Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Tone Control Blasphemy

I may have just missed it, but I can't seem to find the brand/model of your sub in this posting.

SVS dual 12 inch box far field, Dayton 10 inch near field.

Hi Cameron, as a fellow metal man, I can safely assure you that what you are hearing is not just you. I find my older cd's just don't cut it with the Axioms or most speakers for that matter. The material has been recorded so cheaply and poorly that you have to tweak it some just to make it listenable. Some of my recent purchases appear to have been recorded much better and I have found some of my older cd's in remastered form, these remasters sound much better.

Yeah, I pump up the subs even more on say Kill 'em All or Rust in Peace, or Night of the Stormrider. However, on newer better recorded metal like Opeth or Dream Theater I still have the bass/treble boosted up.

The album that I have the bass set the lowest is probably In Absentia, but again I do have it higher than flat that's for sure.

It all depends upon what I'm listening to. Most things I run with flat tone control. Listening to FM radio, however, I pull down the treble to -3 and push the bass to +2 and turn the sub off (most DJ voices turn into small explosions if I leave the sub on and the -3 treble takes care of the sibilance). So really, you're not alone.

Scott

I run with no tone controls on my Axiom setup but I do use them with my portable headphone rigs.

Cameron,

I know exactly what you mean by hot bass even when your sub is off. I have the same issue. I use an 80Hz cross-over between my 80s and 600. With the sub off and the main gain set to about a half watt per channel, my 80s produce 96dB at 80Hz. That is way too hot frankly.

The reason you and I have this problem is due to room modes. Room treatment may help but frankly, until I better understand exactly what it is that I have to do to treat it, I'm not spending the time or money experimenting. If you figure it out, certainly let me know.

Tone controls are there to be used on material which needs it.

Update:

Right after starting this thread I tried listening to everything flat, but that only lasted 2 nights. My M60's just sounded very flat, small, and weak when listening to music this way.

Quickly I returned to cranking up the bass and treble which satisfied the thumpy bass and shimmering highs that I like. Unfortunately the clarity took a big hit, so now I was stuck craving the clarity of no tone controls while I had the bass/treble cranked and craving the impact/feel of the music when the tone controls were off - frustrations galore!!!

Last night I had an idea that I hadn't tried before. I have always had my main speakers far away from both the back wall and side wall. About 2 1/2 feet from the back wall and 4 feet from the side wall (my room is an 18' x 23' rectangle and the speakers are on one of the 18' walls).

I had always read on forums that the more you can move speakers out from the wall the better, so I have always done that. Also, I changed my mains to large and turned the subs off. I've tried that before, but when I did my speakers were far from the walls so it didn't seem to do much.

Well, I moved my speakers about 6 inches from the back wall and 1 foot from the side wall.

Suddenly my m60's sounded big... I had to check twice just to make sure my tone controls were really flat. Wow, tight and controled bass at the same time? I thought that was just a pipe dream.

I know my new speaker placement is a big no-no, but man it sounds better. It's not perfect and I can really tell the difference between albums now, but I think I may have found my solution that I have been looking for for years now. I would still like a bit more tactile feel/slam from the bass, but it's soo much better than the former speaker placement with flat tone controls.

I don't want to get too excited because there have been many times that I thought I had found what I was looking for only to realize after a few days that it wasn't so great after all.

I was really getting bummed out, because my favorite past time is listening to music but it was like I was force feeding myself something I didn't really like all that much. I hope this is the answer...

Your new placement is not a big no-no. It is just that, with most rooms, bass becomes boomy when near a corner. If the geometry of your room makes it such that you have a null field where you sit, you may have needed the additional bouncing-off-the wall of some lower frequencies all along.

Cross your fingers that you newfound harmony lasts!