Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions New VP150 - distortion / buzz from one driver...?

Hey fellow Axiom owners.

I just joined your ranks a few days ago when my HT setup arrived. I have: VP150, 2x M60v2s, and 2x QS8s.

The equipment all arrived in good shape, no box damage. However, I took out the VP150 and noticed a small dent in the cone of the rightmost woofer. I e-mailed Axiom about this after I found it and they are sending out a replacement woofer to fix the cosmetic damage.

I hadn't yet hooked up the VP150 and heard it. I did this last night. The LEFTMOST woofer cone is distorting or making a buzzing noise during video game dialogue and presumably on other material as well. It sounds like the cone isn't fully connected to the surround or something is vibrating against it at certain frequencies. I pulled that driver out last night and didn't see anything that looked "broken" but I'm also not 100% sure what to look for. My receiver is brand new, a D*e*n*o*n AVR-789. I haven't run any calibration yet, this is currently at bone stock settings. The only oddity at the time is that I haven't yet hooked up the rears, and I told the receiver as much. It was only using the front three. I had the M60s set to "large" with an 80hz crossover and the VP150 was set as "small" (so it shouldn't have been getting much bass).

Is this at all common for VP150s? I'm going to contact Axiom again on Monday, but in the meantime I think I will swap the buzzy driver with the dented one (Left/right swap) and see if the noise moves with the driver as I suspect it will...

No, that's not common. I like your plan for analysis.

It could be that the wire that attaches the driver to the crossover is coming in contact with the cone.

I'm quite sure that Axiom will make it right for you.

The wire is relatively stiff and didn't seem to be anywhere near the cone. I'm going to go screw with it more and see what happens. I actually didn't test it after pulling out and reinstalling the driver last night (it was 4 AM) so maybe it was the wire...

Axiom is open today, so you can call them if you didn't want to wait until tomorrow.

Best of luck

I'd also check that all of the screws are tight. Make sure the little rubber pads on the bottom are all in place. Try it with the grill off to eliminate that possibility. Is there something close to the speaker that might be rattling? It's most likely the driver itself or something touching it, but you might as well narrow it down.

Screws were plenty tight and the foam pads were fine too. It's definitely STATIC in the speaker itself.

I just finished swapping the static speaker with the one with the small dent (which sounds fine). The static moved with the speaker, which rules out the wiring inside the cabinet. Seems like it's just a bad driver.

Fortunately, I already have one replacement in transit (for the dented cone) and I will use that to replace the driver that is distorting, and I'm going to ask Axiom for a second one to replace the OK-sounding but still dented cone. Thanks for the tip that they are open today Cam, I didn't check the hours/days and assumed they'd be closed Sunday.

Good news! Sorry to hear about the driver troubles, though. I'm sure Axiom will take care of it. Hopefully you'll get the replacement before Christmas.

They might have a phone line open, but the driver still won't be shipped till Monday, but I beleive they usually ship something like this as next day service so I would bet Tuesday or Wednesday deleivery, just in time.