Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions M80 woofer(s) problem....

I am getting static, distortion, crackling or whatever one wants to call the unwanted noises coming from both woofers from one of my 5.5 year old M80s. My wife and I noticed the static noises coming from the M80 a couple of nights ago while watching a movie and I told her it was probably just bad mixing but tonight I noticed the same noise while listening to David Gilmour's 'Remember That Night' BR DVD, changed DVD's and the noise persisted, switched out the M80 with one of my M60s and the noise disappeared, switch back to the M80 and the noise again persisted so I switched that M80 with the other M80 and the static was back.

Definitely the M80 ... not the source, not the amp, AVR, BR player or my imagination.

My question is (like it really eff'n matters), bad crossovers, bad woofers or just a bad M80? I'm thinking bad M80 because several months ago I had a tweeter in the very same M80 shatter like apparently nobody has ever seen...



Anything else I need to check, anything I need to do, look at or any other suggestions?

I'd go with bad crossover, being perhaps the cause of your tweeter problem.

To eliminate the crossover you could swap out the woofers from the good speaker to the offending one. If it persist then it very well could be the crossover.

Do you guys know where the crossover is in the M80? I really don't care to start swapping drivers out with other speakers.

Any other way to check the crossovers?

If it helps, and I think it might, whenever I was checking everything I did switch the crossover on the AVR from my pre-set 60 x-over setting to 80, the noise wasn't as bad but was still there, switched it back to 60 and it was more evident.

WoW, rick what the heck happened to that tweeter, first time I've seen something like that, I would call Axiom, even though you might be over the warranty, you never know.

Yeah, Rick; I remember the tweeter disaster. Maybe you shouldn't play at 150dB? But more seriously, if you listened from up close and it's definitely coming from both woofers, then it's unlikely that a problem in the wiring in or leading to both drivers occurred simultaneously. If it was one, I'd suspect a loose wire. Since it isn't, then yes, the low frequency section of the crossover is the likely suspect.

Edit: Reading your follow-up comment about changing the crossover to 80Hz, that would just seem to indicate that having the M80 play less bass(and the sub more)made a problem in the M80 more apparent. Try 150Hz to hear what happens.

I've been really trying to be good John but now that the lil' missus is retired and home most of the time it's a difficult task trying to hold the reins on her listening habits, especially during the John Tesh Radio Hour. I'm trying my very best though.

Consensus suspects, and I agree, bad crossover? Next question is, how difficult or easy is it to replace the crossover in an M80?

Randy that happened several months ago and Axiom rectified the problem, the tweeter looked like a fragmentation grenade explosion.

I think the crossover's behind the binding posts, but I'm not certain. I do know that replacing it would involve soldering, so hopefully John's right, and it's just a loose wire. A new crossover is (I think) around $130, if you are forced to go that route.

I'll go try 150Hz and report back in a few John, thanks.

I wonder if a faulty high-pass filter could cause that sort of damage to the tweeter? You have had the M80's for almost 6 years. Crossover components can lose spec or just outright fail over time.

At a 150Hz crossover setting with the two same discs and the same formats the noise is not there, or if it is, I surly can't hear it with my ears.

Okay, that's the result to be expected from my previous edit comment. I was going to suggest by-passing the low-frequency crossover on that M80 entirely by removing the connecting strips on the terminals and connecting to just the top terminals, but if even a 150Hz setting makes the problem inaudible, by-passing it entirely won't really give more information.

So would that mean you are suggesting a bad crossover John and eliminating a bad, loose connection or wire?

Yes.

Okeedoke, I'll give Axiom a shout tomorrow and see if we can get it taken care of.

Thanks John and everybody else for the input, I appreciate it.

The crossovers are located on the back of the binding posts as Ken stated, at least it was for the M22,

I wonder if the crossover comes with the binding post and cover pre-attached. I'll give Axiom a shout sometime today ... Thanks for the picture Jason.

After speaking with JC on the phone and after swapping out drivers between the two 80s and with one of my M60s the issue is a bad driver ... EZPZ.

Whenever I did the swap, only one driver from each speaker was swapped to determine whether or not the issue followed the driver or stayed with the speaker and while doing so I found a tear in the top woofer of the good M80 so I ordered a pair of new drivers.

Here's a photo of the torn driver I found the from the 'good' M80 whenever I was doing the swap, it's a pretty good tear but the driver seems to be working just fine but I'm replacing it anyway.



I should have listened to Rick (Wid) from jumpstreet last night and did a driver swap then.

Some super glue would fix that. I'd fix it and keep it if it sounds fine.

I think I need more power.

That would be my thought LOL.

By looking at your drivers, I think you should be reported to the AADA (Audiophiles Against Drivers Abuse)

Your speakers are giving you a giant sized hint. You need M80 v3s... In a fancy wood finish.

It's the 150dB levels that did that, Rick. Since you'd originally reported that both woofers were affected, it seemed highly unlikely that both developed the defect simultaneously, so the problem was something elsewhere which would affect both.