Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions QS8 sounds muffled

Hi All,

I have a QS8 speaker that sounds muffled when compared to the matching QS8 speaker, I have inspected the speaker and I found that some of the internal insulation was caught under the speaker frame. Do you think I should remove the speaker and push down the insulation perhaps the insulation is muffling the speaker cone? Would this be a warranty issue?

In the mean time I switch the speakers from left to right and still the same muffled sound, so the receiver is ok.
I have an eq. picture so you can see the deference (PRNS) the problem speaker is on the left.

Do you think there is a problem with the speaker?
Should I reset the eq. to flat and does a test tone? And compare.
John

ps, how do I attch. a picture to this post?

It would definitely be a warranty issue (ie always give Axiom a call) but for something simple like insulation in the wrong place they will probably ask if you feel comfortable pushing it back into place yourself. The main requirement is to be gentle with the speaker mounting screws so you don't strip anything

In my case I had a muffled sounding M60 and it turned out to be a tweeter that wasn't tweeting. My first guess is that this may be the case with your QS8 as well -- insulation out of place or the resulting air leak probably wouldn't cause the kind of "muffled" sound you are describing -- but give Axiom a call and they will walk you through a few tests to figure out what the problem is.

Sorry, just noticed your question about setting the EQ to flat first. Answer -- DEFINITELY. Auto EQ sometimes does some very funny things.

With my EP500 when I was diagnosing the rattling sound from the port, Amie/Ian had me remove the driver and amp to diagnose the problem, warranty was not voided. I would still call Axiom first and let them know your discoveries so they know your going to fix the insulation...

Sound advice from the above posts!!!!!!

Hi All,

I spoke to Joe at Axiom and he told me to first hear if there was any sound coming from the tweeters, if not to check the connections to the speaker and also to push in the insulation.

I do hear the audo from the speakers so no disconnected wires and I pushed in the insulation. I still hear the muffold sound from the speaker.

I need to call him back and ask him if I should ship it back.

John

Have you tried switching them around to confirm it is indeed the speaker?

Yea, he did wid.

Gottcha, I glossed over that.

yes.

Hi All,

Well I tried another setup this time by resetting the receiver and skipping over the EQ. (now flat) setup within the auto setup and I noticed that it's not that bad now when playing music but still noticeable when doing the speaker test tones during setup. Does this matter?

What do you think?

Thanks,

John

Whew, at this rate you're gonna have to re-strip your wires! But one more test; does the unusual sound travel along with the speaker if you swap them yet again?

(all my speakers "Sound" the same but display the test tone differently)

(all my speakers "Sound" the same but display the test tone differently) ......with the same tone, same type speaker?

I have 4 QS8 and when I go through the test tones from speaker to speaker I still can hear the muffled tone from that speaker only, I assume that it's the same tone for all four speakers. I dont think the test is putting out a different tone just for that speaker.

When playing music they sound the same but you can hear the difference in tone in that one speaker during the test tones.

Three of my five speakers are the same bookshelf model.

One on the TV, and the other two in the rear as surrounds. The only tone I have for set-up is a white or pink noise, and due to the location and reaction with their surroundings; I get a different sound from each of them during test.

I also get a subtle difference in volume, but I guess I wouldn't be able to classify the diference in the lowest sounding one as "muffled"

In your case though, I guess that no matter which position you place that particular QS8, it still sounds muffled with your test tones?

I would just call axiom back, they will make it right.

Have you tried just hooking it up as one of the left/right main channels and send some music to it to see if you hear this muffle noise?

Yes, I setup two of the qs8 as my front speakers just to hear if there was any muffled sound coming from the questioned qs8 speaker but it sound the same at this point, but why would it only sound muffled during the test tones every time and in different channels and locations?

In reply to:

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why would it only sound muffled during the test tones every time and in different channels and locations?

---

Because the room and speaker placement strongly affects the sound as well. It's not often noticeable with the complexities of music as a sound source, but very often IS noticeable with test tones.

I'm not saying if you do or don't still have a problem, I just wanted to answer that particular question for you!

I guess I still don't know if I understand what your saying when you say, "muffled". So are you saying that when you played music to that one speaker you don't hear the sound?

Test tones send pink noise that consists of a wide frequency range, it could be in that one particular location at a particular frequency, your hearing this noise, I don't know. If you place another one of your Qs8's in that bad location, do you hear the same noise, that would tell us if it is just that one Qs8, or the location.

This is truely is a weird one, hmmmmmmm?

I do hear sound from the questioned qs8 speaker, however during setup (pink noise)the sound of the test tone from the one speaker reguardless of location/channel (sounds like the high frequency is muffled compared to the other qs8).

example, it sounds like if you were to have the trebble up all the way on one speaker and have the trebble set to flat on the other speaker)

I guess, if you change the location of that, questioned, speaker and run the test tones again, and still hear the difference compared to the other Qs8's, there may be something wrong.

I hope you get it figured out, and I'm sure Axiom will work with you, I would call and talk to Brent during the evenings, I've had good luck with him, or send Amie a PM and ask her who you should talk to and get it resolved. Have you removed the tweeters to make sure the wiring looked good and tight on the inside?

Hi All,

Yes I haved moved the questioned qs8 from one location to another and to a different channel on the receiver and can still hear the muffled/dull tone from that speaker. I'm not sure if this is a problem with the speaker or the frequency for that qs8 is a bit off?

yes I looked inside and all look ok.

Thanks for all your help.

John

Just to recap :

1. Pink noise test tones will emphasize any difference in frequency response, to the extent that even two identical speakers in different locations in the room will sound different. You can factor out the room influences by either placing the two speakers side by side in the middle of the room when you test, or by swapping the QS8s while leaving everything else the same.

2. If you swap QS8s from side to side (ie disconnect both, and hook each QS8 up to the wires for the other side) and the muffled sound moves with the speaker you definitely have a problem and Axiom will do something about it. Just make sure that you are using exactly the same speaker positions when you swap the QS8s.

Sorry to be repetitive, but I read the thread a few times and still wasn't 100% sure exactly what had been tried.

I have done step # 2 and the muffled sound does travel with the speaker, as I said before I can clearly hear the difference with the test tone but it's hard to tell when playing music through the speaker.

If the muffled sound travels with the speaker, then there is something amiss with that Q.
Call Axiom.

mincone have you tried moving the speaker that has the problem and see if it still has the problem?


lol just figured i should ask too since noone is hearing your answer. j/k

yes

Hi All,

Just a note to tell you that I called Axiom and told John about the problem and he said no problem that he would send a replacement ASAP with a return label for shipping the troubled qs8 back.

Thanks for all your feedback in this matter.

John