Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater 7.1.4 basement HT build

Acoustic suspension = sealed? I believe all of the in-walls are the same.

Yes but I have never heard or read a complaint about in-walls sounding "nasal" or "boxy". Unfortunately my VP150v2, which is also sealed, did sound nasal so that's why I'm hesitant about the mini-160. If it was me and I was faced with your problem, I'd go ahead with the mini because I'd know if I thought it was bad, Axiom would make it right by allowing me to go with another option. It is a pain to have to go through that though.

Ah gotcha. Maybe I just go with the full 160 and find a way to make it work. Could always build a custom media cabinet or something.

Maybe consider making a single M5HP work instead of a 160.

Good call! Has anyone done that before? M5HP bookshelf dimensions are definitely easier to work with. I wouldn't be losing too much sound vs a full blown 160?

The problem is that AFAIK you would really want the M5HP to be vertical rather than horizontal.

John is right because the tweeter has wide horizontal dispersion but relatively narrow vertical dispersion. I was thinking of mounting it vertically but I should have said so because not everyone is aware of how these things work.

As for how much you'd lose, I can't say because I haven't tried but I will over the next month or so since M5HPs are coming my way. My vote would be on not losing anything in your use case because you won't be pumping 400W into it.

Ah, was not aware of the dispersion factor, thanks. Couldn't I just rotate the tweeter 90 degrees? Or even ask Axiom to do that when building the speaker?

No, it doesn't work that way. The drivers all work in unison with the cabinet and the cross-over as a system. You can't just rotate a tweeter and expect goodness. There is a whole Family of Curves, likely thousands for the M5HP, that had to be analyzed and optimized to make it sound like the (apparently) holy thing it is. So if they rotate the tweeter, it's a whole new product and engineering effort to boot! You're not just buying speakers here you know. You're buying a whole lotta science and blood and sweat and tears these folks have gone through to engineer these boxes.

Rotating the tweeter won't do anything as the tweeters are omnidirectionl (sending sound in all directions).

Picture a "barrier" between each tweeter and woofer. If you put a speaker like the M5 on its side, those barriers will prevent the sound from going full left to right in your room as the tweeter will be "blocked" by sound energy coming from the 5.25" woofer, and the 5.25" woofer is somewhat "trapped" between the tweeter (yes, it would overpower the tweeter, which is another problem) and the 6.5" woofer. Now the 6.5" woofer is like the tweeter. One side completely open and free, and the other side boxed in by the 5.25". Again, these are all left-to-right limitations when the speaker is on its side.

Put that same M5 in a normal vertical position and those "barriers" are no longer left to right stopping the listeners across the room from hearing the same quality speaker, but now they are top to bottom, and no limits left to right. That means that in theory, a person sitting to the left or right (within reason) of the middle listening seat will hear the same about of tweeter, the same amount of 5.25" and the same amount of 6.5" as everyone else. The sound is free to go left and right without (as much) cancellation as if done on its side.

There are ways to combat this like done in the VP180, but there are a number of people that say that it is best to put the tweeter above (or below I suppose) the woofers in a center channel, just like any bookshelf or tower speaker has them. That is why the VP160 has the tweeter above the woofers in its configuration.