Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Can Speakers be Too Big for the Room?

Think I posted twice ... sorry ... still learning use of this forum.

At one point I had the speakers positioned along the long wall. Since re-configuring, we have added furniture that might not work in that config, but I will definitely consider it.

May I ask what reasoning/experience leads you to this recommendation? Also, by "sit 8 feet away on the diagonal" do you mean "Sit at a position 8 feet away from the fronts of each speaker"?

Thanks

Thanks everyone for the helpful advice. Before receiving your most recent inputs, I set the speakers a bit closer together and aimed them straight ahead (no toe-in) and it made quite an improvement.

Using the room simulation feature of REW (and the sub crawl), I concluded that the best place for the sub was halfway along one long wall, pretty much in the floor-wall intersection. But I must admit I don't know exactly how to interpret room mode presentations in REW graphics.

I'm going to try various of your suggestions and get back to you. But I do find my present config. suitably improved that it will be my "return to" position if I make it worse.

Alan, I appreciate your advice about the possibility of M22's. I've been wondering about that possibility also. But for now (and for my wife) I'm going to try to keep my wallet in my pocket.

On that subject though, I've been eyeing Paradigm Prestige B15 bookshelfs. Any thoughts on that? Probably bordering on heresy in an Axiom forum.

My experience with speakers is a bit thin. Before the M80s I had PSB Alpha (bookshelf smalls with passive sub) and before that, a pair of Advents from the 70's.

If you are going to pass axiom up at least go for the "best" in this category and price you are considering.

http://www.stereophile.com/content/revel-performa3-m106-loudspeaker#Sr8IMh6er6v4vvuL.97

In pondering your recommendation, I'm guessing that the desire is to get the speakers further apart but that would put them too close to the corners.

Hi Solardad,

My retirement was a gradual transition. Three or four years ago, I began working half days for about a year, around the time I turned 70, then went into full retirement.

Of course I still hang around the Axiom forums from time to time since audio-video is an ongoing interest and has occupied a good chunk of my professional career, starting in the early 1980s when I became editor of Sound Canada magazine, which later became Sound&Vision Canada magazine.

Regards,
Alan

Thanks, I had not seen that review. Will keep in mind.

Having recently subscribed to Spotify, I find it interesting to read speaker reviews for the music the reviewers use to test the unit. I dial the track up on Spotify and try to compare with what I'm hearing, bearing in mind of course that Spotify is missing some (hopefully not all) of the significant content for such comparisons. It's an interesting way to encounter new artists as well.

I'd check the phase of the speakers.

Tim,

2X6 has a point. If the speakers are out of phase, it could produce the effect you describe, as music happening "somewhere down the hall."
While you're at it, check that the gold links between the woofer and tweeter speaker binding posts are secure and connected.
Make sure all the drivers are operating. You can do that for each speaker by using a 9-volt battery and touching the positive and negative leads of each speaker wire to the terminals on the battery while you put your ear close to each driver. You should hear a "click" when you connect the positive and negative leads to the battery terminals (you won't damage a driver by doing this). Do it for each of the six drivers in each M80. If you don't hear a click from each driver, you can assume that something is wrong with the driver or a speaker wire inside the enclosure has come loose.

Speakers are in phase. I alternated reversing wires on one side while pointing speakers towards each other and putting my head between. Max. bass was on red-to-red. I've always been pretty 'anal' about double-checking my wire connections. Interestingly, my amp has a menu choice for "Reverse Polarity" but I couldn't distinguish any difference when toggling. The manual describes it as:

Allow compensation for recordings that have reversed polarity.

Positive: A positive sine wave at the input remains positive at the output. Polarity is defaulted to “Positive” setting.

Reversed: A positive sine wave at the input is negative (inverted) or reversed at the output.

I don't understand what they're getting at. If it's happening on both channels what difference would it make?

I hope it's not all psychosomatic, but I believe my symptoms are not as bad now as originally described. The only thing I can recall doing is facing the speakers straight ahead rather than toed in. They are also a few inches closer together now. As Alan has pointed out, the M80's are not easy to manhandle around to try different options. And I've read a review where the reviewer felt that the M80's were quite sensitive to placement, (perhaps especially with earlier versions? mine is V2).

Anyway, I'm going to work with the ideas you've all provided so far in an effort to get the best sound I can. I think I may revisit placing speakers along the long wall and experiment a bit with that.

Alan, when you speak of using a 9-volt battery, am I correct in assuming that you do this at the terminals on the back of the cabinet, thus activating all drivers within and listening to each in turn for a click? Otherwise, I cannot see how I could do it driver at a time without getting inside the box or removing each driver in turn through the front. I'm pretty sure all drivers are firing just by listening in front of each, but maybe that's not foolproof.

When all is said and done, I think I might be better off with smaller speakers but I cannot afford to buy new ones at the moment (by 'afford' I include the spousal resistance There are a lot of nice bookshelf options available.

Cheers all !
Tim

P.S. It's an interesting observation that the sound seems like it's coming from "down the hall". That's mostly true for orchestral recordings. But I play amateur viola in a community orchestra. I can't say that I've ever heard a recording/system combination that could fool me into thinking the orchestra was right there in front of me. I wonder sometimes if someone is going to hear me play viola in front of them and say "that's not what a viola sounds like" and point out the difference with their mp3 recording.