Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater I am just not TOTALLY impressed....

So I got all my speakers in today, and set them up very quickly, and only had about 15 minutes to sit down and listen....so this is by no means my official opinion of these...just my first impression.

I just got in a pair of m22ti's for fronts, vt150 for the center, and qs8's for the surrounds. Everything is hooked up to a pioneer elite vsx-41 (or whatever the exact model is, I am at work and too lazy too look it up...), and I have an Athena p2 (8" 100w sub) for the subwoofer. the m22's are on 16" stands, about 7 ft apart, 8 ft from the listening position. the QS8's are attached to the wall, about 5.5ft up, and about 6 inches behind and about 6 feet from the listening position.

I tossed in the fifth element, did not change any of the receiver settings....its setup now lits its fresh out of the box. I was quite let down by the m22ti's...maybe I was just expecting too much. The QS8's on the other hand....wow. I have had a few different combinations for surrounds along with listening to friend's setup and many in stores before purchasing a setup this time, and about 4 yrs ago. And still all i can say about these QS8's is...wow. Nice job axiom.

Any pointers on how to get the m22's shining like they do for everyone else....fill me in, i'm all for your advice. Now I just have to wait until 11pm so i can get off work and go back and listen to the surrounds again....wow =)

It takes time.. As you already have found with the Q's, the quaility is there.. Now the fun begins..
The Q's are very forgiving when it comes to placement, with the VP's being next.. Mains take time to work out that best location..
Drop in a movie or music, grab a cold one, relax, and give it some time.. Moving the 22's a bit here and there..
You might also want to check the receivers output levels for the surrounds/center/mains/sub, in case one of those adjustments has gotten out of wack..

Definately get the speaker levels right. You may also want to toe the M22's in just a bit. (Point them slightly toward your sweet spot, rather than firing straight ahead.)

Also...and this is important. You've got to get the sub and M22's crossover set up right.

Good luck and have some fun with it! Glad to hear the raves for the QS8's. They're my next Axiom purchase.

the more you listen, mess around with settings, as others are helping me to do, the more you'll realize how great they sound. others are still helping me with m60's, settings, and sub settings. even though i connected my system incorrectly for about 4 months, it didn't sound bad. now with the proper wiring, large and small speaker settings, and adjustments to the sub crossover, it sounds better. if it still sounds lousy, keep asking questions as i do. everybody here is friendly and knowledgable (sp?). maybe you just need to crank it up some??
dan

Doubles, you haven't tried to describe specifically what it is that doesn't totally satisfy you about the sound or what you've been used to that you're comparing it with. You're very satisfied with the QS8s and as far as pure sound goes, the M22s are certainly even better. The QS8s of course have an extremely wide dispersion for handling surround sound. Your setup looks okay physically, so the only thing I'd suggest is to check the calibration, especially that the level of the M22s is high enough. I can assure you that they're excellent speakers and that you can't find significantly better speakers of the type.

I will be unable to help you until you explain what facet displeases you.

Like I said, I only have a VERY limited time to do some listening. Of course I know it will take a little playing around to get everything how I think it sounds best.

What I think is wrong with the setup as it is now....i just dont feel like "im there" (if you know what i mean). That is why I was so impressed with the QS8's....they made me feel like I had another 10 ft of room behind my couch.

I am not saying anything about the sound quality of the QS8's, since not much went back to them to judge that by, but the way they made the surround sound environment feel "real", once again...wow.

I know exactly what you mean. I have a very similar setup and at first I was disappointed too. The trick that did it for me is the level setting on the reciver. My receiver (HK 525) settings were default to 0 db. I got them upto 10 db and the difference is unbelievable. Try that and hear the detail!

My setup:
Ravi's setup

twop & ravi,
I posted this awhile ago when another Axiomophile was somewhat unimpressed with their first speaker set.
It essentially sums up my thoughts based on my first day of listening to my new M60s and relates EXACTLY to the same thoughts expressed so far in this thread.
(The upper green part is probably the most relevant).

I just went home over lunch and did a little playing around. I turned my fronts and centers to +8 (kinda chuckled when I read you turned yours up to 10...i know exactly what you must have been hearing). It definitely sounded a lot better. What I did notice was on my receiver, I had to have the volume turned up over half to get it at "acceptable" volumes....nothing extreme either, just a good listening level. It still just seems something is missing...Im assuming its the sub at this point.

I pulled out my pink floyd albums and listed to "wish you were here"....sounded pretty damn good i'll have to admit. Hopefully tomorrow I can do a little playing around w/ the sub.