First time poster, long time reader

One question for you all, what is better then getting "THE EMAIL" from Axiom telling you your speakers have shipped? How about a phone call from your wife 30 minutes before the email that your speakers have arrived!

3 M22's have arrived for my theatre that I will use as LCR's. This is going to be a slow process for me I joined this board a while ago and just made my first purchase 3 weeks ago. I have been living with a variety of band aid solutions for sound in my dedicated theatre for a while now while I saved to buy a full set of speakers from Axiom but I just never saw that day coming, so I decided to buy what I could afford and pick the rest up along the way.

I will now move my 2 Celestion SL6 si's I was using as my 2 channel sound to surround duty and save up for an EP350, which will then one day be followed by the purchase of some QS8's to replace the Celestions... one day

Can't wait to get home to hook them up!

Congratulations, let us know what you think once you hook them up!

Congrats on the new speakers.

Great news roar! Welcome to the forum.

"Pictures are an Axiom Forum prerequisite prior to acquiring 10 post."

It's in the rules.



Welcome and congrats.

Welcome and I hope you enjoy the new toys. Post pictures and your impressions of the speakers if you get a chance.

Wonderful and congratulations on a purchase that you will be sure to enjoy for a long time.

The M22s are truly great speakers. For their price, they become a little treasure. Congratulations.

First, thanks for the welcomes, I’d post some pics but the M22’s are behind my AT screen, so not much to see, unfortunately tragedy has struck...

I got home, unboxed my beautiful Boston Cherry M22 Factory Outlet speakers, couldn't find a single thing wrong them. I managed to put off setting them up until the kids went out to the park and then… disaster...

I believe the center channel on my AVR is pooched.

It is a hand me down from my father, an old Onkyo 656, which to be honest, I never checked the center channel on because I only had the 2 Celestion's to bother hooking up. We upgraded him to a new Denon 3808 and I got his old amp to tide me over until I made my purchase. It replaced a cheap HTiB setup I had going so that 2 channel sound was an upgrade believe it or not.

Now when I send the test tones to the 3 speakers I only get a couple of low crackles out of the center channel, left and right play fine. I swapped speakers and cable around to confirm it wasn't a bad speaker or cable and the cable and speakers are fine.

Anyone ever hear of a center channel dying on an AVR before? I don't have an amp at my disposal or I'd like to try the center channel pre-amp out on this AVR into an amp to see if the center channel out is any good. To be honest, I was considering buying an Emotiva XPA-3 somewhere in the distant future to drive these Axiom's, replacing the AVR was really going to be far down on the upgrade path so I had hoped to use the pre-outs on it, but now that I’m not getting anything out of the speaker outputs for the center channel I’m afraid I won’t get anything out of the pre-out as well.

Any tips or suggestions on how to further diagnose the possible bad center channel on my amp?

You did all you could do to diagnosis it being the center amp. Skip the amp and just buy a mid priced receiver. That's my recommendation.

Thanks Rick, a new AVR is so not in the cards right now... Frustrating! I think I may have to live with 2 channels upfront and 2 surrounds for a little while, so disappointing, I was very much looking forward to this day.

I don't mean to derail this thread...but I just received my Q4's yesterday. After a thorough exam I'll admit I'm extremely happy with their appearance and overall build quality. I'm planning on doing a side wall mount this weekend and I'll be running my speaker cable in-wall. So my question is this...Can I use basic speaker wire or not? I've got lots of regular 14g wire available but its not in-wall rated.
Thanks for any help on this matter and I didn't want to hi jack someone else's thread.

Regards, Bill...

That's too bad about the centre, still, you can use a "phantom centre" or just give the 22's a try in stereo for now.

Billy, I'm using 14 gauge on my QS8s.

Wow! Talk about patience. Welcome Roar.

On the AVR, if money is tight and you have no plans for bluray, consider picking up an older model refurb or used that dosn't have HDMI. You should be able to find something local for less than $100.

I think we can make a special exception in his case Rick and set the limit to 3, otherwise it might be another year or two before we see pics!

Hi Adrian, I need to know if all speaker wire is acceptable for in-wall application or do I need to but in-wall rated wire.

Thanks again, Bill...

>>>>Registered: 11/06/06
Posts: 3

Whoa, I do believe you are spot on Fred, maybe we ought to make an exception to the rule in roar's case.

Yea, three's a good number.

Roar:

This is probably too obvious but did you check the speaker menu on the Onkyo and make sure the center channel is not set to none? Also I found this from the owners manual:



Good luck,

Joe

Fred,

Some things are just worth waitng for Turns out, through no fault of Axiom's, this wasn't one of those times

I had a lot of things ahead of the speaker purchase, like building my theatre, projector, screen, painting, on and on, letting sound 'slip' all the while, waiting until I had that 2k or so saved up for the speakers I wanted. Nearly 3 years later I finally realized that the 2k wasn't going to materialize all at once, I hate debt and prefer to pay cash for everything, so the speakers were going to come a step at at time. Now I've gone one step forward and 2 back!

I am already a heavy blu ray user. With only 2 channel sound I was alright with the optical in on this avr, again, with the hopes of adding a new blu ray player down the road with analog outs I could take advantage of the new HD sound even with this old AVR, I really had plans to make the new AVR purchase the very, very last thing I do.

Good news is I just read about Onkyo's 9.2 lineup due out soon AV God's, why do you mock me!

R, welcome to actively posting(almost three years after you joined)and owning those fine M22s. Sure, each channel uses separate output transistors and the center channel may be damaged. It could also be farther up stream and even the pre-outs from the pre-amplifier don't work. You may not have anything to measure the center channel for an output, but does your father or someone have a powered sub that you could borrow briefly? You could connect the center pre-out to the sub to check for sound.

You can get great enjoyment from two M22s up front forming a "phantom" center. I'm not familiar with, and haven't looked up the 656, so I don't know if it has back surround channels, but if it does, you could use the other M22 as a center back surround in a surround processing mode.

Joe, I did turn the center channel on in the setup, tried setting it to Large and Small, results were the same both ways, when it is set to none, it actually doesn't even show up in the cycle of test tones.

Pictures to come in post 6 to keep the peace

I know you are disappointed, sorry.

The outside theatre picture (Really just showing off my diy back lit movie poster box, but my speakers are in the picutre!) :



The behind the screen, pre-hooked up picture:



The in front of the screen where you can't even really see the speakers picture (I stole this image from my screen build thread over on avs, the door now matches the walls, finally painted the thing and replaced the outlets to match too):

John,

I was running my Celestion's with a 'phantom' center, so ya, I'm going to do the same with the Axiom's and move my Celestion's to the rear. The Onkyo I have is far too old to have rear surrounds, though that was a cool idea. And the sub idea is a good one too... no way I'm dragging my dad's over though, it's massive... though it's a good idea, I'd really like if the pre-outs work... I can just about justify an amp purchase If only those Emotiva's were cheaper to get into Canada! They are such a great deal in the states.

deleted

Roar:

I want that Alice in Wonderland poster!

Also one last dumb idea: supposedly you can reset the 656 by powering it down then pressing the CD and Power buttons together. It might be worth a try??

I'll shut up now

Jollo...

ummm... not sure how to say this... but, that did something. After starting up after a power cycle and clearing the settings, I am getting a much better test tone now. So now I'm utterly confused, the intial pass through the first test tone kind of crackled a little louder then the second pass through the center channel was much more true, now all L, C and R test tones sound the same, crackling gone... thanks so much for the reset tip, wonder if that really could of done it???

It's late, but I think I'm going to go find a movie to put on, I actually just took some time to listen to some 2 channel music with the M22's and I'm smiling ear to ear, I was always very happy with my Celestions but these things sound great, I'm taking Friday off work to do some more critical listening and maybe a little Chapter 5 Transformers too

Thanks guys!

Cool, glad that worked. Modern AVR's do a lot of bit crushing before they hit the output stage. I was thinking it probably wasn't an output transistor because you were getting crackling. Usually when an output transistor fries it will go silent. Enjoy those Axioms.

Thanks again Jollo, just finished up the new Fast and Furious, sounded great!

Movieposter.com is a great place for original double sided posters, I got mine there. Unfortunatly the price has gone up a bit since I got it, I think I paid 21.00 when it first came out, it is up to 35.00 now, but that is still a better deal then the 50+ I've seen it going on ebay for.

http://ca.movieposter.com/poster/MPW-43630/Alice_in_Wonderland.html

Welcome and congrats!

Sorry about that center channel. I understand about cost but FredK is right - do look around for used or refurb AVR's. You don't necessarily need to spend $1,000+ on one to get good sound. You never know what you could find at a garage sale or even a pawn shop.

eCost.com has refurb Denon AVR488's for $99 right now. 75x5, HDMI switching, etc. Simple and cheap. http://www.ecost.com/Detail/Speakers/Denon/AVR488/42301717.aspx?navid=155441514

Something like that would be pretty inexpensive, give you full surround sound, would likely sound fine, and would tide you over for a few months until the budget recovers for a 'serious' AVR later. Just an idea, anyway. I know that a blown center channel would drive me nuts.

Congrats again and welcome to the club!

Speaking of movie posters....original not reprints, that is, I saw an original "Casablanca" poster for $35G each US on the 'net. Actually they had a few of them, what say we buy 'em all and get a few bucks off on a group discount?

Nice job Jello. Real nice. I was just about to offer up my Denon 3300 for a very reasonable price - given his proximity to the shark tank - when you go and give him the super secret reset code. Soooooooooo helpful you folks are!

Enjoy the new sound Roar, I expect you will be in awe for some time.

I couldn't find the link I was looking for, but as far as I know, you need in wall (pvc wrapped) rated wire in Ontario due to fire hazard.

Roar, welcome to the Axiom family. Where are you in Burlington? I'm in the Orchard.

Your theater looks cool, I've got the M60's, VP150 and 2 sets of QS8's in High Gloss Cherry Vinyl if you ever want to check em out.

Graeme

Roar - what do you have covering your walls? From the picture it doesn’t look like they are just pained. If so what paint did you use because I want to get it.

BTW very nice setup you have there.

Cheers,
Dean

Graeme, I'm in the Orchard too! Custom finish Axioms, hard to turn that invite down, drop me a pm always nice to meet some locals

Dean, the screen wall is actually just a studded false wall wrapped entirely in black velvet, you can make that out from one of the pictures I put up, but the side walls are just a really dark brown paint. Black Bean Soup, by Benjamin Moore.

Acoustic panneling is in the distant future I think, maybe theatre 2.0 I can't imagine my room is very good acoustically the way it sits with the engineered hardwood and uncovered walls.

Hi Bill and welcome!
Speakers are a low voltage item and pose very little risk. I personally have no problem running regular speaker wire through walls. However!! Many places have building codes that require it. Also, electrically, anything is possible. Just the right kind of short or a stupid thing like a child slamming speaker cords into a electrical outlet could build up enough heat in the non-sheathed speaker wire to cause a fire. The risk is minimal but life can throw curve balls.

If your the nervous type or code requires it, Monoprice.com cells Very Nice in-wall, bulk speaker wire cheaper than I can get regular bulk speaker wire anywhere locally. That's even after I have it shipped up here to Canada too.

Check with your insurance. If they cannot use it as a pretext to cancel your claims in case of fire, they you can use anything. Otherwise you may as well save money and cancel your insurance. If you do care about insurance, they go with certified wires, they are barely more expensive and you'll have a priceless peace of mind.

The CL2 rated wire I used for mine (12g Monoprice) was literally just spiral - wrapped speaker wire with a white plastic sheath over it. There is a string inside it also, not sure what that is for, but the two internal speaker wires are not even really attached to the sheathing, they just sit inside.

The string can be used to help split the sheathing.

If the string is hard to manipulate with bare fingers,wrapping it around the tips of needle nose pliers makes it much easier and you won't tear as many strings short either.

Tater, as Jay mentioned, the string is just to help split the jacket, there's no electrical factor. Also, the outer jacket has no electrical function; it's simply there to prevent or at least delay the release of toxic fumes if a fire would reach the wire. The PVC(polyvinyl chloride)jacket on ordinary electrical cord can release poisonous dioxins and chlorine gas when burned which can combine with moisture to form hydrochloric acid.

National and local building and electrical codes(and their interpretation)vary in the U.S. and Canada.

This bit about fire insurance policies is said fairly often, but with little factual support. Coverage can't be denied or reduced unless some action on the part of the policyholder can be shown to be contributory negligence which caused or increased the amount of damage.

Rather than starting a new thread... I thought I'd resurrect my very first thread I started here over 7 years ago when I bought my first set of Axiom's.

I've finally upgraded my M22 v2's! I just placed an order for a pair of M80's and a VP180. Hard to imagine getting more out of a set of speakers but my M22's did me proud for years.

They were perfect for my old theatre getting to live behind a great acoustically transparent screen I had made but we moved out of that house a couple of years and the new theatre isn't going to have an AT screen due to room limitations.

I've honestly been eyeing M80's for as long as I can remember... since I bought the M22's really. The cost really put them out of my reach then and not a whole lot has changed now, but with the B-Stock pricing and a little christmas bonus money to put towards them I decided to splurge.

They will be driven by my old reliable Emotiva XPA5 amp and Integra 80.2 processor so not a lot has changed over the years but I'm still really excited to own some floor standing speakers.

Merry Christmas to me (And everyone else too)