Well I have boxes all over my house right now. I got my M60, VP150 and QS8's last night!! I almost have all of them hooked up...one more surround to go. I did listen to the M60's last night and they sound great. Much better then the Bose they are replacing but that is not hard to do. Now I just need to figure out how to use my new receiver (H/K AVR 630). It has a lot more features then my old H/K AVR 55. Can't wait to get home and finish setting them up and watch a movie. Thanks for all the good posts here...they helped in my decision and now I’m sure I made the right one.

Whooo-eee! That sounds like a great setup! Please do post your impressions after you have a chance to have some fun this weekend!

Yes! audio bliss. axiom and h/k - a combo i can relate to... i too replaced some old "college days" bose speakers with Axioms, but a Hsu sub duo... enjoy them & save those boxes!

Glad you're enjoying you're new speakers.

Let me know if you need any help with your receiver as I have the same one and love it.

Looks like we got on baord with these things at the same time. I hope you are as pleased as I am. Tom makes a good point about anchoring the sound with a direct; I hadn't thought about that.

I also have a 6th channel, but never thought much about it before. What does the 6th channel bring - another voice channel or more surround?

Based on my vast experience with Axioms (8 1/2 hours) I would opt for another QS8. I will hold that decision in reserve until I see the answer to my question.

Anyhow, congratulations on the speakers. I'm off to bed now so I can get a good night's sleep in preparation for mounting the QS8 brackets tomorrow. The rest of my Saturday will be spent calibrating and test driving the Boys. I fully expect to be bleeding from the ears by dinner.

I'm only 1/2 member of this new club. My new 630 that got delivered on Friday afternoon is sitting on the floor in my living room. I'm in pretty bad shape. I've had some old "speakers" (yes, I use that term VERY loosely) since college that I tried on the HK. Let's just say that it sounded pretty much like the stock radio and speaker in my '70 Chevelle... Needless to say, the 630 was only powered on for about 4 minutes.

I'm a total audio noob. I have listened to a lot of speakers in various stores, but I'm not enough of an audiophile to notice all of the subtle differences. I am having a hard time shopping because I do not know enough about audio equipment to be able to look at a store's setup and understand how it may be affecting the way that the speakers sound. I feel like listening to them all over town is completely pointless, and that I am wasting my time because of all of the inconsistencies between stores. So... helloooo Axiom. Everyone that has 'em seems to be in love with them. I know that many of you have much more effort into shopping, and have turned down much more expensive speakers to buy Axioms. I'll trust the judgement of all of you that did the shopping and bought Axioms, and do the same. In the extremely unlikely event that I can't stand them, I'll send them back.

I'm gonna go with the M60/VP150/QS8 combo and an SVS sub. If I can pick out colors, I'de punch in the order right now. Maybe ya'll can give me a hand. I have an off white living room with an oak floor stained "natural". It's a medium golden color. The trim work is stained a few shades darker towards brown. I have black faux leather curtains covering 60% of 2 walls. I know, that sounds bad, but they look great and they make the room theater dark in the middle of any day. I think the QS8s in maple with black grills would look just fantastic on the walls. My TV is a Mits diamond with the gloss black cabinet, so I am considering black for the VP150. I'm lost on what to do on the M60s. There are a few pictures of the M60s in maple on this site, and I they almost make me drool. The mansfield beech falls somewhere between the floor color and the trim color, so they would probably work pretty well also.

I need help ! Can any M60 owners with maple or mansfield beech please snap a few larger, higher resolution pictures and email them to me? I'm interested in seeing what they look like in different room decors (both colors, but especially the maple). I'de also like to see a reasonably close up shot of an area on the side of them to get a better feel for the color and texture.

I'de like to decide and order today if possible, so if anyone could take a moment to help me out, I would appreciate it.

I'm really looking forward to becoming a full member of the HK630/M60/VP150/QS8 club!!!

Thanks,
Michael

spambot adverse email address - remove spaces
ski bum 1964 @ comcast dot net

6th/7th channel brings rear surround, vs the approx 90-110 deg. side surround of 5.1 systems.

IMO for many people 6/7 channel rear surround generally isn't worth the cost, esp if you're talking 1 or 2 more QS8s. For music there's essentially no discrete 6.1 or 7.1 material. For HT, there's some, but not much in the context of the total movie catalog. I have HDTV, and it's fairly rare to get 5.1 audio even for HD broadcasts; most is Dolby stereo.

Teddy's HK AVR 630 has Logic 7 to reconstruct 5.1 from stereo sources. I don't know if it has Dolby PLIIx or equivalent to reconstruct 7.1 from 5.1 sources. But if my experience using regular PLII to reconstruct 5.1 from stereo sources is any guide, while a nice feature it's not remotely good as discrete multichannel material. If you don't have PLIIx or equivalent, your rear speaker(s) won't even activate without discrete 6/7 channel material, of which there isn't much.

In general my advice is wire for 7.1 (assuming you're in that installation phase), but just get speakers for 5.1. Use the extra money you'd have spent on the one or two rear QS8s for a better sub, receiver, acoustic room treatment, etc. Make sure your receiver at least has Dolby PLII or HK Logic 7 to reconstruct 5.1 from stereo sources.

If music is a priority, get a combination SACD/DVD or SACD/DVD-A player and some discrete multichannel discs. That would at least use your 5.1 setup.

IOW it's better to have a good 5.1 setup with PLII or L7 for stereo->5.1 upconversion and some discrete multichannel music, than to have a bare bones 6 or 7 channel setup without this.

If you later decide to go 7.1, you're already wired for it and just install the two extra speakers. If you get access to two cheaper speakers (borrowed from a friend, yard sale, etc) you could try out 6/7 channels. If you really like it, then get two more QS8s.

OTOH if you watch recent DVD movies 90% of the time (more likely to have 6/7 channel soundtracks), with little music, TV or older movies, I could see going with a 6/7 channel setup.

Michael,
there's a couple of pics that have been posted on the site of the Mansfield Beech finish:

HERE
HERE
HERE

They're maybe not the close-ups you were looking for, but it'll give you an idea. The other option you have is to email Amie - amie@axiomaudio.com I'm sure she'd arrange to send you some samples of both the maple and mansfield beech so you can compare. You could also try doing a more extensive search of previous postings on the forum. Maybe you'll find some pics farther back.

Hey Michael - call Axiom. I've heard tell that they might be willing to send you some actual veneer samples to help you decide. Of course, then you'd have to delay the decision for a few more days...