Nutty Idea: Mounting M80ti's - Axiom Message Boards

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With summer more than halfway over for me (I'm a university student) I decided to refurnish my room. After walking around furniture stores for a week with a piece of paper and measurements of everything in my room, I purchased everything that I intend on putting in my room. Not much really, the only floor piece is a new dresser. In any case, I finally began to move everything around and discovered that I'm about 10cm short to fit both of my speakers where they used to stand. So here's a nutty idea that'll probably turn some heads; since I have an attic above me I can quite easily do a cieling mount to have them hanging, this would solve a few of my problems and give me a bit more floor space. The question here is, what's a good place to make mounting holes on the speakers, if any?

If your speakers are not too heavy, perhaps you can glue a "hook" onto them. This way you avoid drilling into them.

You want me to glue hooks onto my Axiom M80ti's? heheh... I wonder how long that would last before they came crashing down.

But no, it doesn't seem like a viable option, I wish that Alan or someone from the factory would post a cross-section of the speaker or make a recommendation. I know that it's been done before because I saw a post about a year ago of the M80's hanging off a cieling.

I didn't know you had M80s...or floor-standers for that matter. Why don't you e-mail Alan for suggestions?

Have a look at the subject line, Mojo...

. I need to start reading the titles.

I remember that this had been done before...

Look at this former Axiom thread

Thanks for the link and pic.

*Grabs the dremel tool and a powerdrill*

So where do I make the holes on the M80?

I would think an Anchor of some sort was used, as the frame of every axiom speaker consists of MDF...

I know I recently put up a shelf in the garage, screwing the shelf supports into MDF...I knew in the pit of my stomach that it wouldn't hold over time with all the weight on there (wasn't much, a bunch of boxes from the speakers, and a kick drum hard case that weighs around 15 pounds mabey).

Well, it lasted for about a week, and I came into the garage and found 2 of the freaking supports ripped right out of the MDF...

Needless to say, I have since used some drywall anchors (good for 30 lbs of weight each) for each support (2 for each support) behind the MDF...nothing has crashed...yet

I know you can buy some pretty hefty anchors...but do you REALLY want to drill holes in your M80s?!?!?!

Ian has a pair of M80s hanging on the factory wall just above the CNC cutters. Give Axiom a call.

If you don't want to drill the speakers you could always just run a few cables down from the ceiling and support a flat piece of wood for the speaker to stand on.

It wouldn't hurt to ask if the holes used for mounting the feet would be strong enough to hold the speaker. Depending on how far from the ground you have it, you might want to invert anyways to get tweeters at ear level and ports & woofers near the ceiling for bass reinforcement.

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The question here is, what's a good place to make mounting holes on the speakers, if any?

I can't stop cringing at the thought of doing that to Axioms.

Even with my crappy old JBL surronds, that were probably worth no more than $15, it took a couple days and beers to get the courage to drill into the finish and cabinet.

Good luck to you but I would put the 80's away for awhile and pick up some bookshelves instead. M3's would be looking pretty nice while I was standing over some M80's with a drill.

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I can't stop cringing at the thought of doing that to Axioms.

hehe. Nah, I love my M80's and that's why they've got to stay in my room even though there's no room for them.

I'll give axiom a call sometime next week to see what they say. I can already envision the response of "highly not recommended"

I don't know if I'm planning to put the speakers high enough to having them inverted be beneficial; probably around 4 - 5 feet.

>>I can already envision the response of "highly not recommended"

You might be surprised. You're just as likely to have someone go out to the factory floor with a tape measure and see where Ian drilled his M80s.

Actually, I did check this out! The ones in the factory are held in place by L-brackets top and bottom, which doesn't look very elegant for home use but looks fine in the factory. However, you can drill pretty much anywhere into the M80s, since the crossovers are mounted to the input buckets. You won't hit anything and damage it. It's important to drill a pre-hole in case you run into a brace or a joint. If you drill a hole you have to put a screw in, whether you use it or not, since you don't want any air holes. Other than that, sky's the limit!

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If you drill a hole you have to put a screw in, whether you use it or not, since you don't want any air holes. Other than that, sky's the limit!

I can picture an M80 composed entirely of screws soaring into the upper atmosphere.

C.V.

I remember MIKEY stating that the hanging 80s really brought the mids and bass to life...

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It's pure, no added bass boost from the floor.. As much as I love a full sound, top to bottom, I'm a 'mid freq' freak at heart, and my 80's fill the bill.. Bass may make things fall off the shelf, but it's the mid's that really nail ya down !
Stevie Ray knew that, running heavy gauge strings to get the sound he was so famous for.. No damn slinky's on that mans axe !!
And yes, I have a 2nd set of speakers in the garage, and I use the back side of the subs when I'm working there..
It's just too much fun for someone my age to have

Being a huge SRV fan as well as the 'heavy gauge' tone that SRV was famous for, I'd absolutely love to hear MIKEY'S setup or someones similar *but* the thought of drilling holes into the Axioms also makes me cringe...I'd certainly look into another alternative mounting/hanging source to do this if I knew the end result was worth the effort.

I'm also curious if speaker placement, toe-in and distances from side and back walls would be as important with them hanging, (I would think so) if so, that must be a royal pain in the butt to get the placement tweaked for best sound.

Placement is important even if they are hanging as the laws of physics still hold true when they are elevated off the floor

.

The problem actually becomes more complicated when hanging as you've pointed out because the pitch, roll and yaw all require adjustment.

Amie, a question for you, do you know how thick the MDF is in the back of the speaker? I think it would be safer not to drill where there are joints as this could theoritically cause the joint the seperate; there isn't a cross section schematic that you could provide, is there? Also, since the speakers are glued together and made to stand rather than hang is there a risk of the joints loosening since the force of gravity would now work in the opposite direction?

In terms of sound placement I think that there's an advantage to hanging them in my room as I'll be able to place them further away from the wall than before. In the past I couldn't afford to put them more than 3 - 4" away from the wall.

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The problem actually becomes more complicated when hanging as you've pointed out because the pitch, roll and yaw all require adjustment.

'Pitch', 'roll' and 'yaw'? What the heck is that?

Substitute the word "airplane" with the word "speaker" right here.

Bet you didn't know that speakers are like airplanes when you hang them from the ceiling, eh?

Hi Intricate,

The MDF of the rear baffle is 3/4 inch. In reality, it's a bit less--about 5/8-inch. I don't think you need worry about joints separating. If you use 1/2-inch wood screws to hold the L-brackets, or whatever brackets you plan to use, the wood screws won't penetrate the enclosure.

Sorry Axiom doesn't have a cross-sectionional diagram of the M80 enclosure.

Regards,

Rick's a pilot...

Thanks for your response Alan.

It seems like my best option is to use a double screw L bracket at the back of the speaker right at the top and a fisheye hook near the bottom to adjust the angle that the speakers hang at.

The question now remains if this is enough to support the speakers without having the screws eventually rip out of the enclosure.

Would it be possible to suspend a platform that the M80 could rest on? It would be a little more involved, and you'd have to have build little "fingers" around the edges or something to keep it in place, but at least you wouldn't have to penetrate the loudspeaker.

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but at least you wouldn't have to penetrate the loudspeaker.

I still miss BigJohn.....