Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Speakers are here, setup and a first impression

I assume this is where a review or first impression would go.

i ended up taking a day off of work to recieve the speakers, brackets, wires and banana clips.

i thought the dhl delivery driver was a little rough with my pride and joy i had been waiting for. he was impressed with the size of some of the boxes and said, it looks like its going to be loud.

i get the boxes inside and downstairs. 9 in all.

unboxed the first of four qs8's. hard to handle with speakers on almost every side. i left that alone and then unpacked the two m80's. these were smaller then the mental picture i had in my head.

unpacked the ep600 and then the vp150. i couldnt wait to hear them so i concentrated on the two m80's and the vp150.

after messing with the cables and banana clips i fired them up. powered and controlled by the two outlaw devices, 990 pre amp and 7700 amp.

only got sound out of one speaker. messed with the setting and then got sound out of the left and center. after about a half hour of checking cables and banana clips it turns out one of the balanced/unbalanced switches on the amp was flipped to unbalanced. flipped it back and the balanced music was flowing.

my first impression of the sound. very nice and clear. much better then the junk i had before. but that wouldn't be hard to do. i thought they looked beautiful. very sharp looking.

one thing that shocked me a bit was the amount of sound coming out of the speakers. it wasnt as loud as i thought it would be. i figured i had 5 more speakers to hook up so i went about doing that.

one thing i came to find out is that banana clips are not with the money or effort. they fit solid into the outlaw amp but not into the speakers. since i got the clips from axiom i thought it would be a tighter fit. also, im not sure if i missed this or if its not on the web site. if you order the brakets for qs8's they will not work with banana clips so dont order them. i have clips i can not use. one of the clips was broke and a lot of them were loose, as in parts not screwed tightly together.

i was impressed with the bulk cable from axiom. packing was good. quality of the factory outlet speakers is amazing. not that i really looked but i have not noticed one thing wrong with them.

after they were all installed i was again impressed with the looks and sound quality. i still thought they were loud but not that loud. maybe that's an issue with the outlaw amp or maybe i need four of the m80's. standing in the middle fo the room with an axiom 7.1 system was enjoyable.

im not sure im grooving on the ep600. i think i just need to get it dialed in. im not sure i understand all the crossover options. right now i have it turned down very low and on flat at 80mhz. the pre amp i think is still set to 100mhz.

the ep600 has so much power it overwhelms the m80's without even trying. like i said though its probably me not dialing it in correctly. i would like to be able to turn the sub up a bit without really noticing it. seemless. yeah. thats it.

anyone else have the 7700? it suits me about 90 percent of the way. it just seems like im itching for that last little bit of power. although i haven't turned it all the way up yet. i get nervous going below 5db.

i rambled and was all over the board but wanted to share and can clarify if someone has questions.

question: do i have to get my house reevaluated because the axiom speakers increase the value of my basement?

h1ckman, glad to hear you like your speakers. Don't fret over the 600 for right now. It's really easy to make a good sub sound bad if not dialed in. You'll have to spend some time with it once you get everything placed. Subs are very frustrating at first because they require a lot of fine tuning, but once you get it set it'll be awesome. Bypass the crossover on the sub and use your receiver to handle that part. Turning the gain up too high will make it sound boomy. Remember, be patient. I know it's tough, though.

Brian, glad to see most of the stuff arrived in good condition. It's been mentioned a few times in posts that banana plugs need more room than the QS brackets allow. Besides, the advantage of banana plugs is when you're frequently connecting and disconnecting; once you have your QS8s set up you won't be doing that, so the regular bare wire connection should be fine. You might contact Axiom about the banana plugs, especially the broken one, to see what they can do.

As to the loudness of the M80s, even receivers with far less maximum power than the 7700 can drive them to unbearably loud levels, depending on what material is being played, of course. You'll eventually get there with the right settings on your 990. Enjoy.

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im not sure im grooving on the ep600. i think i just need to get it dialed in. im not sure i understand all the crossover options. right now i have it turned down very low and on flat at 80mhz. the pre amp i think is still set to 100mhz.

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As stated, the sub should be on Bypass. The receiver should be set at 80-60 your preference. The EP600 should have you like this

It sounds like you went all in on this set up, take full advantage and get an SPL meter and proper set up disk. Believe me, the sound can get even better