Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Speaker review + questions

Well I finally got everything connected and working (sort of) last night. I ordered the M60, 150 center, EP350 sub and 150 surrounds, all with Warm Cherry finish and white grills. A Denon 3805 powers them; also have the Denon 2910 and a Mit 52725 DLP. I setup all channels using the Avia DVD and a sound meter.

First off, the speaker finish is superb. The wife was very impressed. The only negative comments I have are about the speaker cables that I also ordered and they are not made by Axiom anyway. I do have one suggestion, which would concern the VP150 center. I believe it would be helpful to be able to add the same type of wall mounts that are on the QS8. Two “ T “ brackets would be more than sufficient on the 150 center and at least in my case would make mounting the center above the TV much easier. Just a thought….

I cannot begin to describe the sound quality of these speakers. To say the least I am amazed. I have the 2910 connected to the receiver with both optical and analog (for DVDA/SCAD). We watched iRobot and Master and Commander both where excellent. I think the biggest surprise was the EP350 sub. I was a little worried about the sub, due that everyone suggests either SVS or HSU. I must say that the EP350 is a superb sub, Master and Commander was amazing, the explosions rocked the room were sharp but not over powering. I am very pleased with the speakers and support from Axiom, from the start of my order until delivery (even with a small hiccup on the center). Axiom was courteous, professional and more than happy to help with any questions, even when they don’t concern speakers.

Now my question – I bought Metallica (DVDA) and Diana Krall (SACD), which are the first CD of this type I have bought. When playing either of these the Sub doesn’t respond. (light on the back is red) All the other speakers are working fine, just nothing from the sub. Is there something I need to set in the receiver for the sub to work with this type of CD? To me it sounds like there is not enough bass in the music, unlike when I play regular CD; even though with a regular CD only the front two speakers are playing. (Is this normal too or do I have something set wrong?

I will try to post pictures sometime after Xmas, just a bit busy at the moment. Also, thanks to everyone here who directly or indirectly helped myself (and many others) with questions about Axiom products.

Take care and MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Del D

Right on! Can't wait to see pics! As for SACD, you have to do all of your speaker settings/ bass management in the DVD player menu since you are using your receiver's 6ch input.

Thanks for the reply MiniRock,

I already tried adjusting the settings in the DVD player. I turned on bass enhancement, which according to the book on the 2910 should turn on the sub. Still not getting anything out of the sub though and I have tried just about everything I can think of at the moment.

Everything works fine when playing movies, but that signal is going through the optical line to the AVR. I have the sub turned down a bit; I think the volume is set at about 11:00, maybe a little less. I wouldn’t think that would effect 6 channel play back, but I don’t know that much about it.

Probably something simple I am missing, LOL

Del

As a computer consultant, I just have to ask this question. Are you sure the cable from the sub out on the DVD player plugged into the sub in on the reciever? No offense intended; just have to go for the simplest solution first.

Yea, I checked the cables (twice). Even moved the cables around to make sure they are all working.

Sorry, just had to ask.

I'm guessing it's a receiver setting, but since I don't have that reciever or a universal player, I'm out of ideas.

Del, great to hear how you're enjoying your speakers. As for the bass on DVD-A/SACD, as Luis pointed out you need to set the bass management for those formats on your player rather than your receiver. The player manual will explain this, although possibly in a rather unintellible manner. The reason is that processing for bass management takes place in the digital, not analog, realm and therefore has to be done in the player before its DAC processes the DVD-A/SACD signals to analog.

Well I would say that I have done that already, but since it doesn’t work at the moment I guess that I haven’t done the right thing yet.

The book on the 2910 say to turn on the Bass enhancer, which ON = “Sound is produced from the subwoofer”. BUT in another section of the book it says this about the Bass enhancer “The bass enhancer settings do not apply to the digital outputs”. I was under the impression that they are referring to the digital coaxial or the optical outputs on the back of the DVD player. Is this correct or do I need to turn the sub on in another section of the DVD setup?

Del, I took a look at some of the 2910 manual(ugh)and noted that at p.25 the default setting for speaker size(on the multi-channel analog outputs)is large, so you have to specifically change that to small to get low bass redirected to the sub on those outputs. The bass enhancer setting has nothing to do with this(applies only to the two channel analog output), but at p.35 is described the process for resetting the speaker configuration to small, with sub set yes, of course.

So here's a dumb question... are all DVD-A / SACD disks recorded with LFE content (the .1) or is there a chance that the LFE / .1 has no content and so you won't get sub output without setting another speaker to "small" ? It seems wierd doing bass management in the DVD player, doesn't it...

I'm pretty sure that when I played my token SACD disk (Joni Mitchell) on a Sony NS315 DVD player connected via coax digital *only* I heard 5+ channels of audio. Will have to try that again...

EDIT -- I just saw JohnK's post on the DVD-Audio Connections thread. He mentioned that DVD-A disks also have DD or DTS tracks on them... if that's also true for SACD I guess that's what I was hearing.

My DVD player doesn't even HAVE 5+1 analog out but it claims to play SACD (or maybe it's DVD-A, I forget... whatever it is it only plays one standard but not the other)

Del,

I have 2910 also and have been through the same setup quandries. First you need to set bass enhancer to ON to make the LFE channel active for the discrete analog out for the sub to work. I also found that I needed to engage the +10dB boost to get my sub channel into the correct ballpark for output (then fine tune with the speaker levels screen) if I didn't do this then I did not even get enough sub power to trigger the auto on circuit of my sub.

Hope this helps and I remembered everything correctly as I am not near my system at the moment. Congrats on a great system by the way.

Stuart

>>if I didn't do this then I did not even get enough sub power to trigger the auto on circuit of my sub

Interesting...

JohnK,

Would it be better to set all speakers to small or will only setting one set of them to small be sufficient?

Stuart,

Thank you for the info. I have about an hour to play with the system before we have to leave for the office Xmas party. I will let you know how it works out.

Del, in my view all speakers should be set small, regardless of their size or even bass capability, if the sub is good enough to do an even better job in the lowest bass. Your EP350 can certainly do that and relieve the M60s and the 3805 amps of part of the low bass burden.

John, no, not all DVD-As/SACDs have an LFE channel for high level bass effects. You see many of them with designations such as 4.0 or 5.0, and in that case the sub will have nothing to do if low bass from the speakers isn't directed to it. For example, I did get one 2 SACD set a couple of months ago even though none of my players do SACD, and it's hybrid with CD as well as 2.0 and 5.0 SACD
tracks(incidentally it's a terrific bargain which I first suspected was a
pricing error and has all of the gorgeous music for Swan Lake).

I'm not familiar with the Joni Mitchell disc, but if you're certain that it's SACD, not DVD-A, then there's a bit of a mystery as to where the extra channels came from. SACDs don't have the DD/DTS tracks which a DVD-A has, and besides the SACD track(which has no output on a digital connection)if it's a "hybrid" it'll have a regular two-channel CD track. That would only give sound in multiple speakers if you applied DPLIIx to steer ambience from the two channels to them or used all channel stereo to duplicate the left and right fronts into the left and right surrounds(not likely, since you didn't mention it).

Thanks, JohnK. I think I solved the mystery...

A lot of the reviews of my player (DVP-NS315) say it can play DVD-A, but I now think that is a mistake. The manual clearly says "does NOT play DVD-Audio".

Oh well...

The Joni Mitchell disk is DVD-A, not SACD, as it turns out... but it has THREE modes recorded on it -- DVD-A, Dolby Surround (2.1) and Dolby Digital 5.1. When I look at the receiver status while playing it is definitely Dolby Digital 5.1.

bridgman- if your in the maket for a new player, give the pioneer 578a a look. i just got mine a couple of weeks ago and so far it sounds great and my wife even made the comment that the dvd picture looks better than my old player. plus its only $130, not bad for a univeral player