Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners M60s - No Bass

I have bought a pair of M60s and I am little shocked at the lack of bass when playing in stereo mode (I have a Denon 2803 AVR). Has anyone else experienced this? Any ideas on what could be wrong? Am I correct in expecting these speakers to perform as well as B&W 601 series 3s, Totem Sttaf, or Energy Connoisseurs in the base department?

Thanks in advance.

SA, welcome. There's several possibilities, but let's start off by making sure that the connecting straps on the M60 terminals are tight so that the woofers are actually operating. The M60s have excellent bass, but aren't at all boomy.

Hello Sandrade,

Make sure your M60s' speaker cables are wired "in phase," so that the bass isn't being canceled. This is also called maintaining "polarity" in your speaker connections to the receiver or amplifier. The red (positive) binding post on each speaker connects to the red (+) connector on the receiver/amplifier; the black (-) post connects to the black connector on the receiver's speaker output jacks.

Your speaker cable should have a mark or logo on one of the two conductors (or a ribbed texture to the plastic insulation) to help you keep the red-to-red and black-to-black polarity consistent for each speaker. If you reverse the connections to the M60s on one channel, putting the woofers out of phase, then one set of woofers on one speaker will be moving out (compressing air), while the other set is moving in (causing a rarefaction of the air molecules). The result? The speakers are out of phase, so no bass. . .

Regards,

Another thing: since you have an A/V receiver, make certain you have the M60s set to "Large" in the setup menu if are listening in stereo without a subwoofer. If you have them set to "Small" and run them in stereo without the subwoofer, the M60s bass output will be reduced significantly. With proper setup, the M60s have excellent bass.

Regards,

Hiya SA. Also - experiment with placement. For sure be 12"-24" from the back wall. Toe in a little at a time too. With Alan's suggestions and a little positioning, you will find a happy place .

Thanks for the advice. My speakers are set to large and I *think* I have the speakers wired correctly, but you never know. I am moving my speakers to another wall in my room tonight and I will incorporate the advice given. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Thanks to all for the advice. Looks like I may have had them wired out of phase. They sound great, all is well.

Sandrade - so it doesn't happen again, the usual manner of hooking up polarity is - the black/-/neg goes to the wire with the stripe, imprint or ribbing (or the silver wire in copper/silver pairs).

Bren R.

Unless the stripe is red!

I have wired my speakers out of phase before just for the fun of it and i didnt really notice any differences that stood out much... I would find it hard to believe that you would hear night and day differences with them in or out of phase... unless you had them out of phase, relative to eachother then you will hear mucho big difference.

Infact my preamp inverts phase 180 degrees so i have my speakers wired up red to black on my amp... so that they are "in phase"

Not to mention most recordings are also out of phase...

You've misunderstood "out of phase"... flipping all the speakers 180 degrees doesn't make much difference, however if you flip say only the left main, it's pulling while the right pushes, which cancel each other out.

Bren R.

Destructive interference. Very bad for the bass.

I am quite sure that is what I had done. Thanks for the advice on wiring but I do know how to ensure they are wired correctly. I think the problem was trying to quickly get it all set up to hear what I had purachsed. I bought 5 Axioms, an SVS subwoofer and a denon 2803 all in one week after researching for about 4 months! Next up is the 60" LCD rear projection. I'm debating between Sony and Hitachi, any thoughts?

try the Sotachi?? its a cross breed..

bigjohn

Costco has a 64" Pioneer widescreen for $1999 - a lot of TV for 2 Gs.

In reply to:

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Thanks for the advice on wiring but I do know how to ensure they are wired correctly.

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No, no.. that message was for Haoleb.

One of the rare times when the [re:] line is actually pointing to the post it references.

Bren R.

I have the Hitachi 60" LCD. I think it is really nice. Need to sit back from it some or you get the "screen door" effect. DVD's look great on it. DLP looked alittle better, but was more expensive and I have a problem with little color wheels spinning. Seems like a problem waiting to happen.

If you have a problem with the little spinning wheels, you will definitely not like bigjohn's hat with the multiple propellers.

wow, my hat only has one propeller...need to upgrade