Axiom Home Page Forums Thread Like Summary - Deep Dive M5

This thread will be all about my purchase, setup and tweaking to the enth of some new M5hps in Rosewood with high gloss finish. These replaced some small bookshelves in my 2ch listening room setup that lacked the grunt to stir up the grin factory once I spun the room to fire with the long axis in the speaker setup thread.

I havent owned the M5s long enough to comment on their strengths and weaknesses yet properly, but I can say I like them and they are here to stay. They arrived sturdily boxed and in great shape. No issues with shipping in my area. Live in PEI? The FedEx depot here seems civil here. Good stuff. Order up!

Initial impressions- The finish is pretty good. Not stellar. The driver cnc routing is 1/32 larger than the woofer, I can see bare MDF barely up close. Mid and tweeter are snug. There is masking tape to be seen looking into the port on the rear of the front baffle. The lacquer finish orange peeled when curing. Of course, you can’t see any of these issues from the listening chair (and they dont affect sound quality) but out of the bag on the kitchen table I thought hmmmm.....

Upon initial setup I was less than impressed with them atop their shipping boxes. Too high! Duh. Definite bass exageration and treble shading. Typical for a vertical TMW config. All good. Using these as raised surrounds is a good idea if you want full range punchiness. With the woofer at eye level the tactile presence was undeniable!

I dropped them down onto a couple of bulk wire boxes from installs of approx 14 inches. A little too low but the balance swung to favour more treble. Aha! Height tweaking possibility to flavour balance later...

I grabbed some cinder blocks from the yard at work and unlocked the Axiom black bag hack. Listening happily now at 16” AFF for now. Going to build some stands later.

They sounded pretty grainy for the first few hours. Not sure if it was my imagination. I mess with different speakers all the time with installs. Dont think so. Not atypical either.... Out of the box speakers are like ball gloves. They work, but not quite double play material yet. Pretty normal I think (based on the setup of about a dozen systems from JBL, Tannoy, Mordaunt Short, ELAC, DefTech, Proficient, PSB, KEF, Yamaha, Yorkville, Leema, RSL, Polk, and some big Ole DIY towers and now Axiom.)

Anyhow, more to follow once I start dialing them in.

I always place speakers a little narrower than equilateral and toe in fairly direct to the ear when near walls.

Typically speakers will fool you into dissapearing when the direct sound and indirect sound are more balanced in frequency and amplitude. Too much direct sound equals narrow soundstage and hard center with hard left and right images. Too much indirect sound removes weight from central image and can make images kind of diffuse instead of solid. Really a balancing act. Hence lfr1100s or game of inches with front radiating speakers. Also why dipoles are so fussy about setup. No sidewall energy. Lfrs have balanced sound and reflections -with a switch to increase rear output and treble when further from front wall... Oversimplifying of course.

My speakers are placed closer to walls so I toe in harder. I need less treble intentionally sent to the wall when closer. Bass largely goes through it. If you have to cheat your speakers really wide for them to dissapear you are giving a little weight away from the center image is all. Could show your lateral reflections are weaker -as in a width room setup. You also mentioned your room can sound bass heavy. Chances are lowering your speakers a little enhances the sweetness of voices by shading the bass a little bit. Also, firing across the short axis raises the resonant frequency vs long axis, so bloom is usually a struggle with fuller range speakers in rooms less than 14’ across. This puts the fundamental at 40 hz and gets higher as the room shrinks.

Hope this makes sense and I dont sound like either a kook or wizard. Really neither. Lol.

Pretty amazing, eh? That's something I don't think Axiom even knows about let alone understand. I've tried to do that with non-Axioms. No can do! Let me know if you ever find one that can do it.

Yep. Pretty cool. My old speakers did it too. They were great, just not stout enough. Poor things.

Here is a great track for front to back layering. Pretty fun in here.

Pigbag- Papas got a brand new Pigbag
https://open.spotify.com/track/3y5QiODYY0CDODY1EFwHyD?si=EqgjaYnfTbSi4SdU6I8tLA

Belden 18/4
https://edesk.belden.com/products/techdata/english/pdf/5322UL.pdf

Belden 10/2
https://catalog.belden.com/techdata/EN/5T00UP_techdata.pdf

Provo 16/4
http://www.provowire.com/images/specs/Provo_Wire_Spec_PartNo_9164.pdf

I couldnt find the 7164 but seems they are pretty much the same.

Got message. Cut and boxed. Ship tomorrow. Sending pair of all 3.

Gotcha and well put. The cables were ran the exact same path for each iteration. Not a cabling routing issue I can say with certainty.

I am interested in what you find -if anything at all. Canada post is on the job now. Heading your way. Tracking in your email. Doesn't matter what you find I guess. We will be disproved by some oversight missed. Should be a fun read once you get to it.

I can say, superstition or no, that I wont be changing anything in this room now until I get my forever stands in place (it's been hinted Santa might bring me some). I now get the 180 degree effect you have been mentioning. Never experienced that before with 2 passive speakers alone without DSP involved. Pretty neat. Would honestly rather listen to music on this setup now over the basement with 7.2.4 ATMOS engaged. Just a nicer room to sit in with lights on and sounds utterly fantastic. Bragably good. Will sell more M5HPs for sure as I keep being asked by people what to buy right now. After a demo it's a lock.

Kudos to Andrew and Ian for making M5HP speakers so well they may serve as a lab tool for testing things upstream from them, and Me for setting up such a super duper room. LOL.

Finally got around to new stands. Ended up buying some and modifying to suit final speaker height of 16” to bottom from floor. I love this room and speakers. Even a year or so later. Too good! Too fun! Sound is incredible. Lots of demos in here for people. Easy to convey a proper stereo experience and possibilities with Axiom M5s. Definitely a “gateway drug” for unsuspecting listeners. Lol.