Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Picture of Layout Plan

Ok, I'm really close to pulling the trigger on a pair of Axiom M80's Boston Cherry from Factory Outlet in the next couple of days. This is a google sketchup plan of my house that is currently being painted. The cabinet you see will hold the television. Eventually I am thinking about mounting a 42 inch flat screen above the fireplace. I was wondering what your opinions were on the placement of this setup. Is there too much clutter for the speakers to breath? Do think they will sound too bassy and toed in too much? I've thinking alot about the layout and this seems to be the best I can think of. I'm 22 years old and graduating next month from college and am moving into this house. 1800 sq feet, 1969, hardwood floors. Also I am pretty certain I am going to go with the Emotiva LMC-1, LPA-1 combo instead of the Harmon Kardon. This gives me more flexiblity in the future for upgrade. btw, that grey area on the top left is the kitchen counter.

Scuffer, nice drawings.
I'm loving that Google app more and more.

Offhand without dimensions, though the sketchup drawing should provide a relatively good idea, i would put forth a few things to consider:

1) If you are buying for future proofing (moving into a larger place inevitably in the future) and you have the cash, by all means choose the larger speakers.

2) If you don't mind saving some cash now and choosing a more fitting setup, consider mounting some M22s on the wall as i believe the M80s are way too big for that space. Without a good minimum distance from your seating area to the speakers, you will find it difficult to setup a good stereo image. I know, i use the M60s and was in a confined location before. Even the location i have now is about the limit i would recommend for anyone with a floorstanding unit (about 10-12 feet). I have done it with 8 feet distance away but only one person would really have a good stereo image spot.

3) Anything that sits between you and a speaker, like the corner of a couch, will interfere with the sound being reproduced, period.
Again, look back at point #1 and figure how long this might be an issue, if one at all (you can always rearrange furniture or better yet, get rid of some. )

Getting larger speakers to work effectively in a small room is a big challenge.
Good luck.

Too big? hmm... I really want the M80's to work, so is there any layout changes you reccomend? Should I toss the coffee table? Or mabye I could replace the small couch with another recliner so the edge is not so much in the way of the speaker.

When I saw that pic the first thing I expected to read was "this is the layout the wife decreed" Not that I'm calling you a chick or anything.
Seriously, from a sq standpoint there's WAY too much furniture there, of course I have no freinds so I only need one chair and a table for my tv dinner and adult beverage.I'm with chess- lose some furniture (that bigass hutch next to the left 80 just makes me shudder) or lose some drivers, or both. Something else to consider if you plan on moving a few times before putting down roots is a pair of m3's come in one(1) easy to store and handle box.
So do you park your car like a girl too or just furniture? JK

Great SketchUp, but those look like M60s to me? But I think the drawing is adequate as is.

yeah I just used the M60's because thats what was availble in the library.

How big is the room? My M80s are in a 19x20 with an open back to the kitchen, for comparison purposes. I think you may be overestimating how much furniture you can fit in there if it's as small as it looks, not even counting the speakers.

This configuration is really not much different from mine. I would suggest you experiment with maybe a foot more separation between the fronts. Within this confined area, you'll find that the sweet spot is really at the center of your couch. You can try to broaden that out so that everyone on the couch can experience stereo by employing less toe-in but then you would lose some of the 3D of the soundstage.

The room is connected to the kitchen and the entryway into the hall and the rest of the house. It is 15'8" from the back wall of the fireplace to the wall seperating the entry way. It is 28'8" wide going into the kitchen. Hardwood floors, angled ceiling coming to a peak of 10'8" in middle.

ok, so I added the rest of the room stuff and swaped out the armoire with a bigger one because the other one was not accurate to the real life dimensions. You can also see the flat screen mounted which I hope to eventually get but don't feel like spending money on just yet. I have plenty of old school tvs that will hold me over. (50", 37", 37") Also, I really think the M80's will sound fine in this room. I mean, its not going to be ideal, but how can one resist the M80's? The WOW factor of having two landmonsters as speakers makes it worthwhile.

Depends how near perfection you want to get. Here is an experience from a less technical listener. I have M60s and quiet frankly, I have had a hard time making them sound "bad". We have a relatively new house so as you can imagine, my wife has changed our living room around more times than I can remember and while different placements definitely do sound different, never did they ever sound bad compared to my old gear.

If you are looking for audio bliss, I will agree that the couch on the right will noticeably ruin your 'sweet spot'. In our latest configuration, (thankfully back to the first and best,) there is a single wicker chair beside my right speaker on the inside. It's not directly in front of it but the seat section does extend out into the cone of sound that would eminate from it.

When I don't move the chair, I have to sit further to the right on my centered couch in order to not feel like the right speaker is lacking something. Bugs me enough that I'll move the chair if I'm making a point of sitting and listening to music. If I'm wandering around house or doing anything and the music is background It's not noticeable enough to notice.

It's still 10 times better than I had before so I'm not complaining. Just saying it's all relative to how perfect you want it to be.