Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Digital Piano problems

I'm having problems using my digital piano with my Axiom M3Ti speakers. Whenever I play and hold a note, I hear a metallic ringing as the note dies off. This is particularly audible on the higher notes, but is also present on the lower notes.

This was not immediately evident when I first bought the speakers but when I switched to what is arguably a better amp (Cambridge Audio A300 to Audio Refinement Complete) it became more prominent. So much so in fact that I now hesitate to turn on my piano and often wince when I play certain chords. I've resorted to using headphones which is unfortunately tiring on my ears so I can no longer play for extended periods.

Music from my CD's sound fine so I believe the amps working just fine. The headphones I used my digital piano with are the Senheisser HD580's and they sound much, much better so I know it's not the sample on the piano that's causing the ringing. Any thoughts on this?

I spoke with Alan a bit on this one also and we concur that the amplifier is being adversely affected by the musical instrument. We would also caution to keep the volume to a reasonable level so as not to damage the M3s but I doubt that will be an issue in a living room environment. Many of these instruments generate sustained frequencies, ultrasonic harmonics, and intermodulation distortion (IM) that may damage tweeters or woofers when fed directly to hi-fi speakers not intended for musical instrument reproduction. Using a separate wide bandwidth high-fidelity amplifier only exacerbates the problem because, unlike musical instrument amps, their bandwidth remains linear to 60 kHz and beyond.

Alan thinks the problem may be that the keyboard is overloading the input circuit of your Audio Refinement amplifier--especially since you switched amps and the problem became more prominent. The reason you do not hear the distortion over his Sennheiser headphones is they are plugging directly into the digital keyboard, and the keyboard's internal headphone amp is designed to filter out ultrasonic distortion and harmonics.

Thanks for your response.
There seem to be two issues here:

1) Amplifier : Do you mean to say that the bandwidth of musical instrument amps is purposely designed to be non-linear at the higher frequencies? By non-linear, I suppose you mean that it filters out those ultrasonic harmonics - ie. like a low pass filter would though in this case "low" would be a fairly high threshold. I'm still confused however as what you're suggesting is that a recording of a piano does not have the same data as a sample of a note from a digital piano, which is taken from a real piano as well.

2) Speaker
If the typical bookshelf speaker such as the Axiom M3Ti is not meant for musical instrument reproduction, then what kind of speaker is? How would it be different from a normal speaker? I asked a similar question two months ago before I bought the M3's but I think the message board doesn't archive back that far.

Given that the piano will be used about half of the time that I use the speakers, it probably makes sense for me to change to gear meant for musical instrument reproduction rather than always be worrying about blowing out my speakers, not to mention the ringing I currently hear. Should I change the amp, speakers, or both?

Also, if amps/speakers made for musical instrument reproduction are different, I wonder how they would now sound with recorded music.

I appreciate any of your insights.

Use the search function on piano:

You posted on 01/18/2002, and Ian answered (sort of...) on 01/20/2002.

I recently replaced one of the tweeters on my Axiom M3Ti's that was producing a buzzing sound with my CD player and piano with a new one and the buzzing at the high frequencies went away, but now it happens with the low frequencies, and even at very low volumes (slightly louder that the level of music one would hear in an elevator)

I swapped the left and right speakers' connections at the amplifier to check it if it was the amp or the speaker but the buzzing stayed with the speaker (tweeter). The other speaker sounds fine even at moderate volume levels.

I'll try to swap the tweeters themselves to see if it really is the tweeter, or something else in the speaker causing it.

To any of the resident experts, what is it that causes a tweeter to buzz? I heard from someone that sometimes it's a wire touching a voice coil or something and I was hoping you could give your take on it.

To determine physical what the damage is would be difficult without indepth examination. Tweeters are designed to produce high frequency sounds that are typically lower in sheer power (ie wattage). They can not handle large burst of high power without sustaining some damage. I have seen utter physical destruction and literally near combustion of tweeters! Not something to aspire to in your home system!

In your testing, you have determined the individual speaker is at fault. You should contact Axiom service to determine the next steps. I would not recommend surgery without their consent.

Lets get back to the subject at hand. You are trying to push a musical instrument through a pair of speakers that were not intended for that use. I workout on a set of ROLAND V DRUMS and use the recommended amplifier, KC 100, KC 300, KC 500 are recommened. I use two KC 500 units. It just doesn't get any better than that.
This series is manufactured by ROLAND for use with KEYBOARDS as well as PERCUSSION SAMPLING UNITS. Give them an audition, you might like them

Jim / CAV104

I've actually considered that Roland unit and while I'm sure it would do a better job, I don't currently have the space for it in my room (if I keep the M3's).

The thing that I wonder about is how studios can use these as monitors if I'm having trouble with it just using my digital piano? Also, I did ask months ago before I bought them if they would be able to handle my digital piano and I was led to believe that they would be able to handle them. I don't blame Axiom - my use of their speakers is probably unique in their experience.

Sigh. I'm thinking I'll just try to sell these speakers and get some real active studio monitors (which could double for music which a keyboard amp couldn't do) because it's really frustrating to have to play at such low levels.

The KC 100 will do a better job, it has been designed and engineered for use with digital keyboards and it is compact as well.

Jim / CAV104

The subject at hand was attempting to solve the issue. The original poster tried tweeter replacements and asked valid questions...which were addressed.

He is quite right about having sought the advice of Axiom, and he seemingly has followed it. Unfortunately he may have to purchase equipment more suitable to the cause.

Without changing anything else, I substituted that M3's with another pair of bookshelf speakers and all my problems with ringing or buzzing went away in all frequencies. I'm a happy camper again.

A question to the home experts - what kind of crossover network does the M3Ti have? The new speakers I bought have a 3rd order crossover network and I'm wondering if that's what allowing it to handle my piano better.

Anyone looking for a deal on some used M3Ti's? 8-)