Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Thoughts on M3 in-ceiling transparency

It is interesting how the family-of-curves works. We hear the total radiated sound power no matter our position in the relation to the speaker. This means even if you are directly on axis to a speaker that is inset behind the wall (or ceiling) plane you will still hear the problems this creates. In a double-blind listen test the results are not subtle, it is a resounding win for the speaker that is proud of this plane. So it really comes down to what the aesthetics are worth to you in any given room. Any of our in-walls mounted in the ceiling will outperform our in-ceiling but the grille will stick out a bit more.

Ian, how much can I pay you to build me some M3 in-ceilings that ARE proud-of-plane? Would be amazing if I could swap those in for my current M3 in-ceilings. Sadly, my wife would never tolerate square boxes on the ceiling.

BMan, I went thought the same line of reasoning ...

in the end I'm not sure that you'd gain that much if the in-ceiling were more transparent

I think you'd gain a lot more if you were able to aim the whole speaker ... Although a bit more of a high tech theater look ... I actually think Nick Buol's M3 on-walls are a pretty good look considering how low his ceilings are.

The M3 In-Wall may make sense ... I held this up to my ceiling and they do not look too bad (I'm thinking of doing that in our kitchen). Also, I believe Axiom is looking at ways of extending the grill to cover it's surrounding frame ... no guarantees though.

You may be right. As it is, overhead usage seems to be on the conservative side in most movies (atmosphere, rather than discrete sounds).

I have the newer in-ceiling M3 grilles that cover the full speaker, and quite like them.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ARdv2Fd7Vet2FYRFA

FYI that in my room I got the paintable on-wall M3s and painted them the same darker color of my ceiling so that they don't visually stand out too much. Helps a lot to make them not distracting.

It's been a long time but I think you are the proprietor of Starlight theatre, correct? I seem to recall it is pretty cool.

Correct.

I had a lengthy build thread here with lots of pictures and videos, but my web hosting site gave me large amounts of grief earlier this year about having a large amount of pictures stored there that weren't directly linked to my web page. I was using the "site" as a storage spot for my theater build, other hobbies' photos, and a LOT of movie poster image storage as I do graphics/image work for DIY acoustical panels with custom printed fabric. Anyway, there was just way too much to recover and too many links to update when I told them "good bye." The video links in the thread here should still be good, but I don't think that anything has been updated with the latest tweaks for some time.

I need some more panels. Wish Serenity was still around to trade wine for panels.