Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater HT in-progress

The scrap 2x4 risers are only temporary to see if it helps … so far the temp just inside the vents stays around 40 degrees C +/- …. Makes me wonder if it is a thermal problem. I’ll have to do some longer sessions to see if I can make it happen again.

BTW, If you were my missus … I’d already be gone
Just sayin

I checked some other forums, and the crackling and distortion issue might something more mundane: there's a single loose strand of copper speaker wire that's touched the chassis or the opposite polarity.

If it were a modern AVR setup, the protection circuitry would immediately shut down and flash a self-diagnosis message to check all wiring. A pre/pro + amp setup wouldn't have those failsafe mechanisms.

It could also be a wiring issue in the center channel itself, but I would check that last. I figure it'll be a 1 or 2 hour job on your hands and knees to re-twist all the speaker cabling ends, maybe more if it's in a closet or hard to access spot. This would be a good time to recruit some child labor.

Good thought but if a single loose strand of wire cause this I’d think it would happen right a way not 4 hours into viewing stuff (or go away when the amp cools down).

A picture of my wire ends.



I dipped them, so this is not an issue … no loose strands



I believe the axiom amps also have short protection…

In any case I’m not really sure what is happening … I was assuming that a amp rail was dropping in voltage but now I’m not sure it’s the amp … it could be that the input signal is clipping since I’m not totally sure I shut down the 1250 (I forgot that I swapped the 1250 and ADA1000 amps). Think I shut down both because the dialog disappeared when I did … doubt that would happen if I just shut down the 1000. Anyway have a few theories… just hope I don’t blow a speaker trying to figure it out.

Finally made some time to look at the suspected ADA1250 distortion issue. Connected up my scope to the center channel and over a few sessions (watching a few hours here and there) I finally got it to start distorting again. Anyway definitely the ADA1250 ... although now that I proved it ... it decided to completely die ... So something was going and finally went ... I guess on the positive side it's going to be easier for Axiom to diagnose now.

While the ADA1250 is out of service ... I'll repurpose the ADA1000-8 to run the center, bed surrounds, and mid tops (the front and rear heights will be the only casualties during the wait)

Started watching Guardians of the Galaxy vol 3 on a flight home … the sound was so bad through Delta’s free giveaway ear buds that I turned it of after 15minutes (had my own phones but forgot to pack the cord needed to plug into the seat). So, the next day I watched it in the HT … fun movie and great music.

I find that you really need to tune in the volume level for each movie. Too soft and the movie doesn’t have impact … but too loud isn’t very good either for obvious reasons. What I usually end up doing is finding a scene with just dialog and setting it to a comfortably loud volume …. Most of the time that works for the whole movie. What do you guys do?

I have something called a remote control.

My strategy for operating it is as follows:

1. If the SPL is too much for me, I lower the SPL by depressing the "down" arrow.

2. If the SPL is not enough for me, I increase the SPL by depressing the "up" arrow.

3. If my guests complain, I take a non-weighted average of the desired individual SPLs and adjust up or down as per step 2 or 1.

Yes, a remote …. Great idea

I don’t like to change the volume during the movie for a few reasons:

• like to set and just enjoy it
• The pre pro displays the change on screen (may change that)
• My wife gets on my case if she sees me raise the volume. She enjoys full impact sound but given control would set the volume to “underwhelm”
• The HT sound just presents better if your not fiddling with it in the middle

That's a perfect argument for adding an audio compression setting to an AVR or pre-pro. Cable boxes used to have them, and some sound bars also have it.

Home theaters and media rooms are great. They're the perfect medium for watching a movie after you watch it first on a smart phone.