Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater I Finally Did It!!!!!!

After weeks of research and reading hundreds of reviews and posts, I finally ordered my speakers this morning. Like many others, I'm getting the M60s, VP150 and QS8s. I am going to wait on the sub for now. I chose Boston Cherry. They should be here on Friday. That works well because of the 3 day weekend. I have a feeling I'll need all three days, especially when it comes to installing the surrounds.

One of the two surrounds will need to be mounted on an outside wall, so I need to figure out how to do that, as well as what speaker wire to get.

I would like to thank all of the people who have helped me by posting their system and reviews. I never would have thought I would buy speakers without listening to them first, but your positive reviews made it much easier to decide. Also, the support I got from the Axiom associates (and I called a lot) was great. Now the big question is what to do with my Cerwin Vega C-7s!

Thanks again everyone, John

Good luck. I'm pretty much in exactly the same boat (shipment of M60's, QS8's and and EP175 to be delivered on Friday). I'm planning on mounting the 8's on the side walls and trying to run speaker cord through the attic (directly above the HT) and down the walls. Just remember that in the midst of any frustration you may have this weekend, I'm right there with ya.

Unfortunately for me, since my family room has a cathedral ceiling, it has no attic. I guess I will run the wire into the cellar and fish it up through the wall and hope the insulation does not get in the way too much.

Good Luck!

Before you drill any holes, I'd suggest you temporarily run speaker wire around the room perimeter to experiment with different QS8 positions. Theory is one thing, but real listening tests sometimes differ.

I'd already drilled holes and fished cables into the wall, only to find more extensive listening tests indicated different QS8 locations were more optimal.

Try both HT and music, ideally multichannel music. You can temporarily set the QS8 on some boxes, shelf, etc. When doing this, it may be best to rotate it 90 degrees, so the bottom woofer isn't blocked. But be careful it doesn't fall off -- it's barely stable this way.

Once you've found QS8 locations that work best, then you can drill holes and run speaker wire. Just a suggestion.

John & Ockham,

You guys are in the same place I was last Friday when I got my speakers. Congratulations and welcome to the party. John, I too bought "unheard". That concern resolved itself within 15 minutes of hooking thigs up. I should also mention that I took Friday off to wait for the delivery; couldn't help myself . [grin]

As far as speaker wire is concerned, research led me to 14 gauge wire from Home Depot (12 gauge was a little inflexible and I was worried about straining/loosening the connections on the receiver).

If you have a cathedral ceiling, you migth want to see my solution for the QS8s. I posted some pics ("Pics of the Boys and a question") in the Home Theater thread.

Excellent advice about placing before drilling. You might even consider drilling a hole where the baseboard in your room meets the carpet and feeding the wire under the floor/across the basement ceiling and bringing it up on the other side of the room.

After you find your proper positioning and give them a few hours to break in, do yourself a favor and calibrate them with Avia and an SPL meter. I re-did the calibration last night and it makes for a significant improvement.

Based on my experience since last Friday, I know what kind of a treat awaits you. Be prepared to be amazed at the amount of interesting audio you have been missing on you CDs and DVDs.

That's great advice, thanks. I'm laughing here because I, too, am taking Friday off. Guess I really am in good company. Didn't realize that they sold speaker wire at home depot. I will have to look into it before then.

I usually hate saying this, but NOT THIS TIME.

ME TOO!!!

M60s, VP150, QS8s, all in maple with black grills. I ordered them too late today to get them Friday, but they'll be here Monday. Oh well... I guess I better finish painting.

Michael

Michael,

When I ordered my M22s almost a year ago, they were supposed to arrive on a Monday. When I got home from work the Friday before, I found that they'd already been delivered. I'm not saying the same will happen to you, but it might.

I just got the same setup last week and you are going to love them. I haven't even calibrated my speakers and they sound great. I just ordered that Avia DVD and I am going to get a SPL meter this weekend to make them sound even better. On my old system I never used to listen to CD's...just TV and movies but now it is like listing to my CD's for the first time. I spent all day Sun. and Mon. just playing music.

About the speaker wire I got the 14g form Home Depot and it worked just fine. I was going to go 12g but like Ray3 said it just wasn't that flexible.

Congrats on the new speakers.

Thanks for the speaker wire info. I went to Home Depot and Lowes. The both sold 14 gauge in 100 foot rolls. The Lowes was about $10 cheaper. They certainly looked the same. I guess Lowes wins this battle!