Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Axiom setup

Hey folks,
After almost a year of enjoying the HT setup with Axiom setup it was time to post the pictures.
Axiom Setup
Has been happy with the Axioms and the rest of the equipment.

Setup:
M60 x 2
QS8 x 2
VP150
HSU STF2 sub
Panasonic LT500U projector
Marantz 7400 reciever
Panasonic DVD-F87 changer
DIY painted screen

V, welcome. That's a very neat setup and I'm sure that you've really been enjoying the sights and sounds.

V, welcome and nice setup. I see your a DIY guy like me for your HT. One piece of advice, if you can swing it, you might want to paint the back wall behind your screen a flat black. I am even going a step beyond that, I will be painting my adjacent walls and ceiling a darker blue. For the 500u, this will dramatically improve your perceived contrast and eliminate stray light reflections from your projector.

talk to ya later, Randy

60's 150 350 4-qs8's
denon 2805
Sanyo Z2 projector
toshiba dvd
samsung hd receiver

Great looking setup!
I'm envious.

> ...paint the back wall behind your screen a flat black...
The photos are taken with the flash so they err on the bright side. The purple paint is actually quite dark when the lights go off. The white ceiling is the only bright spot, but usually does not bother much. I used the "digital gray" hue from Goo Systems and the contrast seems quite sufficient. The only little window in the room is covered so there is no ambient light at all. The screen paint took some time to settle (there were visible stripes for a month or so but then it dried out and looks very clean now). And for $150 I doubt there would be a better 110" screen.
As for the speakers I had to place the surrounds a bit more to the front that I would like to. The room is not huge and the back row of seats is against the wall. I am thinking of setting another pair of QS8's on the back wall (I have panny HTIB speakers in the back now). I've read that most people set direct radiating speakers in the back but I guess they would be too close and too directional.
The only trouble with the system is that after a year of having it I can't stand the TV anymore (of any size). I still did not get the second dish descrambler in the HT and don't regret at all. Keeps the place just for the music and the movies - no distructions.

>...DIY guy like me...
I actually did very little myself. I'll put it down in case somebody wants to learn from my mistakes .

• The screen. A bucket of Goo Systems paint and a day of work. See another review of their stuff in this blog.
• The bookshelves. IKEA BILLY. All I had to do was to saw the top so that it fits. The ceiling is quite low because of the ducts. Their "black-brown" matches the black speakers nicely. They can be set to CDs or DVDs or anything in between and I can add space at $50 per 180 CDs.
• The equipment cabinet. IKEA LACK. I moved the vertical dividers so that I get the 2 standard rack-width niches on the sides and 2 narrower niches in the middle. Otherwise standard equipment would not fit. Looks now as if it was purpose built for the audio equipment. If I was doing it again I would try to keep the rack in the back on at the side, but the in-wall cables were all going from that front right corner.
• Cables in the walls. I put almost everything in when the walls were still not closed. I missed the power cable for the sub (it goes into the switchable socket in the reciever because auto shut-off in unreliable). I also would be better of sending an HDMI cable instead of S-video that I don't use (I use a DYI component cable). This is probably the biggest mistake as the future HD sources will only be using HDMI. Now it is not easy to fish anything as the wall is used as a screen and I cannot open it.
• Back row. 3 IKEA GALANT tabletops, about 80x160cm each used as a platform on the short kitchen cabinet CAPITA legs. They give just enough raise for the back row seats.
• Chairs. IKEA POÄNG. A decent color match with the walls and that "black-brown" wood and surprizingly comfortable for both kids and adults.
• Frames. IKEA RIBBA.
• Lights. IKEA GRUVA in the back. I had really hard time mounting them on the ceiling and getting the wires fished in the walls, but got it done in the end. Lutron Spacer IR controllable dimmer. Unfortunately the Marantz remote could not learn Lutron IR code.
• Spikes for the fronts - got them at PartsExpress. M60's seem to like to be spiked. Even the thin ones that came with the speakers tightened the bass, but I wanted a bit of chrome to visually separate the speakers from the floor. The spikes use wrong thread size so they only use few threads and I had to cut the screws a bit but in the end they are secure. I would recommend getting Axiom originals here.

The design is intentionally minimalistic. I prefer to keep focus on the sound and the view, not on the fancy furniture. The cables had to be out of view completely and amount of "stuff" kept at bare minimum.

Finally got my last piece of the puzzle. A pair of SQ8's for the back surrounds were shipped same day and arrived the morning after (!). I had to spend half a night getting the wires through the wall and into the ceiling. Yet another one of my mistakes - I had the wires terminated at ankle hight and that is not where you hang the back surrounds . I thought about bookshelves on stands when planning.
I could not yet test the sound in full 7.1 - did not want to wake up the family at 3am with that imperial star destroyer fly by from the back, but even at 1% of the volume it was interesting.
Volume test on the reciever now sounds same from all the 4 surrounds (my old HTIB speakers were hissing considerably higher than QS8's).
I will post my impressions when I am back home for the long weekend.

M60 x 2
QS8 x 4
VP150
HSU STF2
Panasonic LT500U
Marantz 7400
Panasonic DVD-F87

Nice setup ^.^
M60ti sound good?

M60 are great speakers. As for my new 7.1 setup I was not sure if the QS8's in the back will be as good as on the sides but they are just great. The back row is against the wall and they diffuse the sound enough to not be directional even when my ears are less than a meter away.
Interestingly the biggest impact they make is with Circular Surround II mode on my Marantz (their alternative to Logic 7). With QS8's in the back this mode sounds much subtler and is now one of my favorite. It is not for everything but some concerts sound amazing. One CD that I can listen to again and again is Fado Curvo by Portuguese singer Mariza. Though this is a studio CD, 7.1 setup sounds as intimate as if she is singing for you in one of Lsboa's small taverns. You can swear there are guitarrists sitting in front of you and echos from the arched walls in the back. If you like blues and female voices this is highly recommended.