Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners HP Drivers vs Regular

I've attached the M5HPOW specs below. One thing I find strange is they're spec'd to be 8 Ohms. I don't know how that's possible given the use of the HP driver.

Note they are spec'd to 55Hz and below. I suppose though that's with some chunk of wall behind them.

It may be good to but them up against a wall and see how they play. If you can't get bass out of them in that configuration, then we know something else is wrong. Maybe not enough current from your amp. After all, 94% of musical power content is bass.

Mojo, I've just starting messing around with my parametric EQ, which on my receiver allows me to independently control the EQ on each speaker. I went to extremes to hear the difference and i'm now optimistic. In pure mode or/flat the on walls don't sound like they are supposed to but after playing around with the EQ i can start to hear a big improvement. Do you have recommend settings or is that pretty dependent on the reflection/room.

here is a pic of what i'm working with:

I think it's more dependent on what you enjoy.

Your ears have gotten used to the M50 sound. The M50 and M3 sound is very different from all other Axioms due to the lack of a dedicated mid-woofer. You *may* be hearing "good" sound but not really know it.

What do you think you have too little or too much of?

That could be, but I've had several friends over to listen and they agree something wasn't right. I've tweaked them with the EQ to sound much better but nothing below 80hz. They are set to large and I have a 6db gain below 80hz.

I'm learning as I go with the EQ, making it sound better little by little. The speakers are listenable now, before they were uncomfortable to play. One of my buddies said it sounded like the mids were trying to play all the highs, the imaging and highs are significantly better now. Night and day difference.

Can you see your 6" woofers moving when listening to your QS10s?

I can definitely see all my woofers, on every Axiom, moving when I listen loud or there's a dynamic scene. Also the mid-woofers.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-NnWo61RUvVFabKlDj0z_gd7jyYuQFpt/view?usp=drivesdk

Something is wrong! Either your speakers are busted or the yammy's output voltage is collapsing.

I got an idea. Try just a single channel.

lol, not going to lie, that video was kind of sexy! Can you PLEASE send a video like that of your QS10?

I've been playing with EQ enough tonight to where I have an awesome sound stage. My old Axioms have never played so well. I really don't think it's a power issue. I've lowered the DB on all the other speakers and adjusted the EQ to direct more to the lower frequencies, still no decent woofer movement.

I'll try to get a video together later today.

Decent driver movement only comes with a lot of power. You need 100 Watts to see any movement. Each of those HP drivers can take 260 or so continuous Watts and over 1000 Watts peak.

Have you read the M5HPOW review on the product page? The reviewer says he's amazed with their bass.

You may be lacking mid-bass. If you have an EQ setting around 70 Hz, boost at that frequency and set the Q to 2.3. That will give you a nice slam between 55 Hz and 85 Hz. If you do that, don't boost above or below 70 Hz because that will negate the mid-bass boost.

If you're happier with that, you may also want to try boosting the 600 with EQ and the rear switch. Experiment with the speakers crossed to the 600 and also playing wide open.

In order to shrink my HT footprint I recently replaced a full size VP 180 with the same model in an "on-wall" version previously commenting how close a match it was to the original so I decided to carry it one step further ordering a pair of "on-wall" M5s to replace my 10 yr old V2 M80 floor standers. In addition to being the only speaker, regardless of size, in the on-wall line-up to have the HP woofer as standard equipment and, I gather to accomodate the bigger magnet, the M5 being three-quarters of an inch deeper(4 and three quarter inches). compared to 4 inches deep, none of the others can even offer the HP speaker as an option.

I was just curious as to this design/model choice and IF it is a case of the HP version requiring the "box" to best function, without giving away any trade secrets, perhaps Ian can chime in and why the decision on only the M5 and why does it work in the "on-wall" version where there is obviously virtually no air movement whatsoever?

Casey01, Axiom always wanted to build a bookshelf 3-way that could rival a floor-stander. That however required a woofer that could provide more linear bass than the standard woofer. Otherwise, Axiom would have to use two standard woofers to get the same linearity as the HP driver and that wouldn't go over very well for a bookshelf. When the HP driver came along, so did the bookshelf. By that time, Axiom also had an improved mid-woofer, tweeter and cross-over (more refined Family of Curves) so it all came together very nicely into the M5HP.

The M5OW is ported so there is some air movement. The HP driver is the only way Axiom could have offered a 3-way OW that rivals the M5 bookshelf.

Axiom doesn't offer the HP driver for other on-walls likely because it considers that market is well-served by the linearity of the regular woofer - particularly given the twin use of that woofer.

Thx for that, very interesting and once I take delivery and integrate the M5s into the front LCR soundstage along with a recently purchased on-wall VP180, I will be looking forward to how it all fits together. In any case, I will have saved a significant amount of floor space under my monitor. Just wondering though, in looking at both the front and rear picture of the M5OW on the website, I see no evidence of any porting. unless, of course, the port is on the bottom which you can't see in the pictures.