Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Harsh sound at reference level

Too bad I screwed up and didn't have him order the right receiver. He's working with a local audio guy that is also recommending parts and this amp was his choice, not mine. I was recommending the Onkyo 807 which is THX II certified. My brother really wanted to be able to adjust the center and sub volume on the fly since he says in other systems he's heard he has trouble hearing the dialog. The NAD has buttons to control the sub and center channel levels on the fly, and it returns to the calibrated setting after power down.

We're kinda bummed about the sub too. It came in and was busted. A QS8 also had a busted driver. Two bad Axiom speakers and I'm starting to look like I don't know what I'm talking about.

I tried to get him to get a replacement. Since his theater is a pretty impressive room and going all Axiom was cool. But, he already had the SVS and got it set up before I got there.

His audio guy that is helping him (I'm 130 miles away) even thinks the SVS is a little sloppy and I thought the EP800 might be a little tighter, but after getting two dead speakers from Axiom I'm afraid he's a little turned off on them right now. It really sucks to have to pack up a EP800 and send it back. They weigh a TON!

I was also hoping to get the SVS PB13 Ultra for a discount...so that might have influenced my opinion on trying to get the Axiom sub fixed

That sucks about the bad EP800 and QS8. Was it shipping damage or what?

The box on the EP800 was mangled a bit. But the speaker was intact with no damage to the enclosure. I don't know about the QS8. When you push the 5" driver it makes a scraping sound. Axiom sent out a replacement driver which is very nice of them.

I didn't get a chance to play with the bad EP800. I thought the buzzing was just a ground loop but his audio guy fiddled with the settings and tried other outlets and it still buzzed. The phenomenon he described sounded like one of the drivers was disconnected and was passively radiating, or one of them was wired opposite. When I looked at it it was beautiful and I wanted one, but it would never fit in my room. And my family room is not acoustically sealed like his theater is.

Amazingly beautiful room.

Hope you didn't fry any speakers by driving that loud distortion through them.

I agree with others about getting external amplification for the front L/C/R.

Incredible pictures of the build. Love all that custom stuff on the walls and the ceiling is ridiculously cool.

Sorry to hear the final pieces aren't coming together as smoothly as one would hope. That said, the room seems like a big enough investment that your brother should take his time (and it looks like a little bit money, unfortunately) to get it right.

Post some more pics of the final set up with speakers, etc. I really want to see it in its completed state.

It looks better in person where the lighting is much darker than in the pictures. You don't notice the texture on the wall as much, and the ceiling glows a dim blue. It's like watching a movie at dusk. It is really cool. The blue glow decreases the overall contrast of the movie a tiny bit, but the effect is cool enough that it is a good trade off.

I don't think it distorted enough to damage anything. It sounded great during every other moment. We turned it down a bit after noticing the distortion, but the center volume was a bit low. I considered using Dynamic Range Compression on the BD player a bit to bring the dialog volume up and the distortion down, but we just lived with it at a bit lower volume.

I was impressed more than I thought I would be. I've never heard a sub hit that hard before. I could feel it in my chest vibrating my insides. My SVS PB12-NSD never hit that hard.

You would be surprised at how inexpensive the room design was. It was a hefty chunk of money, but you can buy a projector for more than the price of the room. We tried to do the whole thing on a relative budget. We saved a lot of money here and there. Axioms are great speakers but relatively inexpensive. The NAD is the only mistake we've made so far, and that can be fixed with a $600 amp. We tried to get away with the budget NAD and it got us. It's still a great receiver. If that's the only problem we have, then we're in good shape.

HA, that's the very room I posted about the other day in the water cooler and whenever I read Peter's comment about it needing M80s that was the first thought that hit my mind also. I noticed the VP150 and didn't think much about power requirements but with a VP180 I'll certainly agree with the masses regarding the need of a more robust amplifier even if you are running the 8 ohm M60s.

Beautiful room, sorry to hear about the bent Axiom speakers.

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