Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater The world's newest Axiomite it born...

Ok I realize I'll probably get crusified even mentioning this, but I have to ask just to get it off of my mind because I've been thinking about it since yesterday when I was watching the dual 12 inch woofers at work. About three years ago I bought a JL Audio sub box with two 12W6 V2's installed in it. I owned that box for all of 2 weeks before it got yanked out of my trunk by some theives. It's still on my list of things that I HAVE to replace!

Those subs were the absolute sweetest bass reproducers I've ever listened to. So anyway what has been going through my head was remembering watching those subs work and how far they traveled. Their excursion distance was phenomenal. And like I said they sounded out of this world, but of course they are made to fill a car with bass, not a 35 x 35 living room. But it made me curious what would happen if you tried to shoe-horn a pair of W6 V2's into a home theater sub box like this one? Would they sound right in this kind of setting?

It's not something I'm ever going to do mind you, I don't exactly have $700 dollars laying around to fullfill this curiosity at the moment. I was just wondering if anyone knows if there is a major difference between car stereo subwoofers and home theater subwoofers? It also made me curious as to what the Axiom's would sound like in a trunk box?

Oh how I love audio equipment!

Crucify him!

I've also been curious how much drivers with greater excursion would affect the sound. As to whether that specific driver would be what you want in an HT sub, I suppose the easiest way to tell is to see if JL is using that driver in any of their own HT subs. But yeah, I'd love to hear what people with actual knowledge have to say about it.

I believe that most Car subwoofers are designed for small enclosures. For the most part they do not make good HT drivers. The JL w6 and w7 series are the exception and have quite a reputation in the DIY world. They are extremely linear and thus low distortion.



If the box were designed specifically for the driver they would make a great HT subwoofer. The Fathom 112/113 use the 12 and 13" version of this driver as does the Gotham. All are highly respected subs.

I do not know that they would sound any better than the EP800. From what I understand, the Fathoms do not play that low (not much output below 20Hz) so the EP800 may in fact be a better all around HT sub. Personally I would love to see someone like Audioholics do a shootout with the newest offerings from JL, HSU SVS and Axiom.

FWIW, the current king of the DIY world is the 18" MaelstromX from Exodos.

You're exactly right House. Here's a response I received from Alan on how to check my M80's for a blown driver:

"So, here's how you can check each of your M80s. Play some wide-range music
(or use a pink-noise test signal from your Denon) with lots of bass,
midrange and percussion, stand close to your speakers and check that each
driver is working and producing sound. If you are certain each is working
and you don't hear scratchy, nasty sounds from a driver--even mechanical
scraping sounds--then you can assume that all the drivers are fine.

Now, turn off your Denon and get down so you can gently push the cone in for
each of the woofers and midrange drivers--push them straight in gently with
equal pressure and listen for any scraping sounds. Don't push the cones too
far, just a bit and move them back and forth. Be sure you don't push on an
angle because the gap in the voice coil and magnet is really small and you
might inadvertently push the cone to one side or the other, causing it to
scrape the magnet. If all the drivers are fine, you will hear nothing when
you push the cones in and out.

If one of the voice coils is partly fused, then as you push it in or as the
cone springs out, you'll hear a scraping sound because the voice coil is
scraping on the magnet. Remove the offending driver and call our toll-free
number and we'll replace the defective driver. The speakers have a 5-year
warranty.

I suspect you didn't do any damage or you would have heard nasty scraping
sounds while you were playing music or a clicking or raspy sound when deep
bass is reproduced, or a staticy sound from the tweeters if a voice coil is
fused."

Is that last part also from Alan? Or is that from you to me? Because I do hear a scraping sound when I push in on the right hand driver. And I also hear a clicking sound when deep bass is reproduced.

You have solved the issue! You have a bad driver. Give axiom a call and they should be able to send out a replacement for you. I think this is the end of the road for all the problems you have experienced and finally once you get a new driver installed I think you will get to enjoy the true capabilities of this beast. Check out the other driver as well, if the other driver is fully functional it will be easy to distinguish the two by using the methods mentioned above in Alans excellent response to Cam.

Cheers!

Yes I'm almost positive that it's the right side driver that is the problem. I'm not sure if the bad driver caused the amp to short out, or if the bad amp caused some damage to the driver? But at any rate, I will be replacing the driver. Tis a shame, having to spend yet more time waiting until I can finally hear this thing play the way it is meant to be played!

How do they handle an issue with a bad driver anyhow, does anyone know? Like to I have to pack this one up, send it in and then they'll ship a new one out to me? Or do they send the new one out, I replace it and then send the old one back? I only ask because I would love to still be able to listen to music with the EP800 until I can get the faulty driver replaced. That would stink having to go back to just the M80's again after experiencing the set up with the EP800 included. I admit that I was very happy with just the M80's before the new amp arrived. But now that I've lived with serious bass for a few days, it would be torture have to do without for a week or better.

I NEED the bass now!!!

The scraping sound you described when you touched the driver as well as the all the distorted sounds when the subs hits low, I am 100% sure that driver is done and is the cause of your most recent problem. A new driver will fix it right up.

They will probably try to send you out a replacement driver ASAP. If they want the bad driver back I am sure they will send you another box along with the new driver. But I doubt they would want the defective driver back anyways.

Did they want the old amp back? It seems to me they may want the old stuff back just to test it for their own knowledge as to why it failed... Unless it's a relatively common thing and they have all those bases covered already. I'm sure there is a certain percentage that are just bad units from the beginning.

Hopefully this will be the last issue you have!

They send the replacement, then you use the box they sent the replacement in to return the defective one. At least, that's how it was for me.

My fingers are crossed that this is the end of the line for your problems. You may remember that it took a long time for me to get my perfect pair of EP800s. Between cosmetic damage and faulty electronics, it was a lot of grief. I'm glad I had the patience to let it all get sorted, though, as I'm certainly enjoying them now. Hang in there.