Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Outlaw AMPS - Who's got em?

Robert - welcome to the mayhem!

Your post was informative and helpful. Interesting that you mention the B&W 700 series. When I was auditioning, I was quite taken with the 703s, until I turned the price tag over. A couple of the longer term members here said that the M60s and 703s sounded almost identical, I ended up buying the M60s and made a couple of trips back to the 703 store. I also believe the M60s and 703s are identical. The fascinating thing is the significant pric edifference in favor of the M60s.

Anyhow, welcome again and please chime in often.

Ray

Hi Robert,

Thanks for the very informative review and taking the time to write it. It is amazing what a little bit of homework and some very friendly and helpful folks can do for you. I am thrilled to hear that my "dream" system rocks in your house. For years I was happy with my Polk RTi setup until one day I took a trip to a Hi Fi dealer near my hometown of Collegeville PA. They had a B&W 803 setup running...I was shocked at how much I was missing in films and music!! When I got home that night I watched the same movie (Spiderman 2)and was so disappointed that my gear was missing so much detail and finesse. I was also dismayed that I would have to rob a bank or something to ever afford that quality of sound.....then as luck would have it, I stumbled across a review of the Axiom Epic 80 600 system on Audioholics website. My dismay turned to sheer joy as I researched more and learned that the Axioms were darn near close to those awesome B&Ws I coveted. To add even more happiness to the mix a nice fellow at Tweeter told me about Outlaw gear...huge bang for the buck equipment that would rival stuff costing 3 to 4 times as much (ok maybe 2 or 3 but who's counting?)

Anyway, because of guys like you I was able to construct a killer system without becoming a felon. And to boot, I learned some tricks on getting my current system maximized before I have the real deal in my home.

Let me give a little back to anyone reading this....if you have a decent sub, set that puppy to 40hz crossover and never look back. Set all your speakers to small except the mains unless you have smallish speakers that can't go very deep. Now, do some listening with both music and movies. Set the crossovers for the mains and the rest of your system at the point where you feel the speakers are giving you the most w/out straining. In my case, I ran the RTi8's full range and set the others (RTi6s and RTi4s) to 80 hz. My fiancee commented just tonight that my speakers sounded different which translated into they sounded better. Honestly, part of the fun of having this gear is experimenting with what sounds good to you. I am a pig in s^%$ right now cause my Polks sound great and all it took was some extra tweeking. But what is even better is that I have speakers coming to me in October that will make this gear seem like childs play!! (My wedding is in October so after the ceremony and honeymoon I'll be ordering up the system I have listed below). Oh, and if you are wondering about whether to go with the EP600 or the 500. I got a 2 out of 3 vote from Axiom experts to get the 600... Alan Loft liked the EP 500, while JC and Brent whole-heartly recommended the mighty 600. If I had to guess, I would say JC and Brent are a bit younger than Alan. In my experience with most folks, the younger guys and gals prefer rock the house, balls to the walls intensity (myself included) while the fellas and gals at or over 40 liked the less in your face sound..moving more toward the midrange sound.Of course I do not mean to categorize anyone here...just pointing out my own personal observations..below are my "stats"...thanks again to all who have helped me on my 2 year journey to Nirvana!!!

Current Gear:
2 Polk RTi 8s (Mains)
1 Polk Csi 5 - (Center)
2 Polk RTi 6s - Surround L and R
2 Polk Rti 4s - Surround back L and R
Mirage Omni12 Sub (By the way, this sub kicks serious a%$ for how cheap it is)

Harman Kardon AVR 435 (also performs very well for the price)

Future system (all with the help of awesome people in this forum and the Outlaw forum)and of course the experts here at Axiom and Steve from Outlaw.

2 Axiom 80s
1 VP150
4 QS 8s
1 EP600

My room is 3700 cubic feet (finished basement)

Other gear used in the past.....Rotel RSX 1067, Various Rotel Amps. Many HK AVRS, Yamaha receivers, Sony everything including a 53 inch CRT that still looks great after all these years.

Well I could go on and on...probably already did go too long but I hope this helps at least one person....I will certainly post a review of my Axiom/Outlaw gear once I get it all in the fall/winter. Oh and one more thing...get the outlet speakers....save 10% and get your loved one a nice present for letting you buy all this cool s&^%...:-)

Ciao

Chris

Chris, interesting reading and congratulations on the upcoming wedding. One suggestion, since your HK435 can set separate crossover frequencies, would be to set the RTi8s "small" with a crossover not lower than 60Hz. They should be able to play a bit cleaner higher up and your fine Omni 12 needs more work to do in that range that it can handle better than the RTi8s.

Hi John,

Looks like you were up late last night too...thanks for the advice. I did in fact try the exact setting you described but maybe because the HK only gives 65 watts per channel, the sound seems lacking (not as full) and unbalanced with the sub. I suppose it is because I am asking the Omni to do too much with them all set to small and requiring it to produce 60hz frequencies. When I moved the crossover to 40hz, it blended a whole lot better. It could be also that my ear is used to the warmer sound the RTi8s produce when set to Large. This area is so vast when it comes to options and opinions as there is no real cookie cutter approach. With each room there comes unique challenges etc. I have a slight advantage to some because my "lair" is wall to wall carpenting with heavy cloth furniture and bookshelves.

That is the real fun and beauty of this hobby, you can never tinker enough! I will definitely mess around even more once I get the Outlaw 7700 amp and 990 prepro. And, after I do all that, it will be back to step 1 when the Axioms arrive! So much to do so little time...he he he.

I heard Ian from Axiom has all his speakers set to Large and has 3 EP 600s going!!! So it just goes to show, there is no wrong way to set things up. Each person has an ear for what they like. I still highly, highly recommend experimenting for different locations and settings for the speakers. Just moving the crossover on my sub and making all but the mains set to small, it now sounds like I spent more money than I actually did for my current setup. I really enjoy getting the most out of my purchases.

Well that's it for now, enjoy what is left of the holiday weekend!

Chris