Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Do I really have room for M60s?? Hoping so!

Ditto. The tunes supplied from M60s on that back wall would be very nice around the pool table , as well as on the short end of the sectional. Your surrounds would also then be symmetrically mounted on the sides.

I would never presume to tell someone how to arrange their furniture, but if you do so, then i agree that the M60s would become more feasible in this room.
"Dammit Jim, I'm a scientist, not an interior decorator."
My opinion in this limited.

Yep, yep, yep...

Rearrange as Tom suggested and the M60's will be pretty good. As you have it in the corner, I highly suggest the M22's.

Well folks, I do certainly appreciate the opinions/suggestions. And no offense taken at room rearrangement comments, Haoleb, Tom, et al. The problem is it won't work. I think if you looked hard at the orig diagram you'd see my point, but I've included another diag. below to illustrate. In this setup I've got a lot fewer good viewing angles/seats, all of which are closer to the screen, and the right speaker is being blocked quite a bit by the couch. (The couch is a joined unit and there's really no way to reposition although I've moved it down a foot in this case.) Plus, the spread b/w the speakers is almost a foot less. If I move the tv more to the left, people are now going to be cranking their necks a bit. Not to mention (although I'm about to aren't I?) that in order to move the couch to open up for the speaker I need to move the pool table - that's a hundred or to to have done right.



I guess it comes down to the fact that the room needs to function well for several diff activities. Compromises need to be made in order to have proper traffic lanes, room to shoot pool, etc. Really, I'm not craving the ultimate HT experience. Good stereo music listening is much more important to me. Although I realize there may be difficulties in getting that optimized, I may just give the M60s a try and see how it goes. I'm very concerned about catching the "whatifitis" bug that I'm very susceptible to.

Is the general consensus that the M22s would be able to satisfy and that the M60s would not add much value to the music listening experience?

Tom, you wrote:

"I had them in a similar space initially, and it was wonderful."

If you hadn't been able to move them to a better locale, would you have preferred to have had M22s in that original spot instead of the M60s?

I have a similar situation to yours, as far as having a couch partially blocking one of the speakers, as you can see from this:



Evident in the photo is my solution. I built some stands that lift the left M60 high enough that all drivers and the port are above the arm of the couch. Doing that puts the tweeter higher than the the recommended height (ear level), and higher than I would like. But, I don't notice any loss of response. I do think that imaging suffers some, but I'm still very pleased with how well this has worked. I'm hoping to move next year, and will be choosing a place that will allow me better placement.

In the real world, compromise is almost always required when it comes to speaker placement, due to room limitations, furniture, or the WAF. Don't agonize too much over it. Just do what you think is best.

My HSU STF-2 is in the corner next to the left M60.

Nicely done Jack, thanks for the thought. Actually our couch arms may be a bit taller, approx 27 inches, but the color is damned near the same - will that help? No, probably not, but it does show you to be a man of good taste I also like your lamps a lot.

No, I'm not gonna get my shorts too tied up worrying; actually, the wife spotted me tweaking the smartdraw diagram for my previous posting and, of course, expressed her firm feelings as to how "we're not rearranging furniture!"

Can't blame her - as I mentioned, I think there's other significant downsides to rearranging.

Haven't gotten any strong opinions to make me think I could avoid "whatifitis" if I did go with the M22s vs M60s.

As an M60 owner, I can tell you for sure that placement can make a huge difference in how they sound. Axioms have been described as "accurate" repeatedly on this forum. Another aspect of accuracy (other than the accurate sound) is that they seem to produce a very focused sound pattern. If you turn one of them a couple of degrees and then stand back about 15 feet, you can really tell how the sound field coming from that speaker has moved. I think this has to do with the fact that the aluminum drivers aren't as susceptible to warping, twisting, or unusual flexing when they move like cones made out of less rigid materials might be. Hence, they always "shoot straight". In order to get a good stereo image, the speakers need to be in the "correct" postion relative to where you sit. This is so that they can get all of the sound waves to hit your ears at the right time from the right direction.

You certainly do not have a lot of room to play around with speaker position in your current room setup. The M22s might be a better choice. They, in combination with a sub will do the job just fine. They will also give you more placement options due to their smaller size.

If you rarely sit in the same listening position, then go for the 60s. They will sound great. Speakers will only "image" correctly for a relatively small area. Once you move out of it, you lose the image. If you are playing pool, or sitting off center in the HT you won't be near where the image is. It wouldn't matter which ones you have.

Bottom line, if you want good sound AND a better chance at proper stereo imaging, get the M22s.

If you just want good sound, either will work.

Yeah, my arms are only 24" (on the couch, NOT my torso)

Don't know if it'll make any difference, but I initially purchased 22s. With the excessive amount of furniture in my room, you can see why. Wasn't satisfied, so I "upgraded" to M60s, and am extremely glad I did, even though I've had to accept less than ideal placement.

It sounds as thought the wife has spoken. Case closed

"Do what you think is best" sounds like pretty good advice! I have to confess to being a bit of a know-it-all a*****e.

So... how about moving the piano down into the corner where you have the HSU planned (in your second schematic)? Then put a large, comfortable leather chair + ottoman in the space previously occupied by the piano. You would then have 3-4 very good viewing positions.

Lovely.