Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo need some help w/ M60Ti's very bright

ok guys. i picked up that pair of M60ti's and they are in mint, and i mean mint outta the box brand new condition. i can hardly believe how good they look. i hooked them up to my new Pioneer 1015tx receiver, and they sound pretty good, but...they are very bright. also, the vocals sound like they are in the background or something. almost like a fish bowl. what am i doing wrong here? any help would be appreciated. TIA

Tell us about your room. How big is it? Is it carpeted? hardwood floors? How are your speakers positioned?

If there's one thing many of us have learned here, it's that the room has a big effect on the overall sound of the speakers.

the room is about 18x27 so pretty big,...but i'm sitting only 10-12 feet away. the speakers are towed in to the center of the sitting area so facing me...and they are on carpet. i also used the carpet spikes that came with them. thanks

i guess the speakers are SIBILANT if that is the correct word...not sure about the soundstaging..but basically the singing sounds like the guy is behind the band...if that makes sense. they sound good...but i'm sure there is something i'm missing here...also, do i just hook the speaker wires up to the bottom connects? since the gold connectors are on for the top-to-bottom binding posts? does it matter? should i connect to the top instead? any help would be appreciated.

You should not have to tow the speakers in towards the primary listening position as they will generate a decent soundstage positioned straight. How far a part are they from one another? Also, how have you calibrated the Receiver? You want to leave any tone/treble controls at zero. I can't remember if that model of the Pioneer has the mic setup, if so it is ok to use that to help setup speaker levels and distances, but turn off any Room EQ, if that model even has it. On my Denon, I found the Room EQ made the m60's sound like there was to much midrange. Another thing that seems silly, but many have made this mistake is how you have the speakers wired. Obviously you want to retain the proper polarity, but you didn't remove the mounting clip between the terminals?

My guess is that it has to do with receiver calibration

Ok I believe the 1015TX has MCACC for setting up with a Mic, similar to my Denon AutoSetup and Room EQ, not sure about the 1015, but I think it also has the built in 5 band Eq. Have you performed the setup with the mic? If you can turn off the EQ part, you might want to try that. Alan at Axiom has mentioned that room eq's can make good speakers sound bad. I agree with him on this subject, however, I do use my Setup to help set the levels for each speaker and distance(delay) settings.

Randy

ps: This model is very similar to the 53 and 54 tx models in the Elite line, and a few of us have those with the m60's with no problems...

ok. well i turned down the trebel..it was set at +2, so that was a problem, i actually have it at -2 now..and it sounds MUCH better. i do notice though...that these speakers are power hungry as hell. my 1015tx DOES have the mcacc on it, and i have run it. i have the receiver set up correctly, after many hours of playing around. the speakers actually sound great, i think i'm a little deaf now...huh? LOL...

turning down the trebel made a huge difference, however, i notice that these speakers really need my receiver set to 0, as in not -5 volume, but 0 as in reference level. then, they sound AMAZING...but i am kinda deaf. i think i need to tone down my 2 paradigm 12" subs...the room is shaking like mad. i am amazed at how much bass these M60Ti's can put out. the whole house is rocking. used to have the subs really turned up cause my infinity 2000.6 towers SUCK for bass...but not these baby's! i guess i'm pretty lucky to pick up a basically brand new pair of these for 580.00 canadian eh? 1/2 price for new speakers. nice deal. anyways. any other tips/suggestions would be appreciated.

now i just need some music suggestions to download to try out so i can really hear these baby's roar! any thoughts? jazz, symphony, techno? any suggestions??? TIA guys. glad to be a part of the Axiom family finally.

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now i just need some music suggestions to download to try out so i can really hear these baby's roar! any thoughts? jazz, symphony, techno? any suggestions??? TIA guys. glad to be a part of the Axiom family finally.

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Glad to hear that you seem to have corrected the system, it may take a little playing around with it for a few day but believe me they will get better and better as you get more used to the speakers.

A song that sounds very good to me with these speakers is 'Carnival' off of the Carnival cd by Natalie Merchant, it doesn't get mentioned too often as a 'reference' type song but to me it sounds amazing, especially the beginning.

How do you have your crossover set on the receiver, and size of the mains. In most situations you want everything set to small, with a receiver crossover of 80hz. Also, you want to turn the sub crossover all the way up(clockwise) to get it out of the way for the receiver. Again, this is all preference, but that is what THX says it should be

thanks guys. these speakers are gettin better. i was wondering if maybe they are not broken in yet? they are pretty much brand spanking new looking. they guy said they are used, but...howmuch they were used, and at what volumes i have no idea. i'll let em play and see what happens...

also...
if i got to DIRECT, does that mean that all effects by the receiver will be turned off? does that mean it will ONLY play what is recorded without any processing by the 1015tx? TIA

Jinx, it should make no difference whether the speaker wires are connected to the top or bottom terminals, but be sure that the connecting straps are tight for both sets of terminals. There've been a few occasions when they weren't and some of the speaker drivers weren't operating.

all speakers are definitely firing...and sounding much much better now that i turned down the treble on the receiver. +2 was definitely not the right settin for these. LOL...

could you read my other post? trying to figure out just how old these might be. i think they are new, if you ask me. but no idea how to tell. are there different versions of the M60Ti's made? or manufacture date on them? some way to tell from the serial # maybe???

ya, the crossover in the receiver is set to 80 mhz...however, if i turn the sub crossover all the way up...it gives WAY too much bass....so i have the sub set to about 80 mhz as well. is this wrong? the fronts are set to LARGE, since they seem to handle the bass no problem. with my infinities...i had to set them to small cause otherwise they would "fart" kinda...sounded like crap. and the 2 paradigm ps1200 subs can handle any bass needed really.

Direct mode on my Denon sounds better than regular Stereo mode. In Direct mode some of the unused circuitry is shut down to give you the best possible sound with no internal interference.

Are you a computer guy you mean hZ(hertz) not mhz

On my Axiom sub, there is a volume control and a crossover control. I have the volume set around 11'o clock position. I believe the crossover on the sub is for if you had a receiver that does not have crossover managment. I'm sure some of the others will chime in here if I'm wrong, but if you have the receiver set to small on all speakers, with a crossover of 80hz, then any frequency for all of the speakers below 80hz will be sent to the sub. You want to turn the sub crossover all the way up, or clockwise to its highest setting so the receiver and sub are not both trying to manage.

However, you say you have the mains set to large, so in that case your mains and sub are getting all of the low frequencies, and the crossover is only sending the stuff below 80hz for your other speakers, to the sub (center, surrounds)

I'm confused on why the bass would get louder if you turned the sub crossover up to 150 or whatever the highest point is, maybe someone else will help out....

Jinx, no that isn't "wrong", but the general suggestion is to set all speakers "small" with a 80 Hz crossover. If the subs have a provision to bypass their internal crossover it should be used, otherwise turn the crossover control on the sub all the way up to get it out of the way of the receiver crossover. If there's too much bass turn down the sub level, not the crossover.

ok. so the mistake i am making is really that i have my main fronts set to LARGE right? if i set all to SMALL...and then the sub crossover will be handled by the receiver??? is this right? if so...then that might explain it. i do have 2 Paradigm PS1200 subs..so more than enough to handle the bass... more thoughts? is this the way to go?

oh ya, another question...is an AXIOM center VP150 really the way to go with these M60Ti's??? or am i ok keeping my Inifity Reference center which has 2 5/14" and one 1" tweeter.???

When I'm listening to music, I set my speakers to large and go straight 2 channel, no sub. When I watch movies I set them to small and crossover at 50 hz. I like the sub to only handle the really low stuff.

Not really a "mistake", but let your subs handle the lowest bass and relieve your mains of part of the bass load, so don't set them "large" in any case, regardless of how big they may be. Yes, the receiver handles the crossover when speakers are set "small" and you get the sub crossover bypassed or set all the way up.

Also try different degrees of toe-in. I had mine toed in (from a little to alot) for months before I just faced them straight out. That move made a huge improvement in volcals and overall sound stage.