. I have tried flipping back and forth between 2 channel and 5.1 on a number of songs. On some, I could not tell the difference in bass ouput, in some there was a slight difference.

Movies is another story. You really notice the difference with LFE stuff.

Speaking of this.. has the Axiom community ever put together a running list of the best film "demo moments?" I've liked SVS's resource at http://svsound.com/questions-faqs.cfm#moviedemos for LFE, even tho they haven't updated in a little while. I don't particularly need the waterfalls, but I know that excites some people.

It'd be kinda cool to have some running lists of films and games that really show off the full surround experience.

I would put Iron Man on a new list for LFE as well as the Hulk and Transformers, apparently Kung Fu Panda skadoosh scene is very good. The best one ever is Pulse, terrible movie(bad enough I can't believe they made a Pulse 2 ) The LFE can be sub destroying.

Any other new ones?

There have been several threads along those lines, but I think they've all slipped away. Try using the google search that Peter put together in the Water Cooler.

Wall-e has a good moment for LFE, which I think is either when EVE blows up the old ships or when they tumble onto each other. I'll have to verify when I get back to my rig. (which is tonight!)

Maybe we should setup a small wiki and just keep a running list everyone can edit.

I watched "Wall-E" last night and loved it. For me, basically you can put any Pixar movie down as reference for both audio and video. Excellent productions through and through.

I was watching I am Legend on HBO a couple nights ago, and after all theses years I had my 1st official "jump out of my chair moment" after all these years. I won't ruin it, but it was an attack scene that came up unexpectedly..I had it turned up louder than I thought..it took a couple of minutes for the adrenaline rush to subside. Loved it! Excellent LFE in that movie.

EDIT: Just noticed that I joined the forum 5 years ago today ......when I was still young ........sorta )

Happy anniversary, Jack!

Thank you, Sean.

That's funny We had some freinds over this weekend and I watched it with them and my wife, their first time. My wife screamed so loud at that scene that we all jumped out of our seats.

Young is anything before last Tuesday. Old is that guy down the street 10 years older than you (or getting up at 5:45am when you went to bed at 2am).

Happy anniversay Jack! My 5 year anniversary was the 26th! So I am older than you, at least in Axiom years

Hooray!!!

Finally the speakers showed up. Fedex delivered those today but i am scared to open them. Look at the packaging. Should i open them or talk to Noreen before i do so? Thoughts? I got burnt last week. Bought a NAS off ebay and received an empty box. fighting with seller / paypal to get my money back.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3095/3187426286_ee469c420f.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3409/3186588145_d1035d1eb5.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3365/3186589155_d87437e6f0.jpg

Also, assuming everything is fine, should i use the spikes or rubber feet? I have carpet in the room.

Regs,
Avi

hmm..why didn't the images show up?? Just links

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Were you home when they got delivered? Personally I never would have accepted them! Those are the WORST looking boxes that I have seen!

My opinion is that you did a great thing taking pics. I would NOT open them before talking to Axiom

Wow Fedex did a number on those boxes.

Yes, open up everything and check for any cosmetic damage and if everything is functioning properly. If anything is wrong contact Axiom either by telephone or email and they will take good care of you. Their customer service is outstanding!

Very good thing to have taken pictures as it may help Axiom down the road.
Don't worry about your investment. Axiom is used to deal with these "less than careful" deliveries and has proven year after year that their customers comes first!
As Dr.House suggested, open everything and look for damage. If the speakers are functionnal, you can start enjoying them right away even if there are cosmetic problems. The latter will get resolved in parallel. Do not hesitate to contact Axiom if you have any doubts. But, unless they are completely broken, you can start using them right away.

I agree. I would open the boxes and check the speakers. The boxes from Axiom tended to be fairly mangled when I received them, but so far the speakers have been ok. The boxes are made up of a rather soft cardboard and are very easy to puncture, dent, or tear. The internal bracing with foams tends to stabilize the speakers and adds space within the box between the speakers and the cardboard. You can be sure that Axiom will go out of its way to make sure that you are happy. Again, I would not hesitate to open those boxes for another second. I hope all is well and that you can enjoy them very soon.

Avi - I had one box that looked like that out of all of mine and as it turned out the M80 inside was just fine. Like John mentioned, the packaging is built to withstand the common beating the speakers seem to get on the way from Axiom to their customers, but yours seemed to have been treated extremely harshly!

By the way, the pics are here for others who didn't follow the links. To get them to display directly, use the third button from the left on the full reply screen to paste the links to the images in.

Jason

Images:

I'm sure you can go ahead and open your speakers up, now that you have taken the pictures of the boxes. It's unbelieveable how these transport co's treat other peoples property.

Looks like Fedex shipped them on a dog sled.Mine looked about the same.

Open them up, the damage looks superficial to me, except possibly where the one corner is ripped off, is the plastic torn? If the speaker is undamaged at that point I wouldn't hesitate to open them and besides if it is damaged, let Axiom know and they will handle the rest.

If the boxes are mangled, it is not necessary to take pics of the boxes before you open them. It is still nice to do so Axiom can see this which can help them constantly improve in any way on their packaging. Axiom has damage insurance claims with their shipping companies so if there is large cosmetic damage, they usually ship you a brand new product and ask you to send back the damaged unit (at no cost to the customer of course).

And the dogs took to gnawing on the boxes.

The boxes are always beat up by the time they are delivered. Mine were in very good shape considering, but I am only 3 hours (and probably only one transfer point) away from Axiom.

I must be lucky. I haven't had any real gashes to speak of, via either FedEx or DHL, at least as far as my Axiom orders.

Me too. My M80 boxes had some small tears and dents, but nothing major. Even my EP350, which was stopped at the border for 4 days, arrived intact and just fine. I was sure I was going to get a ripped open box with a sub in pieces in it... but I didn't!

I bet the condition of your boxes on arrival has to do with the number of transfers the packages go through on their way to you. I wonder if you guys live close to major fedex hubs?

I heard Fedex is trying to streamline their operations, so they're considering installing machines which beat the crap out of your delivery so their employees don't spend work time doing it.

I doubt very much it is the delivery people that tear great chunks of barboard out of Axiom boxes.

Do you suspect an 'inside job' Fred or is it more sinister?

Most likely mass meets automated conveyors, but who knows, maybe Robin is branching out into other odd behaviors.

Thnx for the support. I will talk to Noreen tomorrow.

BTW, any responses on what feet to put on the speakers when the room has carpet?

Oh yeah, the ebay thing got resolved. I got my money back. Now back to searching for a NAS, that can stream audio/video to my PS3.

The spikes are intended for carpet.

Or, you don't have to put anything on the bottom.

Use what ever you decide works the best. I run the rubber feet on the bottom of my M80s as I feel the M80s are more stable this way.

My boxes took a beating as well. The EP500 especially. In fact, the back corner was torn off a bit (maybe 1/4-1/2") It was cosmetic and I decided to just keep it. What is it with speaker boxes and Fedex?

I'll probably get slammed for being a audio delusional-ist, but I found the spikes do help on carpet. Tightened up the bass. Of course, that could have been the result of the levitating wires, but I thought those primarily helped on the mid range octaphonicals.

Not so lucky. I opened the boxes after getting my daughter to sleep.

One speaker is intact, but one of the spike won't fit. Is this common? What is the solution for this?

My hopes went up but alas, the second box opened and there is damage to one woofer and the grill. There is a cut in the woofer and also cone is twisted. I am sending the photos to Noreen and will talk to axiom tomorrow. Trying to attach photos. I will try to get a clear picture of the woofer.

Hope it can be replaced ASAP..running out of patience.

Maybe they should start using better packing material.

Sorry to see and hear that, I know Axiom will make it right.

Bob, the packing material is actually pretty good. The speaker itself if offset from the cardboard by a generous distance by sturdy foam corners. What you see in the pictures is the result of ridiculously bad handling during shipping.

Gosh....there seems to be a lot of damage there . I would accept nothing but having them send you a brand new replacement on the damaged goods. That amount of damage is unacceptable. The shipping company really had its way with those boxes and your speakers, wow!

This has been discussed in the past as Axiom used to double box the speakers and it was much more difficult to damage them. It was believed the cost of packaging them the old way vs. the new more than offset the cost of dealing with the ones that do get damaged via the shipper.

You can also call Axiom about using a specific company I believe as there known better ones in certain areas. I'm not sure if they actually do this but I know it was posted before.

Bad luck, the mishandling by the shipper to cause that damage is disgraceful.

Man..you were all correct in praising Axiom customer service.
I called Noreen and wolla..she is shipping me a new set of M80s today.
Just how kool is that. I am a axiomite for life and will preach it to others too :-)

I am not comfortable replacing the woofer and also won't fly with home minister

There will be a day or so..i will have 4 M80s ;-)

Regs,
Avi

I'm super nervous. My M80's are being delivered today and I'm scared to see how they'll look when I get home.

I would say the number of survivors far out weigh the number that are damaged. I have yet to have any problems with any of the speakers I have ordered from Axiom, 2 M80, 2 M60, 2 M22, Vp100, Vp150, 3 QS8s, 2 QS4s and an EP400.

2 M80s, 3 M60s, 2 M22s, 2 M3s, 2 M2s, 2 QS8s, and an EP350 and had one punctured M3 (quickly replaced).

2 M80s, 2 M50s, 2 M22s, 1 EP350, 1 VP100, 1 set Audiobytes, 1 EPZero. No problems here.

2 M22s, 1 VP100, 2 QS8s, 1 EP500, Audiobytes with EPZero. No problems here, but the EP500 box was quite mangled.

My boxes, especially for the larger speakers, were beat up pretty bad. One hole was big enough to put my hand inside! Why, in this day and age, this should even happen is beyond me. The odd oops maybe, but to this extent? Are they deliverying by pony-express on a horse with a bad back and a drunken rider?
Fortunately the heavy foam blocks saved my speakers.

Pretty close!!

I've never seen courier companies at work behind the scenes but I have seen luggage handlers in action when I did an OJT period at a major airport.. To say baggage handling is a game to them would be giving them too much credit.

Received the new speakers y'day and the boxes are intact :-)

Will be doing the honors tonight and give it a listen.

Hail Axiom !!!!

Now the damn job of repacking the earlier set. Those things are heavy and difficult to pack

Finally, got the install done. Both bedroom and family room completed. Will upload some pictures soon.

Had a question on receiver setup. I have M80s, VP150 and QS8s.
No sub yet.
Denon 4802.

What do i set for the speakers..

M80s - Large
VP150 - Large
QS8s - Large
Sub - No

Not sure if this is it. With Sub=Yes, the Bass from M80s was better..any help appreciated.

Hi Avi

I don't have M80s, but I do have VP 150 and QS8s. If you don't have a sub, I'd set the M80s to large and everything else to small (sub or no sub). If you get a sub and have the ability to set the x-over frequency, I'd set the M80s at 60Hz.

G'luck!

Once you set the receiver to sub = no, the mains automatically are set to large and no crossover for them, the rest of the speakers I set at 80hz and see how you like it, then move up or down 10hz and see which way you like it better.

As 2x6 said, once you get the sub then set the M80s to 60 or 80hz depending on your tastes and small setting. I would also still try them set to large and the Sub set for LFE+mains with the crossover still set at 60.

Not sure why with sub =yes, even though you have no sub, would give the 80s a better low end, as you would be cutting off the lower frequencies to them. Could be the Denon isn't powering the M80s well enough the handle the really low stuff.