Hey everyone,

I have been reading the message board here for a few weeks and must admit that I am being bitten by the Axiom bug! I am looking at upgrading my speakers - considering the M50's or M60's, EP350 and VP150.

My delima is this...My HT setup is a HT/family room. The room measures approximately 13'W x 28'L by 9'H. When we built this room we had custom cabinets built to hold the A/V equipment. This custom cabinet approach seemed popular at the time. Anyway, the problem with this situation is that the speakers are going to be placed inside cabinets.

The speakers cabinets (I'm mainly concerned with the mains and sub) are about 60"H x 20"W x 19"D. I want to place the mains(M50's or M60's) on shelves that would be about 24" high. That leaves me about 23" under one of the shelves to place the sub. The centre would be in a similar enclosure above the TV. The centre channel enclosure is shaped to fit a centre speaker.

Given these contraints, any advice on what to expect from the axioms in this situation. The speakers are going in the cabinets...period. That can't be undone.

I was thinking of going with the M50 because they aren't as deep as the 60's. If I keep them at the very front of the cabinet, I'm left with 5 or 6 inches behind them. The 60's just seem too big for that enclosure.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. BTW, my current speakers don't seem to suffer greatly, as far as I can tell, from being in the cabinets. They are Sony towers and a small Energy center, no sub.

Joe

Ray would suggest selling the wife.

Speaker choice is an individual thing, on your own there. But to make the best of a less-than-ideal mounting/positioning - if possible, keep the drivers of the speakers out in front of the cabinet face, don't sink them right back in the enclosures, but I'm sure that goes without saying.

Bren R.

Maybe you can build some slide out shelves on which to place your mains? If not I'd opt for bookshelf speakers and leave them out in the open. If that ain't doable either I'd pop for the best inwalls I could find or for some front-ported speakers (and do as Bren suggested).
Good luck.

ajb,
It is unfortunate that the timing is a bit off here as i may be moving to Calgary sometime in the next 5 months. We could have set up the M60s in your cabinets and you would have known for sure.
Regardless, you have a difficult situation. Cabinets surrounding speakers is not unlike cupping your ears when someone is yelling, the sound changes, and more so the more you cup your ears. Alan has posted some answers before to others who have asked about placing speakers inside cabinets so you may want to try a search.

Judging by your post i'm not sure the cabinet enclosure for the main speakers would be as large a problem as the distance off the floor. Placing the M60s or M50s 24" off the floor puts the tweeters substantially higher than ear level once seated. This also will sound alot different compared to having the speakers sitting directly on the floor with the tweeter more inline with one's head.
Given the limitations of your cabinets, i would have to agree with some of the previous posts and recommend you consider the M22s or another bookshelf style instead. I don't think there is much you can do about the subwoofer (unless you have another possible location in the room for placement). Enclosing it within a hard cabinet structure could enhance the bass to the point of distraction and cabinet vibration.

Thanks for input. After somemore extensive searching, I've seen others with the same problem. The consensus is...

speakers:good
speakers in cabinet:bad.

I will look at the possibility of putting the speakers on the floor in front of the cabinets. I essentially have an entertainment center that spans the full width of the family room. The speaker cabinets of the entertainment center are set back deeper than the rest of the unit. So, putting speakers on the floor in front will not look too bad. They will still be even (same distance out from the wall) with the TV and main part of the unit. There will be some room behind the speakers so they can breathe, I guess that's how you say it, right.

I will post back with results if I go ahead with the purchase.

Joe