I just installed a pair of onwall/inwall m2's I believe they are called and the matching m100 center. They look so nice in my room!

Very nice jethro, welcome to the Axiom family!

So...how do they sound?

Excellent! A picture would be nice...

here is a link to my HT, I do hope you enjoy it.

http://www.blu-ray.com/community/gallery.php?member=solarrdadd

look awesome!!

thank you very much. do you have any shots of your gear? if so could you send me a link or PM it to me if you prefer; i'd love to see it.

So how do they sound?

Perhaps they were just decor?

I've been a bit busy, but will share some pics and some listening impressions tonight.

Here's the new loft room setup. I have to clean it up a bit with the wiring and drag one of my subs from the basement up there that can pressurize the room a bit better.

37" LCD
Axiom m22 inwall/onwalls for left and right
Axiom m100 for the center
Onkyo 805 receiver used as a processor
Parasound 3 channel amp for the power
Panasonic blu ray player
12" mirage subwoofer

I'm going to bring one of my a5-350 subwoofers made by elemental designs into the room to replace the mirage.

Also, I haven't calibrated the system yet whatsoever, not even by ear. I just played with the crossover and found that 100 works well with this setup.

I won't go into the sound a whole lot as the system isn't calibrated or final without the sub, but it seems to be pretty well balanced upon initial listening. Dialogue is clear, and the sound is full. One thing that I did notice is that there definitely seems to be a bit of strain at higher volumes. I probably would have bought the speakers with the bigger drivers if I had to do it again as I like my movies/music reference level if not higher than.

The rears are HTD 6.5 in ceilings.


For now, I'm completely satisfied with the purchase and the cost as I don't believe I could've found a better sounding/looking front sound stage for this particular room at the price point.

WAF is a huge factor for this setup and space is at a premium.

Nice job team Axiom.

Jethro

Just as a follow on, I really "dig" the axiom community. I feel like I'm at home already.

Thanks,
Jethro

I'm glad you like your M2s. That A5-350 should give you some serious bass for movies.

Yah, I use a pair of a5-350's in my main rig and am going to move one of them to my other setup for now until the the new sub from epik hits the market which I'll purchase.

a5-350's do a good job when calibrated and placed correctly into a room imo

Excellent sub to match up with that system.

Enjoy.

With a 15" driver, they should. Whats the new sub you are looking at?

I'm quite happy with my EP350. It hits 20 Hz with authority in my room, but I want to try something that will reach as low as 15 Hz at some point.

Welcome Jethro, nice setup...

I was looking at the legend for this setup. It hits a good price point and its big brother the empire has had good reviews so far from users. It's not available yet, however.

http://www.epiksubwoofers.com/products.html

Earlier this year I picked up Outlaw's LFM1 Plus and it's superb. Their next model up the EX maybe worth considering as well.

http://www.outlawaudio.com/products/lfmEX.html

Dual opposed 15" drivers. Thats a powerful sub.

Welcome! I hope that enjoy them for many years (I have certainly enjoyed mine).

Definitely do the calibration to see if it helps, but if you purchased in the last 30 days you can upgrade and only pay the difference. Axiom will provide for the return shipping I believe.

Exactly. I have friday off and intend to put these speakers through their paces. I'll use AVIA and an SPL meter to set the system. If I have everything calibrated to the best of my ability and feel like the speakers are running out of steam at high volumes, I'll upgrade to the bigger 6.5" drivers. I don't completely feel right doing this, as Axiom would get stuck with a shipping bill and "used" speakers essentially.

That's just a part of doing business jethro. The "used/returned" speakers either get sold through their factory outlet or through their online auction.

The M22s are likely to have the same characteristics as the M2s you have with more power handling. The M3s will sound somewhat different. The driver size isn't necessarily the determining factor in power handling or steam (as it were).

Jethro,

I'm not sure what crossover point you are using, I'll just assume 80hz. If this is the case try 100hz for the M2's and 100. You have some excellent subwoofers, let them do as much work as possible and in doing so will take some strain of the mains and allow them to play cleaner. See if this makes any difference at reference levels with the in-walls at all.

DH, as you know, returned speakers aren't sold in the Outlet, which uses brand-new speakers which may have small cosmetic flaws. Just pointing this out again for new prospective Outlet purchasers.

Interesting. So what happens to returned speakers? Are they sold as new?

My understanding is they are sold via avenues like Ebay, Axiom Auction, or used by employees/friends of the company. Factory Outlet speakers are brand new and carry a new warranty, as John mentioned.

Sir Quack is correct.

Returned Axioms are never sold through the Factory Outlet, only new models with slight cosmetic flaws that are invisible except on very close inspection. Most buyers can't find the flaws.

Sometimes returns are "parted out" and the enclosure goes into the wood chipper, where the output is used to make more MDF--eventually.

Regards,

That's good to know Alan. Why do I want to watch the movie Fargo now?

I'm going to keep the speakers. I'm calibrating tonight and I should have some good listening impressions.

First I'll just run stereo with the subwoofer through a DAC using the blu-ray player as a transport. I'll test out a couple CD's that I am extremely familiar with such as some Norah Jones, Dave Mathews, and Jack Johnson.

Other than that, I'll use only hi-def sound formats via blu-ray.

Dave Mathews concert in blu-ray with Tim Reynolds will be up first followed by the NIN concert and Diana Krall.

Then we'll do some Transformers, Monsters Inc., and whatever else seems to fit the bill at the time.

Ok, I got everything level matched and calibrated to the best of my ability using AVIA and a SPL meter.

Music- I was able to get the sub to blend quite well with the speakers using a 100 hz crossover point on the speakers and 120 on the sub. I'm probably double dipping some frequencies from 100-120 but it really seems to sound good and blend well set there. The sub is just a bit localizable setup this way but not intrudingly so.

Norah Jones sounded airy and effortless at reference levels with good channel separation and a wider soundstage than I expected for sure. I think these speakers do Norah well. I do feel as I lacked some midrange from instruments in particular.

Jack Johnson had me tapping my foot like always, but I seemed to be missing something. I feel like the sound didn't "breathe" into the room like I'm used to with my other setups. Not sure if that makes sense, maybe lacking depth of soundstage or fullness of sound etc...

Dave Mathews in concert was cool to listen to on this setup, as the instrument separation was great. It felt a bit "thin" at times and again lacking in the midrange, but the pinpoint accuracy and detail was awesome. By far the best audition on this setup for music was the multi-channel. The sound tied into the video quite well also.

I watched some of Monsters Inc. with the kids next on blu-ray and some transformers part 2. This setup is everything I hoped for for HT. The center channel kept up quite well during action packed sequences, and I had good clarity throughout. When pushed to the limits however, I did notice a bit of detail loss, and it seemed tough for the speakers to keep up. This was at 100 db on my SPL meter and I don't watch movies that loud except for on occasion.

I believe the room had alot to do with my impressions, as it is quite large and I'm asking alot of the inwall/onwalls to perform. The sub obviously filled in for alot of the speakers weaknesses, which led to some localization. It was not easy to blend the speakers and sub so they sounded as one, but I did the best that I could. It would've been alot easier if the speakers could play with authority down to 80 hz, but I knew this going in.

The amp I used for the axioms powered them quite well imo, so I don't think I lacked any juice going to them. Quite frankly, I don't think I pushed the amp whatsoever to get the speakers singing.

Now, for my listening session, my reference is my other HT setups which cost a bit more money so I can't say enough as to the value of these speakers. I think they look and sound great, perhaps just not quite powerful enough for my room.

Next, I'm going to pull a couple of my tower speakers from my living room into the listening area and do a 1v1 against the axioms to really see how much of it is the room, and how much is the speaker.

Hi Jethro,
I hate the Transformers 2 soundtrack. I can't describe why. My reference blu rays for movie sounds are Ratatouille and Coraline. Avatar sounds really good but I don't have the sounds memorized like the previous movies I mentioned. I also use a few scenes from Casino Royal, and Kill Bill 1 and 2.

100! Yikes.

I believe you should put the crossover for the sub at the highest point or on bypass as you already selected the crossover for the speakers....

So what are your towers that you'll be bringing in? And perhaps I missed it, but how big is this room anyway?

On my receiver you can set each speakers crossover separately and I have the front three axioms set to 100 hz. There is a setting labeled LPF of LFE which I have set to 120 hz. After a bit of back and forth between 100 on the LPF of LFE to 120 hz, I preferred the 120 hz so kept it there.

I have a pair of AV123 onix rocket rs450's towers that will be easy to lug upstairs and do an unscientific comparo.

The room is about 350 ft^2