Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater The LFR 1100 Actives Have Landed

Check your DSP cross-over dial to make sure the LFRs are receiving a full range signal.

You could always check the woofers with a 9V battery.

Hi Korky,

I would suggest double checking the wiring of everything, it is easy for something to get crossed. Especially check the speaker wire phase to each woofer section; follow the copper colored wire to ensure it goes from the positive on the amp to the positive on the speaker for each woofer section. One woofer section wired out-of-phase will sound thin. If you could e-mail me some pictures that would be great too.

Hi Ian,

I double and triple checked the wiring and all copper colored wire is attached to red on the banana plugs and all banana plugs are red to red and black to black. I’m having a look at the Pioneer SC-1222 to see if something may be configured wrong in the set up. Which leads me to a question for everyone: how does a receiver/processor determine gain levels with amplifiers when first connected? The Pioneer has a proprietary room correction system called Multi-Channel Acoustic Calibration System (MCACC), similar to Audessy with use of a microphone at the listening position and running test signals, but I have not run that yet, should I? I have manually gone in and configured the system to no center channel and no subwoofer, but did not run the MCACC yet.

However, all of this said, the mids and highs are breathtaking, crystal clear! The first tracks I played once everything was set up were off an XRCD compilation called “Best Audiophile Voices,” mostly female vocalists from Jane Monheit to Eva Cassidy to Allison Krause. Stunning! The first thought that came to mind was clarity. As I said, crystal clear without being too bright. And as Craig said, non-fatiguing. I just need to do some tweaking, I think. My prior set up was bookshelves speakers (Ascend Acoustic Sierra-2’s with an entry level Def Tech sub w a 125w amp), and maybe the room misses the sub? I don’t know. I’m no bass fanatic, btw.

I’ll try to send you a couple of pictures of the room via email. Thanks for your interest.

Have you checked the DSP crossover knobs?

In the Pioneer, check that the front speakers are configured to run full range and not crossed over to something like 80Hz.

The receiver does not "know" how to set gain levels to the amps. You adjust gain via the volume knob.

You can run MCACC to set the relative levels and distances between all of your speakers. Depending on the vintage of MCACC, it may also do some "room correction". The actives have been the first speaker I've ever used that did not require correction in any of the rooms I tried them in. It would be interesting to hear what your results are.

I have checked over the DSP knobs, and the crossover knob is at “0”; the boundary compensation knob is at “off” ( the Actives are 14’ from the wall behind them.)

The AVR is configured with the front speakers set to “large” and the sub woofer turned off; this automatically turns off the crossover as well, for obvious reasons.

I also checked all of the wiring, and there’s a lot to check, and all of the connections are wired in phase.

All of that being said, I think this speakers are coming around a bit, or maybe its just my ears. I played the Holly Cole song “I Can See Clearly Now” and the acoustic bass that it starts with was very nice. I also played that Nils Lofgrin live piece that you all were talking about, bass and drum intro, and the bass was very much present, mid level a bit more than the lower end, but still had nice impact. BTW, you may want to check out another song from that live album, “Keith Don’t Go.” That will knock your socks off! The Actives just flat out shine, and I was only using YouTube via AirPlay off my IPad.

So, I think we’ll get there. I may have to play around with the positioning a bit, and remember that the room is large with high ceilings and open to the kitchen on one side.

Cork, they are 14 inches and not feet from the wall behind them, right?

How far apart are they, how far are you from them and what is the volume of your room? Those numbers will help me compare with my room and what I am hearing with regard to bass.

As I've said before, in my 1900 cu. ft. living room, the bass was ridiculously good. Never heard anything like it in a pair of speakers. This is at low, low volumes...-33 on my Pioneer pre-amp. When I moved them into my 4,200 cu. ft. space, I couldn't claim the same level of bass. I tried turning them up LOUD but then the HP drivers were clearly starting to object. This is with a 1500-2 feeding them. Much better than M100s though. Then I put the twin 500s in fed off the DSP which I crossed over at 40Hz and all was awesome.

Also, there is no difference between Audyssey XT32 engaged or not in two-channel with my three EP subs.

Oops, yes, 14 inches. The room is 16’ x 25’ with a 14’ vaulted ceiling. However, it opens up on the right side to the kitchen area, so it’s not a traditional 4 wall room. And the wall on the left side has a huge window, 2/3 of the wall is glass. So there are some acoustic challenges. I also have 2 ADA 1500’s driving them, btw.

I may just have to add a sub or two some day, but don’t tell my wife ;-). But they still sound phenomenal. Try that song “Keith Don’t Go” from the Nils Lofgrin’s live album, and turn it up (I had the volume at about -16 on the AVR). Really special, and I was just taking it off of YouTube.

Yup. Your room is big. That's why you're not salivating at the bass like I was in my living room. But, it's wonderfully linear bass even in a large room. No bloat, no murkiness, no flappy, floppy, fart-like fortissimos.

I've listened to that tune before. I know what you're talking about. And it sounds wonderful on my M2OW too!

I listen to a lot of youtube on the actives through bottom of the barrel sources. Well-recorded tunes sound amazing.

Yes, agreed on the quality of the bass, very musical. In that Lofgrin bass and drums intro, the plucking of the strings is sharp and crisp, no murkiness at all, or “fart-like fortissimos,” as you like to call it. :-)

I really am amazed at how good a couple of the sources on YouTube sound. I searched audiophile music one day, and a couple of sources pooed up, one is called “Audiophile Heaven,” that are really quite good. I’m not sure how they do it over YouTube, but it really seems to work quite well.

I think recording fidelity has multiple defining attributes.

There is fidelity in the form of waveform preservation/frequency response. This has to do with the quality of the recording gear. This includes low noise, frequency response, dynamic range.

Then there is fidelity in the form of spatial response. How well can you record the acoustics of the venue in order to preserve imaging and soundstage?

Some current recordings feature excellent frequency response but the spatial response is total shite. Some recordings from the 60s have shite frequency response but the spatial response is outstanding.

If I had to choose just one, I would take spatial response over frequency response any day. Of course I want both.