Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Requesting feedback on HT upgrade from Axiom Owner

Hello,

I am looking to upgrade my speakers in my home theater. I am looking for recommendations on placement of the speakers on wall and also few concerns with design of some on wall speakers.

I use the home theater for mostly watching movies and shows and on few occasions watch some video songs on YouTube.

Current Room and Equipment:
5.1/7.1 Setup
Room 16x21 size media room with acoustic transparent DIY projection screen.
Left and Right: (Polk Monitor 70 II)
Center channel speakers (Polk monitor CS2)
Side: Polk Monitor 40 II as surround.
Back: Some old Polk speakers
Subwoofer: New REL HT1508 Predator subwoofer (15inch).
AVR: Harmon Kardon AVR 635 with precuts (75 watts all 7 channel driven)
Apple TV HD
Screen size: 144 inches wide and 69 inches height
Sony HD Blueray player
Projector : Optomo HD25LV (1080p projector)
Only one row of seats
Budget: Price preferably want to keep it below 1100.

I am happy with the subwoofer and I don't intend to replace or upgrade it. I only looking at upgrading the front three speakers and using the current tower speakers on the side and move the Monitor 40 to the rear. I already have prewiring for 4 or 6 inceiling speakers to add Atmos or front top left and right speakers with voice of god speakers. I was considering upgrading to atmos when I upgrade the receiver.

I read that using the center speaker behind the screen would make huge difference to the audio experience for movies. I am considering on wall speakers so that I could place them behind the screen without any changes to the wall. The stud behind the screen might not in the ideal location to place the LCR speakers so I thought on wall would work best as it would allow me to flexibility on placing the speakers. I also thought on wall would sound better than in wall speakers.... I am basing it purely on recommendations online. If anyone has first hand experience with differences between on wall and in wall .. please share it.

I am looking at three options. I would like to get feedback from existing Axiom speakers users who are using on wall or regular speakers.

1) Use Regular M5HP On wall speakers
2) M5HP for Left and Right with VP160 on wall
3) Three Axiom VP180 on wall speakers as LCR mounted behind the screen
4) Three Axiom M60 on wall speakers
5) Two Axiom M60 on wall speakers and one VP160 center on wall speakers

M5HP vs M60/VP180

I have large subwoofer and I would be crossing the speakers at 80hz so will I notice any difference between the M5HP and other speakers M60, VP160 and VP180.
There are also other challenges with these large speakers...especially M60 on wall....placing them completely behind the project screen will be challenging...

Concern on VP180 :

If the budget was the issue..I would consider the first option or even smaller speakers. I prefer to have best sound for home theater..price is not an issue but I have some concerns with VP180 design.
I have read post online from reviewers and people on other forums that design of the VP180 with two tweeters is unorthodox. I understand some of these comments could be made by speakers who never heard or used Axiom speakers. That is reason why I wanted to get feedback from owners that owned VP180 or upgraded to VP180 from other axiom speakers. Do you hear comb filtering issues with the speaker ? How is the performance of the center speaker inline and offline from the speakers ? If there are draw backs to the design of VP180... I would stick to the M5HP on wall or M60 on wall.

Placement of M60 behind the screen:

My current screen is 28 inches from the floor but I am planning to move lower..probably looking to place is 16 inches from the floor. With this configuration, is it possible to have all three M60 behind the screen without blocking one of the woofer with the projection screen frame. Projection screen frame appx 4 inch wide.

Placement of M5HP :

When I sit in the sofa, the ear height is around 34-38 inches. Also what should be ideal height of the on wall speaker tweeter ?

Best time to purchase Axiom Speakers
Axiom had Black Friday sale. Do they have any similar sales in middle of the year ? I believe during the black friend it was around 25% discount.

Another final question:

Is it better to upgrade the AVR to 4K with Atmos before upgrading the front three speakers ?

Sorry for the long post.

Thanks
Venkat

Wow Venkat,

Lots of questions.
Your room is almost exactly the same size as the HT I'm building (See HT in-progress). Since it's not finished I can not speak to how everything will sound when the room is completely tuned. Since I'm interested in having both a great 2 channel experience and a great HT experience my main speakers are not behind the screen but on the screen edge (about 2.5 feet from the side wall and something around 3' in front of screen). The center will be behind the screen. Probably a VP180 on-wall if I use masking. If I don't an M80 on-wall.

I've tried out a system in the room (untreated) to get a feel for how I wanted to set it up. For this test the mains were LFR actives, the center a VP180, side and back surrounds M5's and the tops M3 on-walls. Sounded great.

I would not worry about the VP180. It sounded great from every seat and it's a good size for your screen. But I personally think having 3 matched speakers for your L/C/R is the way to go if they are behind the screen. Take your pick of on-walls: M5, M60,M80. The reason to go with a horizontal center is only because most don't have an AT screen and have to put the speaker below it.

Every on-wall I've heard sounded fantastic. The in-walls I'd personally avoid. I've tried a pair and they are a huge compromise. Consider putting a false wall 6+" off the front to hold the screen. You might want to make it of AT fabric so you have the option of placing the speakers and acoustic treatment where ever you choose.

Lastly, I understand that the optimum screen height is with eye height somewhere in the lower third of the screen. My thinking is if your natural seating position angles your head quite a bit it's the lower 1/3 of looking straight ahead.

Axiom sales vary greatly ... sometimes ok and sometimes it's just too good to pass up. My guess is that they will do something for xmas.

Is the budget of 1100 per speaker?

Is that a 170” screen? (Diagonal)

In that size room M5HP on walls minimum for LCR channels.

We are about to do a 150” diag AT screen install. On wall M5s are planned for behind it.

I heard and read a lot about the speaker placement in the VP180 too but I can honestly say that it sounds great at any seating position. I have 4 seated positions currently and I don't notice any off axis difference between the seating positions. Like rrlev I am in the process of building out my HT room but I have everything hooked up and have enjoyed the speakers tremendously. Should be even better in the finished room. IMO the m80 or m60 on walls paired with the 180 would sound good.

Frankly, after I bought the VP180 OW, I considered both the L/R M60 and M80 OW, yet, when I looked at the specs and the fact the M5 OW is the only one of the three that had the HP woofer already built in, I went that route and saved myself a bunch of money. With all that in mind, I really couldn't justify spending the difference just moving to the larger M60 and this is something that might want to be considered.

Casey01,

I was considering only three M5 OW as you can easily place them behind the screen without any portion of the speaker visible below the screen. With M60 and M80, the speaker will be visible below the screen..which I would like to avoid.

Can you share your experience of using M5 OW and VP180 OW. How does it sound to you when playing movies ?

Thanks
Venkat

Hi Rrlev,

Thanks a lot for the response and answering my questions. Sorry for posting such a long post. I noticed other forum members would need some information about the current equipment and room dimensions in order to provide good response.

Just saw your HT progress thread. You have RC channels for the dry walls and nice speaker wirings for every speaker. It looks good and I will be following the thread closely.

Thanks
Venkat

Is the budget of 1100 per speaker?

Budget is per speaker. As you know that I will be need to spend at least 1500 for three M5HP OW speakers.

>Is that a 170” screen? (Diagonal)

The screen dimension is close to 160 inches but when you play movie with 2.4:1 aspect ratio it is around 156 inches and if you watch 16:9 it close to 138 inches. Its it not exactly 16:9 or 2.4:1 screen. If I had gone with 2.4:1, the height should be around 60 inches but I added few additional 9 inches so that I could have a decent screen size even when watching 16:9 content. I like 2.4:1 screen but on those wide screens when you switch to 16:9 shows...you have to zoom out to fit the 16:9 shows.

>In that size room M5HP on walls minimum for LCR channels.

Yes, I plan to use minimum M5HP.

Have any of your done speaker comparison of Axiom speakers with other retail brand speakers like Revel.

I owned Polks years ago. Think for 48hours or so.

I want to say monitor 50s.

Not really a fair comparison with Axiom stuff.