As nice at the 'inwall', 'onwall', 'in/on-wall' speakers are - and I know as I have the w22's - which are now called "m" too - because - well, hell if I know that...

I decided that because I have a blank space behind the TV wall in my listening room, I would upgrade to a full cabinet enclosure - and I bought a pair of M60's -= not to be confused with M60 that are floor standing, but these are M60, with a front ports only and have a crossover designed for the boundry effect of being against a wall. Of course, the important thing is that they are called "M" too.

So I ordered them and started playing with placement ideas - and when the speakers arived, I played them - and almost lost my job because it was so darn hard to get to work on time. But I told my boss - It's because of the "m"s. She misunderstood so completely, she walked away. Pheew.

Then, I pulled out the saw and cut out the drywall.

LUCKY ME! There were all these romex wires running between the studs where I was cutting - and I didn't even nick one of them.

A few hours later it dawned on me these wires might be an issue - even for "m" models. Perhaps a call to Alen would be in order ~ "well, we haven't actually done any blind tests with twelve romex cables running through the side walls of any of our speakers."

Interestingly, when my wife got home a bit later, she saw the wires through the gapping holes in her living room (did I call it my listening room earlier? - silly me) and seemed to be a little disappointed that I hadn't nicked any of them.

Current status:
I have cut out a swath of drywall twelve feet by three feet. I will be pulling wire from the main electric box and lowering the fore mentioned romex to new holes closer to the bottom of the wall. Well clear of the M60's.

Low enough also to clear M80's - should Axiom want to send them my way in exchange for the new 60's - yes the "m" models. Because according to my wife, my speaker upgrading days are forever over so this is my last and only chance.

Oh, the joys of being single.

Ok I thought I was following you pretty good, but once I got to the end I didn't understand where the motivation for Axiom to upgrade you for free was coming from... was it because you did such a smashing job at hacking through your drywall without disturbing the wires beneath? Was it because you found a challenge that Alan has yet to test for? Or was it because after you'd cut the holes in your wall you and your wife crawled inside where the Axiom speakers are destined to play beautiful music, made love there, concieved a child, and are now considering naming your love child 'Emeighty' if Axiom upgrades your In-wall speaker's before it's born?

If it's scenario #3, then I feel a free upgrade should definately be coming your way as well.

I'm going for scenario #4. He really did cut into some live-wires in the wall and as he lay there smoldering, had a vision of Ian with outstretched hands standing over him in a misty fog saying "'tis one of my followers...axiomoholic...I must bring him back...I shall grant you a pair of M80 inwalls if you get your azz up off the floor. Otherwise your wife will kill both of us...."

Ok - regarding #3, son's name IS Ian.

what's next?

Did you ask for the "my son's name is Ian" discount when you placed your order?

Well here's the thing, just naming your son Ian doesn't quite entitle you to a free pair of M80's (I think its actually M22's you get free).
On the other hand if your son is THE Ian, then I'd say he'd better come up off of a set of M80's for you pronto, or you should ground him to his mansion!

Micah,

Thanks - I needed to be grounded, you wouldn't want me waiting out in the cold for the UPS truck.

axiom guys:

I'm guessing I should start framing up for 60's, not 80's?

I've been holding back - seriously!

I think you'd be happy with either choice. If you've had the 60's for less than 30 days I think you can upgrade without paying anything beyond the difference in $$ between the 60's and 80's. If you're over the 30 days you'll need to speak with a representative from Axiom about that(either way actually).

Whether you want to go the 80's route is up to you, both speakers will make you happy, I'm sure. However if you're a "What if" kind of guy(most of us are), you've got the room for the 80's, and the wife has left you this one time chance as an upgrade....

I think it's a two headed coin toss myself. Either way you win, and (sort of) lose.

You win because either choice is going to put a shit-eating grin on your face that won't come off until the day they shut your power off because you stopped going to work so that you could stay home and listen to your speakers until finally the bill never got paid and you get disconnected.

You lose because both speakers are so highly reguarded you wind up wondering what subtle differences the other speaker has. I have the 80's and it's killing me to hear a pair of 60's!

I think what Micah's trying to say, and I wish he'd get to the point , is you should cut two more large holes in the wall and make room for a pair of M60s AND M80s.

Good God, that plan is crazy, CRAZY I tell you!!!

So crazy, it just... might... work!

Oh, no worries - I have less dryway that drywall up now. I have quite enough room for a couple doze pairs of speakers!

You only live once bubba!

Hi guys - progress report - and a picture:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/49538386@N03/4545730286/

the small vertically oriented cut is the m60 rough cut-out. The [img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/49538386@N03/4545730286/[/img] HUGE vertical cut is for wire re-routing!

in the end- it's going to be great though....

Wow! what a crappy wiring job you have there to reconfigure, good luck!

All wiring is re-routed and out of the way! Most of has even been reconnected - but my focus is now on to more important things, like building my boxes for the in-cabinets.

btw, I have these big bundles of romex running 90 degrees to both my speaker cables and HDMI cable - both of which come up from the floor. ~ is it worth while to try to sheild the "intersection" to potentially reduce interference?

I've never notice a problem, but as long as the wall is open...

I doubt if you'd have a shielding problem with those cables, but I'd certainly get that confirmed by pm'ing Alan, or perhaps one of the smart guys like John or Chris in case they don't see your question.

I would think as long as they are crossing at 90 degrees everything would be ok, but I am interested in others thoughts.

what would be a shield? metal - like a piece of flue pipe? It would be easy to tack it into place while wall's still open.

A good potion, perhaps 40 percent of the house 150 amp service, of the entire house's is running past this area. I've never noticaed anything but good clean sound, but as long as the wall's open - I figure putting soemthing up wouldn't hunt.

I also have some old really thick copper flashing.

also - speakers m60's will be about six inches above this run of electrical power.

Maybe you could run the cables through some kind of piping...check this info from Wiki. Hope there's some usefull info there.

The problem of induced hum comes from running power lines in parallel, in close proximity, for long distances with your signal lines.

Crossing at 90° presents no problem. Speaker level signals 6" away from the power should also be just fine.

Really to induce noticeable hum, you need to wire-tie a 15' extension cord running a space heater to your line-level coax. Then you'll get something. Otherwise, with even a modicum of care you'll be fine.

Sound advice Chris, but you forgot to tell him while his wall is wide open he might as well put some sort of shielding up (I think that's what he's wanting to hear).

Scott, Chris's concluding paragraph is pretty much on target as to what would be necessary to cause audible hum pickup. Speaker wire is essentially immune from hum problems and connecting cables are typically well shielded enough so that minimal precautions as to wire locations are enough to avoid a problem.

Sound good everyone- thanks.