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Axiom vs. Bose (1 Viewer)

Tuan Vo

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Its in with the new and out with the old. First the Sony widescreen exchanging the place of the Philips widescreen. Now, its the Axioms replacing the 5 year old Bose Acoustimass 10 system. So I recently ordered the Axioms...now it was very recent...like Monday...got them on Thursday morning...badass



I came home from volunteering and they were right there...I was appalled...so lets compare...



"I am Bose...I have reflecting technology...and what might you have?" and so the next image please...



And so...the Axiom center is 6 times larger and 10 times the clarity of Bose center. Whats nice? The QS4s are badass, I have never been so imersed in sound before. My friend and I finished seting up the day before and tried a few DVD scenes. Here is the final front setup...



The chairs are just a temporary setup at the moment. I'm either building or buying a set of stands on ebay. I'd like for the center to be on top of the tv but its rounded so its gonna be there til the flexy rack plans are done. So far I am very satisfied with my purchase. The QS4s were factory B stock but I didn't find anything wrong with them. I would have gone with the whole setup being B stock but I couldn't wait 6 weeks for the M22ti so I just went with the one pair. I thank everyone for recommending the M22ti...even for bookshelves...they have great bass. Anyone with any suggestions to improvements to my setup...that'd be great. One question that I'd prolly ask later in a later post is...do I set the M22ti to large or small on the reciever? I set the all five to small right now but I have no sub so I lose all low frequencies. I just don't want to damage my new M22ti's...hehe. Any ideas would be great.
 

EricRWem

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A winner is you. This should be a night and day difference for you up and down.

Congrats! :D

As for your question: If the bookshelves have woofers on them, which I believe they do, I think you can them to large.

The only time you set to small, and someone correct me if I am wrong, is if you have speakers like I do with some Sony HTIB. I can assure you, those pups have NO woofers on them at all.

Great value and performance on HSU subs when you want to make a move on that...
 

Scott Merryfield

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Unless your speakers can handle very low frequencies or your receiver has a very high crossover (like 120Hz), you should set them all to SMALL. I'm running my B&W 604 towers as small, and they will go down to around 40Hz. My Pioneer Elite receiver's crossover is set at 80Hz.

Try it each way and decide which sounds best to you.
 

EricRWem

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So, even though the M22ti's he has have dual 5 1/4 -inch woofers can take up to around 200 watts, he should go ahead and cut those down to small and have it all go to the sub?

Not sure that makes sense. Those are rather large for "bookshelf" speakers. I would think he'd have the sub and everything at large for best sound...



Why or why not? I am still learning these things...
 

ScottCHI

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well you changed your post. this was your original question:
no. that's not what i said. i said those particular speakers, with a sub, should be set to SMALL.

whether you set a speaker to SMALL or LARGE is dependent upon the a speaker's low-end capability. yes, most tower speakers have greater low-end capability than most bookshelves, but it's a huge generalization to just say tower speakers should be set to LARGE.

the speakers in question do NOT go down that particularly low, so they obviously should be set to SMALL when used with a sub.

some companies (and i think even dolby labs) recommend setting all your speakers to SMALL, no matter their low-end capabilities, when you have a subwoofer, btw. there are several advantages to running a system this way.

now, of course, in the end, one should listen to their setup the way that sounds best to them.
 

ScottCHI

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no, they're rather small, actually. but dual 5.25 inch woofers really have nothing to do with it, although, physically, 5.25 inch woofers are NOT capable of going very low.

the determination as to whether a speaker should be run SMALL or LARGE is dependent upon it's inherent low-end capability, not the size of it's drivers (although there IS certainly a very general correlation between driver size and low-end capability).

those speakers are rated down to 60Hz. that's nothing. definitely not a LARGE speaker. for a speaker to be considered LARGE, generally, it should be able to effectively reproduce bass down to at least 35Hz, if not even lower than that.

if you don't understand the LARGE versus SMALL speaker thing, there's plenty to read about it here and elsewhere.

but, again, in the end, you should set your system up the way that sounds best to you.
 

EricRWem

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Very good! Thanks! That's very good information that I didn't know. So, basically if that speaker is higher than 35Hz, then forget Large?
 

Nhan_H

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Tuan,

Nice setup. One thing you might need to add....CMS (cable management system) :D

I think you should take the receiver in question into the large/small argument, as well. Lower frequencies take quite a bit of energy to reproduce. So even if you have large, capable speakers, and your receiver does not produce enough juice to satisfy the lower end, the speakers should definitely be set to small. Setting speakers to large can put quite a bit of strain on the receiver, and it might not be able to produce enough power for those x speakers set to large.

This is one reason why a lot of subs have a large power supply...to reproduce the lower ends with authority.
 

ChrisWiggles

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Also remember that a quality designed subwoofer, something like an SVS, HSU, paradigm, etc will put out prodigious amounts of VERY VERY deep and clean bass, something that very very few speakers can do. Almost always small is the best setting unless your subwoofer is really outclassed by your mains.
 

Tuan Vo

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Thanks for all the replies so far. Very helpful guys.

About the cables you see in the picture. Those are leftover from the Bose setup. I spent most of the day yesterday taking down the Bose and snapping the wires into the corners. It looks much nicer now but still spaghetti behind the tv and reciever.

As for a subwoofer I had planned on getting a 20-39PCi or a PB1-ISD. I'm not sure yet, I need to pay off the Axioms first. I have all speakers set to small but I have tried just the mains (M22ti) as large and they sound great. I just don't plan on doing this all the time since I don't want to blow out something on the speakers. My friend is going to lend me his Onkyo sub from his HTIB for the mean time until I can afford an SVS. Also not a good idea for an SVS yet because I live in an apartment complex hehe. Heres a picture of the completed setup or still temporary until the flexy rack and stands are complete.

 

keir

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Jan 16, 2002
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i would definately use the large setting. i think anyone advocating the small setting didn't realise that you're not using any subwoofer. the m22s will not play much of the lowest bass, but it won't hurt them at all to use the large setting and it will definately give a better response than setting them to small without a subwoofer.
 

ScottCHI

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no one was advocating they be set to SMALL in this case. we know that you CAN'T set them to SMALL if you have NO sub; the receiver won't let you.

unfortunately, the thread got sidetracked with the LARGE vs. SMALL discussion. sorry.
 

Tuan Vo

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The reciever does let me set all speakers to small but will keep the subwoofer setting on even though I don't have one. Yeah it has side tracked. I will post a specific post in a few days.
 

ScottCHI

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right, but if you set the sub to NO or OFF, then it forces your fronts to LARGE, correct?
 

Tuan Vo

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Well if I set the Fronts to small then it won't let me select NO for subwoofer. This reciever is 5 years old and it doesnt even have DTS so its limited on what I can choose. The speaker selection goes from front, center, rear, and then sub.
 

thapa

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Apr 1, 2004
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Ok! I can't help this one.

Just be careful when you play basketball now. :D

And buy a Dayton sub for now. It's cheap and it'll be a hell lot different than no sub. And then you can set your speakers to "SMALL" and rest easy.
 

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