Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Replacing crossovers for warmer sound

Well I have to mention again I'm not really experiencing much sibilance from the speakers. I had thought in that past that the speakers were somewhat shrill (actually made a thread about it a long time ago somewhere) but I've grown accustom to it over time. I find that turning down the treble on my receiver even one notch takes away more character that I would like so I was looking for alternative means to try and tweak my speakers so they create the sound I'm looking for (I'm looking for rather subtle differences) It's rare that I experience something that sounds overly shrill but I do experience it from time to time. Particularly in movie scenes were people are yelling. Not so much in music.

I can't quite remember where I read about the axiom crossover design. I had spent a few hours researching difference tweeter drivers and trying to come up with resistor values for a capacitor free series crossover for a replacement tweeter before I regained some sense. I believe I was reading about simple crossovers (or bypassing the crossover all together) reading that the axiom woofer didn't have a crossover and that this design was ideal for audiophile speakers. I thought about rebuilding the crossover's using the same values and higher quality components but I don't know how much of a sound improvement it would make or if that sort of thing would just be a waste of time.

Yeah Mo, a few years ago there was some discussion here about the M3 having no crossover on its midwoofer and just rolling it off "naturally". The 2000 SoundStage review comments briefly on it, for example. The Axiom data lists an M3 "x-over" at 2.2 KHz, but unless the design has been changed, that presumably would refer to just a high-pass filter on the tweeter at that frequency. That feature apparently isn't on any of the other Axioms.

Thanks for posting that article. I also found it interesting that the M3s don't contain any stuffing. Does that apply to other Axioms as well?

Mo, the "stuff" comment in the SoundStage review may not have been meant to indicate that there actually wasn't any. For example, note the Audioholics review , which found it to be "packed to capacity".

I'll have to read the Audioholics article. I ask because I opened up my EP600 and was surprised to find a very thin sheet of stuffing up against one wall. I guess this is normal because I reported it to Brent and he's never gotten back to me to tell me that it's not right. I wonder though if I could get the 600 to produce even tighter bass if it was stuffed more. I had done this with my Sony and it made a world of difference.

I know Axiom places a certain amount of this special batting in the loudspeakers also. I'm sure during their research they tried various combinations before it moved to production.

Axiom decided that a batting average of .300 was sufficient.

Well I used a small amount of moretite around the speaker baskets (made the mistake of sealing the entire baskets before and it sounded terrible) and used 1/4" thick acoustic felt around the tweeters and it's made a huge difference in sound. IMO these little M3's sound much more balanced this way, particularly in fast metal/rock music. I felt they were too boomy and loose with bass and the treble was a bit too bright compared to the mids (which were rather sterile sounding) I'm happy with the changes that these small modifications have made. These speakers are vibrant and sound organic and lively with folk/classical music but they sort of muddle rock music a bit.