Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater I took the plunge...

First, I have been a lurker for a while, but recently made the plunge and elected to start upgrading my tired Cerwin Vega speakers (based upon word of mouth only and the findings from thos board) to Axiom gear. Granted one piece at a time, but its a start.

I just purchased the center channel VS150 to kick of the process.

My room is:

18L X 14W X 10H and has be served for 6 years by an old Cerwin Vega setup (At-8's in front, VS-5 center, PS12 sub, and some stupid Bose cubes left by former owners as surround.

My amp is an old Sony 5.1 amp (st810 with and older Sony DVD player) mated to a brand new Panasonic 58" Plasma TV. My gear is tired when matched with the new TV, so I have been wanting to upgrade.

My first piece in the upgrade process is a VS150 CEnter channel to replace the Cerwin VS-5.

I'm totally a novice, so any help would be appreciated. My room is carpeted, with a lot of stuff on the walls, but the end of the room is open to the kitchen.

My intent to to eventually upgrade to the:

- M60's as fronts.
- GS8x4's as side's
- Onkyo SR805 reciever
- some HD DVD player, whaichever flavor wins.

I'm thinking that the surrond sides are next to replace, aa the Bose cube sides were a gift.....

Tx,J

Oops.. I forgot to add that our listening pleasure is 1/2 movies, and 1/2 Music (Mostly Rock...)

So I guess that is why the AT-8's with a 8" Woofer have lasted so long......

Also, I only intend on going to 5.1 initially.... as that is the extent of the physics ay space will allow. Also, my sub is 150 W and 12" by Cerwin Vega.

Tx,J

I strongly recommend you plan for a subwoofer.

Thanks for the reply.... I have an active 12" Cerwin Vega Sub, but would you recommend an upgrade?

As it is, it seems to be enough for my noob set up but any info or help would be greatly appreciated.......

I'm not sure how the Sub will interact --- long run, with the Axiom gear.

May I also suggest that you feed the Bose cubes to the flames? They create a plethora of lovely, shimmering colors accompanied by mellifluous snaps, crackles and pops as they are consumed. This is certainly endlessly more entertaining than subjecting your cochleas to their cacophony.

Lol ... Mojo.

But I am confused at why so many of my friends think that anything Bose must be UBER. I have yet to hear anything impressive from BOSE, especially their Acoustomass stuff....

And I have a strong contingent of freinds that think that Infinity is the "be all - end all" of speakers. Unfortunately, I have heard both the BOSE, and Infinity scenerios and I was not impressed.

Which is why I lurk these forums hoping to break the mold.....

Noob, welcome. My view is that generally the order of purchases should be mains, surrounds, sub and then center. One reason is that the mains will bring the most improvement, while at least temporarily they can be used to form a "phantom" center without using a separate center speaker.

If you mean that you've just ordered a center speaker rather than just received it, I'd suggest that you change the order to M60s if your budget can handle it. If this is possible you could then use the AT-8s as temporary surrounds, assuming that you can place them without great difficulty, since they're relatively large.

I have no doubt that the CV sub pounds out bass that shakes your walls, head and chest cavity. But does it also tickle your 'nads? Subs should be felt high and low. And they should sound transparent and smooth rather than thump, thump, thump (unless you're listening to trance all the time). If you want to know what transparent and smooth sounds like, listen to a live church organ hit the very lowest of notes (or listen to an Axiom EP600). Also, the rest of the music should not be masked by the bass and the bass should feel like it's part of the music rather than some sound effect. The bass should have texture that varies rather than sounding like a monotonous drone. Sustained notes should be clearly and musically produced. Does the CV sub do all of this? If not, you are missing a large part of the musical experience.

You can learn more about Bose here.

BTW, I was once the proud owner of a pair of 601 series IIs. These were the last decent-sounding speakers that Bose ever made.

John, I also agree with you on your speaker order. If you already have a sub, I would not concentrate on getting that before your mains, surrounds, or center.

I probably would have looked at getting your mains, surrounds, center, and then sub, in that order. Sine you already have the center coming, I would look at either the mains or surrounds next. Also, if money is an issue, you could start with just the left/right surrounds instead of getting all 4 at once.

However, if you order from the factory outlet and get 5 or more items you get a total of 15% off.