Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo resistor on m-80s

has anyone used the resistors offered by axiom on their speakers,what are your oppinions on them,and also,how do i get them?price?....thanks .........ron

I tried them on my m22s. I used them for a couple days but removed them. You have to talk to Joe.

Just curious, what is the purpose of using a resistor and how is it used?

Thanks, Jag

I would like to know too.

I don't have the resistors and have never heard them used, but from what I understand from these forums, they are used to take the edge off of the tweeters. Just rub them around the outer perimeter of the twee...oh, wait.

They limit the high end output to make the speakers seem less bright. They are inserted in between the tweeter and the wire from the woofers/midrange. Some people like them, others don't. Same as everything else...

Ron- I installed a set of resistors after I replaced the tweeters on M-60s. The original tweeters were blown due to my amp blowing up, I assume, anyway. After I had installed the new tweeters, they were incredibly harsh which I attributed to them needing break-in time (I am sure that this is going to open up a whole break-in topic response from others who don't believe in break-in time, which I really don't want to get into). After a few days, they definetly had gotten a bit less harsh than how they originally sounded.

But what lead to my choice to add the resistors to my system was due to two other factors, mostly- my room and my Sony DVD player. My room acoustics aren't the best thanks to wood and brick floors, and a lack of furniture or artwork on the walls. Also, I've come to find out that this new Sony DVD player I recently got (ES model, though I don't know what number it is exactly) was not as mellow sounding on CDs as my previous Harman/Kardon player was.

When I get a chance, I plan on removing the resistors and do a critical listening sesson to see which way I prefer the sound.

Hope this helps.

Kevin

i put mine in my toaster oven.. now my eggos are done in like 15 seconds..

bigjohn

Makes sense. Are the M80's that bright? Or is it perception? I'm picking up mine next week. All of the other Axiom products I own don't come off sounding bright. They seem precise (for the lack of a better term).
Anyway, Thanks

i wouldnt say they are bright,and they definetly dont lack anything in the high end--i was just wondering if taming the highs would make positioning the speakers a little easier,the midrange images awesome on these speakers ,but, the higher freqs seem to be what makes placement tricky..i could be wrong but i think im going to give them a try...is there a price on them?....thanks ....ron

If you search deep enough, you will find an old post by Alan stating that he installed the resistors on his 80's. He found that he was experiencing a slight bit of ear fatigue without them. If I recall correctly, there was no complaint about the "brightness", just the fatigue.

I don't know how these would be wired from your description but it sounds like the resistor is acting like a "fixed" volume control on the tweeters? Is this so, are we talking about reducing the output from the tweeters by doing this...?

If this is the case why not adjust the treble setting on ones reciever, seems to me this would be an equally broad approach. Or not?

Cheers, Jag

Yes Michael, adding a resistor after the crossover and before the tweeter would uniformly reduce the output of the tweeter by a specific amount over the entire tweeter range(e.g. 2,500Hz and up). Speaker crossovers are designed to have the tweeter at a level which is suitable for a "typical" listening room; an extremely live room with much less absorption of the high frequencies conceivably could benefit from the resistor. The treble tone control would also have some effect on this, but that causes an increasing rolloff with frequency up to a certain point, rather than a set reduction over the entire frequency range. Of course, it also can be turned off at will and doesn't permanently modify the speaker.

Thanks for the excellent explanation JohnK,

It all makes sense now!

Cheers, Mike

Solder these in instead:

http://www.bybeetech.com/index.html

Please tell me you're joking. Great line they've got, "It's still classified!" I also love how they essentially say it doesn't do anything.

After you solder in the Bybees, put one of these over each speaker cable close to the speaker:

http://www.zcable.com/z-sleeves.cfm

Then put one of these on your CD player over the disc transport, one on top of your amp/receiver over the transformer and one on top of each speaker:

http://www.gutwire.com/notepad.htm

My favorite part from the first link...

"the Ultra1 is really quite extraordinary in it's ablilty to enable every bit of musical, movie, or video information to be preserved"

read as, "what makes our product so special is that it does nothing at all"

This yields huge benefits: put Vibrapods under all speakers and Vibrapods/Vibracones under your amp and disc spinner.

http://www.vibrapod.com/

i called axiom and spoke to one of the guys there and i was told that the resistors are for changing the impedance and i wouldnt really hear a differance....ron

Hi,

That is incorrect. Do you recall who told you that? I'm heading up to Axiom for meetings and part of my role is to ensure that consistent advice is given out.

Regards,

doh! I almost forgot one: http://www.ayre.com/products/ibe.htm

"The main tool is a five minute glide tone, that when played through your system at a moderately low listening volume, will improve its sound. While we don't have conclusive proof of the mechanism involved, we suspect that it functions by demagnetizing residual fields that build up in your components over time."