Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Custom finishes

Amie,

A lot of the owners who post here regularly have been pretty good about showing off some of the custom finishes that they've ordered, but it would be nice to get some factory snapshots before they ship. The woodgrain samples on the site are helpful (as are the rollover swaps for the regular finishes), but I bet you'd probably sell more if we could get a better sense of what some of these wood/grill cloth combinations looked like on a finished product.

Any chance of accommodating that kind of request?

Thanks in advance!

Um, you can get real samples mailed to you for a small fee of $10 apiece (which goes towards your speaker purchase). Just give them a call (it's on the custom finish page.)

I know, I know. But it's just not the same.

??? Having the actual sample isn't the same as seeing on a monitor?

Oh, what a world, what a world...

{edit}
Oh, I see what you're saying. Ignore my ignorant braying...

No, no. I realized precisely how ridiculous my post sounded about two seconds after I hit the submit button. A sample you can physically hold in your hand should be more than adequate. But it's the catalogue mentality, I guess. It's helpful for the less imaginative of us to be able to actually see the complete product. Like, oh...say, a pair of M60s in high gloss dark cherry with burnt sienna grills. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.........

...and a matching EP500!

I agree. I'd love to see how all those HG finishes look on finished products in a natural setting.

If Amie doesn't mind outsourcing a job to the U.S., I wouldn't mind creating an interactive Axiom Design Studio webpage, where you could see all the finish and grill color combinations on any speaker model. Amie?

A web page would be so useful. Not for making a final choice, you still need samples for that. But for eliminating the mass of choices.

I thought hard about a custom finish. Hey, I'm a custom finish kind of guy. But with no good visual aid, I couldn't even narrow it down to a few best choices. I didn't want to ask for a hundred samples, so I just dropped it and went with basic black. Even though I had never seen it either, it was still the most known of a set of unknowns.

So that's one data point.

Axiom, you are losing money by not doing this. It's a win-win.

Some suggestions:
I would like to see an introductory view that showed each finish with every possible grill cloth, maybe all of one finish to a page. These help people screen out the great majority of combinations.
A secondary view might be some code that would allow users to side-by-side any two arbitrary finish/grill combos. Lots of play value there. This helps people make more difficult choices.
It is possible to model the finishes on actual speaker geometry. That's the best. It costs though. If you need less, just place a smaller grill image directly inside a larger finish image. Make the area each occupies roughly representative of a "generic" sized speaker. You don't absolutely need the real shape to make a finish decision. Get the relative image scales correct, and work to a 800x600 screen size.

Gentlemen (and ladies),
This idea is not new and was brought up, oh about a year ago. Perhaps a bit less.
Nonetheless, the concept has been discussed in a previous thread long long ago.

Chess, you're too humble. You neglected to mention that it was you who first made the suggestion.

Here's the thread for anyone who may be interested.

So, Amie - did this just die a quiet death or is this still on the table?

Hmm, so it was dmn.
I never actually searched back for the original post and offhand i thought spiff had started it.

In any event, giving the thread a bump was probably a good idea. I think Amie has been sitting on the fence about this for way too long now.

[prod prod]Amie[/prod /prod]

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I'd love to see how all those HG finishes look on finished products in a natural setting.

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Me too. Specifically, I'd love to see what a pair of M60ti's, a VP150, and a pair of QS8's would look like finished in HG Dark Cherry.

Factory pictures just don't do it...

What you'd need is pictures from forum members, and just sort them by finish...

I have charcoal smoke for example, and haven't found anyone else that does

- D

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Factory pictures just don't do it...

What you'd need is pictures from forum members, and just sort them by finish...

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Actually, Daphoid, I'd like to see any or all photos of the HG Dark Cherry finish, as well as all of the other custom finishes, on any Axiom speakers: the more photos to view, the better. I want to see what these custom finishes look like in many different applications.

I'm relatively new to this forum, but I'm pretty sure someone has already proposed the idea for an Axiom Owners' Showcase Web site, where Axiom owners can show off their speakers and gear in photo albums. Organize such a site by veneer finish, as Daphoid proposed: I like this idea a lot.

In the mean time, I'm using the Axiom "HG Dark Cherry" photo swatch as my Windows XP desktop wallpaper in an attempt to make comparisons with my dark cherry entertainment center.

here you go, this is classic oak with burnt sienna grills!!



and a different angle



bigjohn

Sweet setup, bigjohn! Looks like an optimum listening/viewing environment you have there!


Did you have any problems positioning your M60's? (I see you have them toed in just a tad: Looks good.)

So where are your QS8's? Do you have them on your side walls or on stands or mounted otherwise?

There is a member pictures page, but I don't remember the location at the moment.

http://www.axiomaudio.com/wallofame.html

And what do you know, it looks like Amie redid the page. Much better!

Love the oak...not so hot on the grills though. Do you usually leave the grills on or off?

Here's some shots of mine, with Peter's M22s sitting on top. His are Boston Cherry, my M50s are Vermont Maple.

http://homepage.mac.com/schuyler_carlile/AV/PhotoAlbum2.html

Aw shucks, now i'm gonna have to update my pic. That white wall (we had just moved in at the time) and those homemade stands are just embarassing.

Man, I had no idea how deep the M60s were! That's a great setup, and I'm glad to see the Burnt Sienna grills. It looks great in your setup but I don't think it would work nearly as well in mine. Thanks for the pics!

...I've been looking at the Wall of Fame. Everyone's got M60s. I want M60s...

Thanks for the link, pmbuko! The Axiom Wall-o-Fame is a good start.

Now I just need to know which finishes I'm seeing in those pictures (no labels)...

DZ- i really had no positioning probs with the M60's at all.. that is a very large, wide entertainment center(EC), and i really just put the speakers on the ground, sat on the couch, and had my wife slide them in and out from the EC til it sounded good. the toe-in was just to get them pointed at the main listening position, but they sounded just as good straight forward. i was just being picky. they are awesome, i coulndt be happier. my main complaint is that the VP150 is soooo high above the TV screen. i have it angled down to try and get some relief, but it sometimes makes the actors seem like thay are 8ft tall cause their voices are coming down from above. but, hey.. ya gotta deal with what ya got, so there you are!!

craig- i leave the grills on due to wife request. the pics actually made the grills look kinda pinkish, but they arent. they are actually like a light mocha with a hint of orange color.. think of a dark saltillo tile, and thats more of what they look like. i think the flash is playing tricks, cause they arent pink at all!!

bigjohn

Thanks, bigjohn! Good to hear that you've been happy with your M60's!


Here's the reason I asked you about positioning them:



Note: This is a stock photo of my E.C., with the same dark cherry finish, but not actually my E.C. Same kinda deal as yours: Same type of width, same main speaker toe-in to focus on the sweet spot, which will be 13 1/2' in front of the E.C.

I'm encouraged by your results. Thanks!

I have more if you want :\

Now I like this last picture because when I took the ones above, they turned out a little warm, I think the one light I had on in the room is really golden...so this shot is a little more crisp and such....you can see the old school speakers I had next to it





- D

You always know Daphoid has posted in the thread when all the posts are suddenly wider than your window...

Hey Daph, any way you can you shrink your pix down by about 50%? They're HUGE.

I dunno, usually it's 2x6 that causes that for me. But I don't have a dinky little laptop screen like you do.

1400x1050 is dinky?

I'm not answering that on the basis that it makes me wrong.

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You always know Daphoid has posted in the thread when all the posts are suddenly wider than your window

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yes, daphoid usually 'widens' my perspective also.

click-drag.... click-drag.... i see the picture.. click-drag.... i can reply...

bigjohn

Shrink? eck! I guess I could......but they're already 1024x768..... I run 1600x1200 (x2 )...but I guess for you people I could shrink them to 800x600

I also have a tilt wheel on my mouse, so I scroll left and right as well

- D

Display resolution stats from the W3C (stats from July 2004):

Higher: 10%
1024x768: 50%
800x600: 35%
640x480: 1%
Unknown: 4%

Nice link.

Bah I'm not going to let a website tell me what to do, I hate standards.

- D

You sound a lot like Bill Gates.

I run 1280x1024 + 2048x1536 (17" LCD + 21" CRT) heh. Yay for extended desktop.