Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Advice on Family room setting

Looking for advise on a ON Wall setting. Family room is 16X12 feet. Room is used for watching sports, movies and various shows, so pretty much everything. Would M2 and M100 be sufficient or should I move up ? Sports viewing 35%, movies 45%, balance various shows.

Looking to play my movies louder, without having to rewind because I couldn’t clearly understand what actors were saying lol. But I also don’t want to bother the rest of family in their rooms .

Regards

M2OWv4, EP125v4 and VP100OW for you. Love my M2OWv4 with EP125 in my 22x12x8 living room!

I also have an 800, 2x600, 4x500, another EP125, M50, M3, M5, M2 bookshelves, VP160, QS10, active LFR1100 with 20,000 giga Watts of amplification. But those M2s...OMG! They are THE BEST!

P.S. I also have audiobytes in burled walnut, an Air Freedom and an Air Force.

The M2 are great speakers. What you haven't said is what is powering them. I have personally gone away from having a center channel. I started by removing it from the downstairs media room, but ended up disconnecting them from the family TV too. I found that the mix sound now from any of the streaming services either are butchering the mix or my hearing just doesn't get the dialog from the center channel anymore.

I would personally put more money into a decent sub than spend it on a center speaker. I would spend the extra to get the EP175 as it will give you a better movie experience. 28-150 +/-3db will give you a smile over what the EP125 can kick out. I just don't think the EP125 gets low enough to give as Mojo would say, your nads any joy.

But this relies on you having a decent enough receiver that offers phantom center and does it well enough to give you a large enough center channel without it sounding overpowering. It sure will help out an awful lot with the dialog.

Thank you gents, M2 with VP100 will be choice . I will also consider the EP175, is it that better then the EP125 for that size room of mine? Y the way, I haven’t set on a AV receiver yet either, do you have a cheap recommendation to power this combo?

You can order this Onkyo from Amazon for $Can429 delivered. The M2 and VP100 are really easy to power so this receiver will do the job. It will also power the sub.

Onkyo TX-SR393 5.2 Channel A/V Receiver https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07T3PRK4L/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_i_B7WJ0X7CZ3ETGG9ZN30E

The 125v4 is all you need for that size room.

With the money you save by not buying a bigger sub and more expensive receiver, consider picking up another pair of M2OW for surrounds.

Check these centers out in Deals. And remember you can save some bucks by clicking on "I can wait" if you decide to not go with deals.

https://www.axiomaudio.com/bst-99

https://www.axiomaudio.com/bst-32

You could also get these surrounds instead of M2:

https://www.axiomaudio.com/bst-47

I recently did a den with a vp100 and M2s as surrounds. Den measured 10x13x9.

Homeowner was on a tight budget so M2s got the nod. They also went with a $500 receiver.

She is happy. He is dissapointed. Even with dual subs.

I would go with M3s and vp100 with a denon x2700H. I have installed this package as well and that homeowner enjoyed a much fuller sound. The M3s and x2700 are a great match.

Here is the room that worked great! No sub in this room either. They didnt want one in this space.

https://www.axiomaudio.com/boards/u.../family-den-and-deck-with-axiom-on-board

After that post I reached out to that room owner and reset crossover to 120hz for all channels. Much better outcome. I would recommend M2s in this configuration.

I’ll have to look where I set mine (M2s/EP500 in family room) … think it was around 80 but might have been higher

It is one of those things that i don't understand the manufacturers of receivers as they allow you to set them up into a configuration that reduces their performance. I was told by Anthem that if you have a sub setup on a receiver that you the lowest you should ever go for the crossover is 120hz or else the receiver will just disregard some of the LFE channel information. WTF?? So if I have in my case a large floor stand speakers that is fully capable of getting down to 50hz, and I set the crossover point to 80hz, that the sound on the LFE track won't be sent to the front two speakers, it will just *POOF* vanish. YEP. good PSA.

I think there is confusion out there (at least in my mind) as the term "LFE" seems to be used two ways ... there is the LFE channel, coming in from the source, which is what I think Anthem was referring to and then there is the x-over from the LRC and surrounds which routes the low-end from each of those to the sub channel (which some including me, perhaps wrongly, often call the LFE) ... when I say LFE I mean the latter ...
Ok ... that said ...


How you blend your subs (cross-over and LFE v.s. LFE+Mains), IMO, is dependent on your speakers, amp, sub(s), and the amount of time you’re willing to spend exprerimenting. The reason 80Hz is often picked as an x-over point is that below that frequency localization of the source becomes difficult (if not impossible). Above that some people might be able to place it at the sub ...


Reasons that you might want to set the LFE x-over higher:
-- 1) The speaker response is down more than 3db at 80Hz
-- 2) You need to off load power from your amp. Most receivers will benefit by not driving a full range speaker. Especially if you play it loud and are driving the center plus all the surrounds. Only so much juice to go around.
-- 3) 1 & 2 are assuming you sub can reach up to and beyond what ever x-over point your going for.

Reasons that you might want to set it lower:
-- 1) your speakers can go lower (the designer spent a lot of time getting that range to play well ... you should use it)
— 2) your amp is a beast
-- 3) or perhaps your sub is sub-par (so to speak) just for train rumble, crashes, and explosions.

Reasons for going LFE vs. LFE+Mains:
Going LFE your receiver will handle the x-over smoothly you just need to get the levels set right. Going LFE+Mains might be good if your trying to smooth out the bass at the low-end. Think the sub level should be set as high as you can get it without knowing it’s there (i.e. sounds the same turned on/off)

Anyway … just my thoughts …