Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater HT Mains Setup Quest-Help!

Ted,

Nice looking room. I can understand why your wife doesn’t want to clutter it up with speakers. If it were my room, set up as shown with the entertainment center you have and furniture arrangement, I’d have a hard time figuring out what to do to get optimal sound but yet maintain the flow of the room. Bad news is your entertainment center is too dam big. It leaves you with few options to work with. I can understand why you have cubes where they are. I was looking at the EC thinking how you could modify if and place some book shelves in it, but I’m drawing a blank, and I’m pretty good at coming up with innovative cabinetry designs.

I think your only option is to go with speakers in the corners of the room. I would ditch the book shelf idea and go with M60 towers. I would take some close up pictures of the entertainment center and floor, and send them to Amie and ask her to send you some wood samples that would match the entertainment center, or possibly the floor (depending on what you wife thinks would be the better match). When you get them, you could then involve your wife and figure out which species of wood, which stain color and what finish would be the better match.

I suspect that if you take this course, you and your wife will enjoy the end result much more than trying to compromise and screwing up the flow and overall, very nicely decorated room. A set of real wood speakers with a nice piano finish looks more akin to a fine piece of furniture than an ugly misplaced obstacle.

Plus, when you get the bosses buy in, you can typically buy more stuff……(it’s that whole inclusion thing)

Ted,

I second what mdrew is saying here. Believe me, my wife and I have butted heads whenever I tryed to add anything at all to the home theater/living room. But, trying to get wood samples so that the towers match the entertainment center is the best compromise. Be persistent, you will thank us later. If you just give in then you won't be as happy in the end, due to the size of your room.

- Nick

Mojo,

Power levels, hmmmm? With most of my 5.1 HD-DVD movie soundtracks, dynamic music\sound effects will hit clean 100-105db peaks, with nominal averages of 80-85db reference levels. This equates to a pre-pro (LMC-1) setting of about 45-50 on it's scale of 0-80. I use to hear my Sony ES 100-watt receiver strain, become compressed and harsh trying to achieve these levels. But the UT Emotiva setup Remains clear, uncompressed and Always musical and dynamic! Even though the LPA-1 is just 25% more rms power (<1db), I clearly discern 5db-6db more of dynamic and open headroom (big power supply)!

As far as midrange, the cubes are eq'ed by the acoustimas module. I've been around stereo a long time (ADS studio monitor systems, Paradigm, Boston Acoustics, Pro Hafler, HK) and I've not found any drop outs with the full range cubes, just lack of detail, clarity and extension. The EP500 SURE livened up the bottom end, though!

Robb,

Thanks for the suggestion, but I've heard the M80's in a big, well setup room with Great power, but didn't care for their top end signature (sibilant, bright and fatiguing). Since M22's & M60's have similiar signatures, thought the warmer M3's (similar to M50's, but will fit in my room best) should work just fine. If the Bose can fill the room, for sure 5-M3's should blow them away!!

Mike,

Appreciate the very kind comments, we both love the great room. Yes, the EC is big, but that is what we wanted to fit the large display, hold all the gear and hide 500+ DVD's (still need to modify the L\R bottom cabinets). Your "custom speaker" suggestion is a great idea, certainly could help the HT blend in with the room decor! Seems you too understand the "SHMBO" survival slogan real well.

Nick,
DITTO!

Thanks for the great inputs,
Ted

I think you're making a great choice with the M3s particularly given your desire for a more "laid back" sound.

The previous comments on color-matching are excellent given your room decor.

I'll have to think a little about the comments you made on power. I don't know what those settings mean in terms of total power out.

Ted,

One note on your ‘bright’ comments. I have no intension to get into that debate (it’s long since bored me to tears and I care not for discussing again), but I will say that I also found the M80’s to be a little bit too forward. I installed some resistors that Axiom will send you if you ask. Problem went away. (they lower high freq a tad) After a year or so, I moved them to another room and found that the high’s were now missing some, so I pulled the resisters out. It sounded better to me, but still just tad too forward for my tastes. I threw a big assed wool rug down on the hardwood floor in front of them and now love the sound. The key word being “wool”.

So before closing the door on the M22/M60/M80 siblings, I suggest you play with room treatments first and if that doesn’t work, ask for and install the resistors. I would even bet that if you ask, Axiom will send you the speakers with the resistors installed. (this company is unbelievably accommodating to their customers wishes).

I suggest that you not go with M80’s in your particular room because you will have to tuck the speakers into the corner to not interrupt the walkway in/out the doorways. M60’s are a lot more forgiving with corner placement than M80’s. Or, I should rephrase that to….M80’s are finicky to where you place them.

Good luck with the boss.

Did you install one resistor per tweeter on your M80s?

Since the 15dB peaks require 1A @120V, that's 120W. And if the amps are 70% efficient, that's 84W going into your two fronts and 36W heating your room.

So if at 85dB the power is P, at 100dB the power will be P + 84. 100dB requires 32 times the power compared to 85dB. So, P + 84 = 32P and solving for P gives 2.7W. So your nominal power is a few watts like I estimated before.

So when you get your Axioms, are you planning on an A/B test with the Bose?