Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater need help with cable wire + where to place my qs8

i will be going with the m60ti, ep500, vp150, qs8.
now, i need to purchase speaker and sub wire.

1.) can someone help recommend what i should get. Please remember that i am from Canada. And instead of refering me to ebay or blue jean, etc, can someone please tell me the EXACT BRAND AND MODEL or provide a link. The thing is i took a lot on ebay and there were dozens of various kind of speaker and sub wires. I have no idea what i should get.

2.) i took a few pictures of my tv room, i need help placing my surround speakers + where to hide all the wires.
would anyone be willing to take a look at these pictures and give me there comment. Should i post these pictures on maybe yahoo photo or on this board, or should i email them to you.

if anyone wants to give me there advice on the phone, i can provide my phone number.

thanks

Any 12 guage or 14 guage wire should be fine for your speakers. A coax cable should work for your sub. You need to just determine your lenghts. bluejeanscable.com not only ships to Canada but has great cables at good prices. Their website will also answer most your cable and wire questions.

As mentioned below, any 12-14 gauge wire will work, do you have a home improvement store around you like Home Depot, Lowes, or Menards, or similar? They usually carry bulk speaker wire priced per foot.

http://www.monoprice.com has great prices and I believe ships to Canada.

You can post your pics on many websites like photobucket for free, and then just put the link to them on your messages here for us.

There is a good article on the home page of Axiom's website regarding placement of surrounds and subwoofers. http://www.axiomaudio.com/archives/subsandsurrounds.html

"If you are using multidirectional, quad polar type surround speakers like the QS8s, generally from 12 inches to 5 feet above the level of your ears when you are seated will often produce the best sense of surround envelopment. Multidirectional surrounds like the QS8s or QS4s tend to be very accommodating and "unfussy" as to placement and it isn't even necessary to have them at identical heights or distances. Every room is different, of course, and some experimentation with a couple of stepladders to support the surrounds while you listen is useful. With direct-radiating surrounds, higher is usually better, but keep them at least 3 inches away from the ceiling to avoid boundary effects from the ceiling. "

1.) do i need to use banana plugs or spade lugs with all my axiom speakers or should i use the raw wire???

2) For all my speakers (fron speaker, surround, center), is this good enough BJC Twelve White (5000UE) (White jacket, 12 AWG)from bluejean.com???

3.) For my subwoofer, is this good enough Canare LV-77S Subwoofer Cable from bluejean.com??? anyone know if they come with the plug that connect to the coaxes.

thanks

Monoprice does ship to Canada. They give excellent service and saved me a bundle.

I paid $23 Canadian for a DVI-HDMI cable, delivered to my door (Burlington ON). No taxes, no brokerage fees. It saved me from spending a monstrous $137 at Futile Shop.

For the most part copper is copper, coax is coax, just don't get caught up in the name brand hype like Monster.

Some use bare wire hookups like I do, some use banana plugs, some use spade. For me I like having the least ammounts of links in the chain, so I use barewire hookups.

anybody wants to give me the model number to the speaker wire and sub coaxes from monoprice that i should get. is this what you guys are talking about for speaker wires: 12AWG Loud Speaker Cable - 50ft. they don't seem to have the rubber cover, is that important???

I'll try and post the pictures up in a few minutes and maybe someone can help on placement and hiding the q8s.

Thanks

Bannana plugs and spade lugs are mainly for convenience of connection, bare wire is just as good. I'm using both the exact wires and coax that you mentioned from blue jeans and are very happy with them. The coax cable comes ready to use with plugs. Shipping should be fairly inexpensive since they partner with the USPS.

http://photobucket.com/albums/f19/blackorp/?sc=1&multi=4

hope this works. and appreciate any input

i would buy these
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZshaneraymond

if i buy new/different cables i will probably buy these...

or these..

http://www.axiomaudio.com/speaker.html


i would also reccomend a floor rug, to deaden your room.

hey dakkon, are you into home decoration. lol
but you are right, I think a rug would make the area look warmer and etc.

thanks

if anyone wants to suggest changes to the whole layout of the room, please feel free to do so.

thanks

Neculear engeneering actualy…


But if it were my place, I would put a rug, I can only imagine your mids and highs bouncing around that room like a… well… I think it would help the room acustics a decent amount. And it would look good as well

In reply to:

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Neculear engeneering actualy…

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LOL! And I thought it would be one of us to remind you. . .

what's mids and highs. You mean i should just buy a rug for the center of the room right??

Many electrical guidlines/codes will say if your going to run speaker wire within your walls, you should use the rated stuff with a rubber shealth. Many people do not do this, as I didn't. Before I drywalled my ceilings, I ran 12 gauge wire that I got off of Ebay.

Help with your link, just pat the Image tag (IMG) in your Axiom messages and the picture will be displayed.

In looking at the pictures, you may have lots of options.

Heck, since your couch is so close to the half wall, you might just go with a 5.1 setup and place the Q's on each end of that wall. You want them to be above your ears anyway. That would work great.

mid’s and highs, mid frequencies, and high frequencies, basicly 60hz and higher..
I would build a platform and put one of the couches on that and put the other couch infront of that one, this way the couch on the side would not block your left speaker good for watching tv, or what ever, but not ideal for an entertaining area, for cards ect…

1.) sirquack: where should i place the q8s, i drew 4 areas (marked red) on the back wall, place suggest one.

http://photobucket.com/albums/f19/blackorp/?action=view&current=changes.jpg

2.) dakkon, the platform idea is good for ht system layout, but i also use the idea for guests to sit down and talk, so it would be a little problematic.

3.) in turns of wiring of the q8s, how should i wire it. do both q8s from the left side (around small couch to big couch), or etc???

please keep the input coming as i highly value them.

For the truly lazy among us :



blackorp; the trick for posting pictures is that you need the URL of the picture itself, not the photobucket page that displays the picture. Right click on the actual image and choose "Properties", then copy the URL from the text on the properties page.... dig deep and find your "inner hacker"

hey, not lazy, just technologically challenged:)
i didn't know how to post the pictures. i had trouble understanding the instructions by sirquack. So bare with me people.

No worries. I didn't mean "you lazy", just "us lazy". If your pictures are visible inline then more of us will look at them and comment.

Normally we just fix your post and sign it "Link Police" but I figured you would want to know what to do...

hope this work
file:///D:/changes.jpg

oh god, is there anyway to erase the last 5 minutes of my life. no one should laugh.

okay, i have copied the url of the photo and pasted it on the message, why isn't the photo up.

I think you used a URL that pointed to your computer's hard disk. Unless you are running a web server on your PC that won't work (EDIT .. won't work even if you ARE running a web server... the URL should say "http..." not "file...". Look at the URL when you paste it in and make sure it points to Photobucket.

The very best thing to do is open a new browser window, paste in the URL, and make sure you see a picture... BEFORE you put the [ i m g ] stuff into a post here.

Not saying "don't screw up", just "this is how you test".

let's see:

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f19/blackorp/changes.jpg

you know the funny thing is you can see the picture you were trying to show us, but we cant see it.... d:/change.jpg....

for a picture type [ img ]url[ / img ] with out the spaces between the [ ]

Blackorp, what you need to do, once you've got your photo hosted at a website like photobucket.com is to copy the url for your photo, such as http://bestsmileys.com/flasher/1.gif between two image tags which can look like this [image] [/image], or this [img] [/img]. There should be no spaces anywhere in the tags or the url. Here is how it should look, but I have to leave some spaces so you can see the code. If I didn't leave the spaces, the code would do what it's supposed to do and what you'd see would be the photo.

[ img ]http://bestsmileys.com/flasher/1.gif[ /img ]. Remove the spaces in the tags, and you get:



If you look under your photo at photobucket, you'll see 3 little boxes each with a url in it. The third one has the url for that particular photo with image tags already attached. All you need do is copy that third url with tags, and paste it into your post, and viola! You get your photo.

This is getting better than the water cooler. lol. I hate to throw more confusion into this, but the experts can correct me if I'm wrong. When wiring your speakers the cable length on your center and mains should be the same length. And the cable length on your surrounds should be of equal length also.

To the best of my knowledge, it is not necessary that all speaker wire lengths be the same. Mine certainly aren't. They are just the right length to reach from the receiver to each speaker.

In a perfect world you would be correct, but reality says, you wont be able to hear a difference, so it really doesn’t matter. Just use some decent sized cable, 12gage everywhere, I would recommend. Just to be sure, you could use 14. Or 16 gage, but for me, 12gage or 10gage, just for the extra head room. The smaller the gage the thicker the wire, so the less resistance the wire will have, so the easier it will be for the current to flow “though” your cables.. if your doing inwall wiring, get some bulk 12 gage cable and junction box, so you can have it terminated at the wall all nice and neat.. that’s what I did with my parents house. There are websites online that will tell you for what distance you are running the cable how much current that cable can handel usualy the farther the run the larger the cable you will need, due to the added length the cable will have a higher resistance to current…

Any other questions or what ever, ill be online for a while right now.

>>When wiring your speakers the cable length on your center and mains should be the same length.

This was "conventional wisdom" for a while, but I think it fell out of favour once people started using sufficiently heavy speaker wire (eg. typically 12 or 14 ga depending on how long the wires are).

If you are running thin speaker wire, it probably isn't a bad idea to use equal lengths so that the inline resistance affects both speakers equally.... but a better solution is to use fairly heavy wire so that the resistance (function of length) doesn't make any noticeable difference.

1.) so where should i place the surround. Anyone comment on the photo???

put them on the ledge behind the back couch... somehow.

The ideal setup would probably be QS8 stands... I just ordered a pair a few minutes ago after exhausting all other possibilities...

Next best (and pretty close) would be FMB's on the back wall, with the surrounds angled out pointing towards you...

1.) what's FMB?????

2.) if i go with the stands, i should have the face side pointing where?? straight at the tv, or straight at the side of me if i were to sit down on couch.??

thanks

FMB = Full Metal Bracket (a play on Full Metal Jacket) -- sort of a universal "mount anything on the wall at any angle you want" solution :

http://www.axiomaudio.com/fullmetalbracket.html

I'm currently running my QS8s at the sides of the sofa pointing directly at the side of me... not sure if that is best but it's pretty good.

I'm starting to think that FMBs behind you might be a bit better than stands beside you... and a lot cheaper...

(1) Full Metal Bracket...for hanging things. It's in Axioms product pages.
(2) Usually you want to put them on the side facing towards you.

bridgman: what stands did you get??? and Model please??? i might just go that route.

thanks everyone for the help

I'm trying to understand the pictures:

If the couch with the half wall behind it is the main couch you will be sitting on for watching movies, I would think you could set one Qs8 on the top of the ledge clear to the left side, and the other Qs8 on top of the ledge over by the curtain side, so your wrapped in the sound.

Another option might be to mount one over on the wall by the fireplace, and the opposite wall by the curtains. You would have to figure out how to run the wiring to those locations. Do you have a basement below that area that is unfinished? If so, you may be able to run the wiring up from the basement.

for posting images, when you login to photobucket it shows all of your pictures you've uploaded. Below each picture is the HTML link, the IMG tag, etc... Just highlight the IMG path, right-click with your mouse, select Copy, then Paste that same path into your Axiom post by right-clicking and selecting Paste. You want to copy the IMG path address to get your picture to display, not the HTML path.

I went with the FMB QS stands. They're kind of expensive (I hate spending money on stands) but you get a fair amount for the $$. I figure I'll drop a few pounds of lead shot down each of the tubes for stability and they should be pretty solid.

http://www.axiomaudio.com/fmsqs.html

Mike, your speaker wires do not need to be the same length, in most setups your speakers are at different postions related to your receiver. All of my speakers in my 7.1 setup have lengths ranging from 10ft upto 30+ feet using 12 gauge wire.

For larger rooms here is what a 7.1 setup would look like. If your sitting in that back couch, I would just start with 2 Qs8's for a 5.1 setup and either place them on the ledge behind the couch spread out as far as possible. You could even angle them in slightly if you wanted. The Qs8's are very forgiving in placement and sound good about wherever you put them...

Something tells me once you get your speakers, you will have lots of questions on calibrating them with your receiver. Not to worry, we are here for you...

thanks guys

I'll probably just set it up the way sirquack suggested, if it doesn't sound good, i'll get the axiom stand.

well sirquack, you have about 10 weeks before i get the speakers (as i am getting them thru factory outlet). So spend your time wisely and fully. lol

It took me awhile but I tracked down where I got that info about the cable lengths, of all places it was from Aperions website. They also had this little gem of info. "There is a direct relationship between the quality of the home theater experience and the quality of the cables, particularly for long cable runs. This applies to both cost and size". Wow, they are promoting spending more on wires, they also claim monster is one of those quality cables. Although I enjoy their speakers, my respect for them just dropped a notch.

I don't pretend to speak for everybody, but I don't believe anybody has said that monster cables are "bad" cables. They are criticized for being overpriced (WAY overpriced) and for their overblown marketing claims and methods.

I'm not trying to imply that monster cables are bad, what bothered me is Aperions statement that the more you pay the better it will sound, as well as some of their other erroneus imformation.

that is strange that they would make a claim like that...seems to me that the less money an enthusiast spends on "audio jewlery" the more money they'd have to spend on speakers (or higher end speakers). Could also be a "crutch" when people say their speakers don't sound right. Or they could own a lot of Monster stock.

I have 12 gauge for long runs and 14 gauge for short runs. The 12 ga wire I got at Home Depot is fine but the insulation is really, really thick (thicker than the wire!) and may be difficult to bend or hide.

Monster, poor Monster...

http://www.audioholics.com/news/editorials/CESdeceptivedemos.php

One of the nice things about Axiom's speaker cable is it's sooooo flexible.