Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Defective Woofer on M2i

Does anyone know what I should do or who I should contact about this? I have a sort of defective woofer (makes weird sounds when playing a 255 Hz tone (and also music that has 240-265 Hz in it) at even moderate volumes. I emailed joe@axiomaudio.com a few days ago, but I haven't gotten any word back from him (and his was the email linked on the website.)

I sure hope that Axiom service is as good as its reputation warrants! I guess I'll be able to tell if it is by whether or not I get a response in the next few days.

Pick up the phone and give them a call.

Agreed. There's no better way to be a squeaky wheel.

DJ,
Just to throw this out there, i hope your tone testing hasn't been too taxing on either your speaker or your amp. Test tones can be useful in discerning frequency drop outs and frequency ranges but at even moderate volumes they can stress a driver quite hard.

Read the end paragraphs of this post where i briefly mentioned some testing we did in house. What i never mentioned was that one of the Tannoy Saturn speakers we tested with was brought back to the dealer because of some anomalies in sound the lower driver and upper tweeter (inside the concentric driver) was producing for 2 test tones. On the dealer's system, the test tones did NOT reveal any driver anomalies like those we heard at the same volumes and with the same test tones at home. It came down to 2 things, the receiver we used or the source player (a one year old Toshiba dvdp).
The dealer's system of course had all separate components with a dedicated and extremely beefy amp (200W, big Class AA/B thing). He was positive that it had something to do with the feeble power put out by the receiver but i know it had to be more than just that since some of the tests were done at low volumes. The tweeter anomaly was measured at 60dB (less than 50% volume level) on the home system, in stereo only mode, but as i said, it was not apparent at all even at higher volumes on the dealer's system.
We tried the same 'tests' on my home system. We heard somewhat different anomalies from different drivers (i also have Axiom M60s so that might make sense) but nonetheless concluded that power is a possible issue. Mind you these odd sounds (like the driver was broken somehow) were different for each system and were not evident with music. I certainly had never heard any of those noises before except with raised volumes and the odd very low bass note. The only music that elicited the 'broken driver' noises consistenly was a song from the Point Blank movie soundtrack and it make an odd noise with both the Saturns and the Axioms but only on the home systems and not the dealer system.
I do believe that although power plays a role here, there could also be other factors like some drivers sitting a touch closer to the tight edge of manufacturers specs than others, certain resonance points being hit rattling one driver closer to that spec line, who knows.
Maybe Alan would have some more thoughts here.

The moral of my story especially newbies,
Be wary!
Test tone dics can seriously damage your speakers even at moderate volume levels!!
Stick to the Avia calibration type discs and be happy.

Chess, that was a really good post. Thank you for taking the time to share that with us.

Well I don't think the test tone generator or my hardware was at fault because the woofer which exhibited the problem was the same woofer that came slightly dented and scratched from the Axiom factory. I never bothered to mention anything about that because if it’s purely aesthetics, I don't mind TOO much. Also, when I change the bookshelf to the other amplifier chan, the problem follows the speaker that makes the anomoly. This basically proves that the problem is with the speaker, and not with the reciever.

Thank you for the warning though Chess, but I do have to use the Test Tone / Sweep generator software along wiht my SPL meter to make sure everything is calibrated properly.

I'm sure if you called them you'd have a new speaker at your door in 2 days.

DJ, let the folks at Axiom display their wonderful Customer Service. They live to help you . That far north at this time of year leaves little else to do except solve problems (and make really good speakers).

So now that we've taken care of the speaker, you have GOT to explain what is going on with your avatar animation.

In reply to:

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Also, when I change the bookshelf to the other amplifier chan, the problem follows the speaker that makes the anomoly. This basically proves that the problem is with the speaker, and not with the reciever.

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I did the same thing when my M60s first arrived. I heard a buzzing noise in 2 woofers, different ones, on different speakers. Called Joe of course and he suggested i swap the speakers to eliminate the source/song as the cause. I did and then i swapped the drivers from speaker to speaker, again to be assured the sound was specific to the driver.
However, i did these tests with a well recorded song (Holly Cole Trio- I can see clearly now) at relatively low volumes (around 60dB) so i knew that such a buzzing noise should not be generated due to any issue (like power or distortion) other than the driver itself. As i mentioned though, this other song off the Grosse Point Blank soundtrack (the Pete Townshend E.Cola mix of "let my love open the door") causes odd sounds from 2 of my present woofers at around 70-75dB and up yet i know that my woofers are fine at lower volumes or with other music (at higher volumes).
There is just something about some notes in that recording that either hit a certain resonance or cause draw on the receiver or have/create distortion somehow, etc. that creates the noise in my M60s. The same thing can happen with test tones and although it seems like a driver may be faulty, it really is not.

All that aside, it does sound like your driver is faulty and certainly my previous post was not meant to insinuate you had done anything wrong with your testing but rather to point out some of the general erroneous conclusions that ppl can come to when 'testing' their home systems with seemingly 'sound' (pardon the pun), yet potentially damaging methodology .

well i cant comment on the post here but i did have one experience when i though maybe some of my gear was not working correctly.

i was listening to Sarah Mclaughlan "angel" and at the end of the song when the piano is playing i could hear some distortion, being that this disc is supposed to be well recorded i thought it was my speakers or something.. listen on my grado's and heard it again. Its the CD! what a silly mistake!