Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Best bookshelf to build into a surround setup?

I have a (15(?) year-old pair of American Acoustics bookshelf speakers being used as stereo speakers in a second room off my Sony STR-DA4ES receiver. This is a larger room, 15x27 with a peaked ceiling that starts at about 8.5 feet and runs to about 12 feet high. The speakers are on the long wall. On the left is an 8' by 7' opening to the living room and the back "wall" has a similar opening into the dining room.

The AA's are sounding pretty muddy. I'm thinking of these possible replacements:

--Axiom M3ti

--Aperion 522D-LR

--Athena AS-B2

--Polk Rti6 or Rti4

--Infinity Beta 20

Looking for better definition, solid bass.

Eventually, I may build a surround system around these new bookshelf speakers. I would stay with whatever brand for timbre matching. This would replace a Definitive Pro Cinema 60 surround set in a 20x12x8 living room. (Or wouldn't those candidates improve sound over the Definitives???)

That's a big room for bookshelves. Any reason you wouldn't start off w/ M22's? My room is 18' x 27' and that's what I use, along with VP150 and 2 QS8's for the rear.

The only problem I could see, and it's only because I had just gone thru it myself during the last few months, is to comment that the M3s may just be a tad too small for the size of your room.

I had already been using M3s for a few years before we moved into this new house, and they worked beautifully in a somewhat smaller room in the older home. They tried admirably in this room, but on loud passages in action movies they came across as somewhat stresed.

While M3s are great sounding speakers, in that sized room they could end up as a disapointment as main speakers in an HT system.

(I went with M50s cause they sound so darn close to those M3s. I just couldn't bear to part with them!!!)

I would have to second M50s, particularly if you're looking for a stereo setup for now. M3-sized speakers (from Axiom or anyone else) are going to be fine for quiet background music but they're going to strain if you're doing serious listening.

Hold on... I just noticed you have the speakers on the long wall so your distance from speakers to listener may only be 8 or 9 feet depending on furniture layout and how far the speakers are out from the wall. That might work OK with bookshelves...

F107, what was your layout like in the new room ? Were you further away from the speakers or was there just more wide open space around you ?

Yeah, about 9 feet away at most in the large room. *IF* I later go with using M3 for home theater it would actually be in a slightly smaller room -- 20x15 (notice I gave a wrong dimension at first). Again with the speakers on the long wall.

Still wonder if my Definitive Pro Cinema 60 group is worth replacing with a bookshelf-based HT Axiom setup ... or any of the other brands ...

My situation,as it exists, may be inferior. My speakers are also along the long wall, but are stuffed toward the corner of the room, with a fireplace hard against the left side.(for added reflections, thank you) My seating location is is about eleven feet from the speakers. About eight feet back in the old room. Even had great imaging in the old room-not so good in this one, not even for the M50s. Both rooms had a fair amount of space to the right side, this room has a few feet more. In both cases the speakers are/were about eight feet apart.

In this environment, my poor M3s were unhappy puppies indeed. The M50s on the other hand really like to sing here, even louder than I care to listen!

Now if I can just find that "Moose Head For the Fireplace" acoustic enhancer...

>>My seating location is is about eleven feet from the speakers. About eight feet back in the old room.

Make sense then. You would need about twice the sound energy to play at the same volume you get in the smaller room (121 / 64). Remarkably, an M50 with two woofers generates about twice the sound of an M3

>>Now if I can just find that "Moose Head For the Fireplace" acoustic enhancer...

Don't forget to put a toque on the moose head. You need all the absorbtion you can get.

I'm amazed that with all these new "cultured stone" products on the market nobody makes a manufactured stone with good acoustic properties.

At one time I had considered refacing the fireplace with oil shale, that could eliminate the problem-but, maybe my speakers too!

A carefully applied foam spray could help, but four Grandchildren picking away when I'm not watching...

Yup, that leaves the Moose Tongue!!

That's funny. I actually do have a fireplace between the two (currently American Acoustics) B-room speakers. Above it is the big antelope from my son's first season.

But I suppose there's a bit less sound absorption because of size -- antelope vs. moose.....

Hmmm-mm-mmm ...

Depends on whether or not you have a Monster (tm) antelope