The advice given about pulling out the M80s and toe’ing them in is correct. In fact that’s the way they were- pulled out and over boarding each side of the TV. However due the constraints of the room they did stick out a bit too much and also added a channel for the center speaker which, no matter what I did had a limited dispersion due to the two M80s causing boarder.
I also turned the center upside down to aim it directly at the viewer – but still the M80s continued to cause a problem.
Neglecting the obvious I played musical “chairs” with the speaker placement and just happened to put them into the order you now see.
I was surprised to fine not only did it open up the center channel but it also cleared up and expanded the width of the M80s in terms of getting further away from the center allowing them to shine as distinct signal.
Although they appear to be pushed back up against the wall they are not. There is still over 5in of space behind them to the wall, and yes, they are slightly toed-in towards the viewer. The unique structure of the Axiom cabinet allows this due to tapering.
In the many hours of “playing” with endless positioning, re-calibrating, and such I found the most unlikely of locations works.
Although there certain rules of thumb we can all apply and adhere to sometimes different situations and acoustics with in a room break and or allow normally set rules to be bent or even broken. There are so many elements, even the power of the receiver used, that can dictate what can and can’t be done.
In the past I had tried something like this with Polk towers, but at the time had a Denon that was nowhere as powerful as what I have now. It just didn’t sound right. Then again now Axioms have been into the equation as well and I find them very forgiving, and incredibly wider and detailed.
I also found that the sub just disappears. My fear was it would "lean" the spectrum" over to that side, but know. I played with the setting on that baby for weeks.
To answer someone's question - yes, it is THE EXORCIST on the TV. It's the very first DVD version ever release - although it hasn't the best sound, it still has the best color of any version since, and has become a bit of collector's piece because of it. The depth of color is just fantastic unlike later ones where the director played with the tonal values and tinted certain scenes blue.
