Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners How to connect speaker wire to on-wall bracket?

I just received my M5HP On-Wall speakers and I'm attempting to wall mount them using the supplied on-wall bracket. Unfortunately, I think I'm doing it wrong. Can someone confirm how much copper should be exposed when stripping the wire? I'm assuming that the jacket needs to pinched between the "plates" when tightening the hex screws - correct? I tried only pinching the bare copper between the plates and there is no way I can tighten the screws enough to keep the wire in place without sliding out. So I'm assuming I only need to strip 1/4" or less and keep enough of the wire's jacket to be pinched between the plates. Please confirm.

Of course, I've now stripped the hex screw so I can no longer use it and will need to get a new wall plate from Axiom. So I want to make sure I do this correctly on the other 3 speakers that I need to mount.

Cheers!

Bryan

Hi Bryan

I have had the same issue with my QS speakers. It seems axiom intended that we use fairly heavy wire though myself i dont use real heavy wire for the surrounds. What i did was strip twice as much as i needed to normally strip and then double up the copper. If you own a solder iron i would fold the wire and squeeze it together and add solder that way the wire wont compress and squeeze in all directions.

Thanks for the reply. I actually tried that and it seemed to work well. I then consulted the online manual for the M22 and it indicated that the wire should only be stripped 1/4", which would suggest that the plates pinch the jacket to keep tension. But I'm not sure this ensures there's enough contact between the copper and the electrical plate.

I just hung the first speaker but I won't be able to connect it to my receive until tomorrow. Would you think doubling it up, as you suggested, would be better than just exposing 1/4" of the copper and pinching the jacket?

BTW - I'm using 12 gauge speaker wire and it still didn't hold without doubling it up or cutting to 1/4". Which lead to stripping the screw trying to tighten it too much.

I would say do what works best for you. I have seen so many different kinds of wire over the years. Some wire has a thick outter casing while others have a thinner sheath so it really depends on your situation.

Don't pinch the jacket, just the wire. It's really a question of gauge. Doubling up the wire is the way to go. I have two sets of on-wall, and although I never had that problem because I use 12 all the time, I just checked and it does look like smaller wires might need some additional attention.

I ended up folding the copper over on itself to double up the thickness. This seemed to me to be the best approach to ensure consistent contact. I'm using 12 gauge speaker wires but some of my runs use 16 gauge wire. There is no way 16 gauge wire would stay connected as the plates cannot be tightened enough to hold it.

So I think doubling up the wire is the key!

No I need to get a replacement bracket since I stripped the hex screw on the first one when I over-torqued it to tighten it!

I just had 16 gauge wire and found these connections very frustrating. As you note there's no way that 1/4" would hold. I ending up drilling away some of the plastic "above" the pinch terminal so that I could strip about 1/2" of copper and have enough for the terminal plate to grip. Used a 1/8" drill bit and actually inserted it up through the terminal where the wire fits, and drilled up about another 1/4".
This on version 3 QS4s and M3 on-walls.

I also rounded the hex recess on several of the screws, so I used a Dremel cutting wheel to make a slot for a straight screwdriver. Might be quicker and easier than getting a new bracket.

Axiom is shipping me a new bracket. They also indicated in their reply to me that they are experiencing the same issue with the brackets and are looking into a "permanent fix". In the meantime, they suggested that doubling up the copper by folding it over works best. That's what I will do from now on.

Thought I would share that. Looks like Axiom is now aware of the problem and looking into a redesign, of sorts.

Awesome glad to hear they are coming up with a fix,
I had many bad words trying to mount my QS10s with 12gauge wire,
It just wouldn't stay in.

My new-to-me place came with 16ga LCR wires run by some clown who overcharged the original owner, kinda lame but good enough for M3's I imagine. I'll try folding the stripped ends to have enough to grab.

My question, though -- do your brackets have retaining clips?

I just received a pair of in-theory B-stock M3 v4 on-walls. The T brackets shipped with them show some scrapes and fingerprints on the contacts, so they look used. The instruction booklet shows a bracket that has retaining clips, which my brackets definitely do not have. It also refers to using a long hex wrench to disengage the clips, which I also don't have. Lastly a pair of adhesive bumpers is included, but not mentioned in the instructions. I imagine the idea is to stick them to the bottom of the speaker to match the offset of the bracket?

Do I need to ask for proper brackets? [img]https://www.evernote.com/l/AL0sLtK5ziZDjIBHoqO8TUn1BWL5igyC31A[/img]