Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Their here...

Got them hooked up and been listening for the past few hours.

Let me start right off the bat and state I am NOT an "audiophile". Also, I haven't owned that many sets of speakers in my life, but do work as a studio engineer for a group of AM/FM stations here in Memphis.

In one word if I could describe these speakers: WOW!!! Actually, that is an understatement...HOLY @#$% out to be more appropriate.

These speakers are not quite what I expected-they actually SURPASED my expectations. This is definately the very first pair of speakers I have ever owned that made me go "WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!".

Not being an audiophile, I have learned quite a bit thru this, and various other forums. One thing I have definately learned, is I will never EVER again buy anything "stereo" or "HT" related from "Worst Buy" or "Short Circuit City". OMG, so THIS is what GOOD speakers are supposed to sound like!

Now, down to some specifics....I do not really know how to describe what I am hearing....I have heard on more than one occasion as Axiom speakers sounding "bright". I even listened around at various stores, and dinked around with some Yamaha speakers we had at work, and those were bright; to the point where the high end was so accentuated, I could easily hear amplifier hiss at moderate listening levels during quiet passages. This is just NOT the case with the axioms. I do not know how they did what they did, but the high frequency components of music are brought out with CRYSTAL CLEAR detail without being "in your face" or harsh. And when there are quiet passages or inbetween tracks, the speakers are quiet as a churchmouse-no hint of "hiss" like I heard on those Yamies I brought home. How can the highs sound soooo good without the normal side-effects that normally go along with a typically bright speaker? I do not know, but Axiom sure did something right!

For the first time in my life, I can finally run the built in tone controls/EQ "Flat" and be fully satisfied at the quality of the music. It must have been all that low-fi gear I have been so used to over the years that always made me bump those tone/eq controls to get it to sound right.

Just to balance my quick review, I will point out a few minor things I noticed (not necessarily bad):

1) Speaker efficiency-Although they are rated at 89dB, My other speakers on the A channel are 90dB rated and are considerably louder than the Axioms-not that I have golden ears, but definately sounds like more than a 1 dB difference, but this could maybe be attributed to placement? No biggie, just something I noticed. Although I am kind of dissapointed that the Axioms make my main speakers sound like strings with tin cans on the ends.

2) Would have liked a *tad* more bass; BUT, this is no fault of the Axioms. I chose M60Tis because I wanted an "easy to drive" 8 ohm speaker for my SonyES receiver. I love my SonyES and it fits my needs PERFECTLY, BUT...it would be the LAST receiver on my list to drive a 4 ohm speaker. I know the M80s have lower extension, and I do understand I gave up some of that extension when I chose the 60s, but thought I'd point it out. The other aspect of desiring more bass, is I have probably been used to a slight "boost" on a few systems that seem to be so common today.

3) Small blemish on the underside of one speaker (not visible). Things like this happen, so no biggie. I am probably just going to keep them instead of shipping one back. Its small (about the size of a pencil eraser), but not visible since its on the underside of the speakers.

Back to the positives, one more note....I swear these speakers make my subwoofer sound BETTER. They definately BLEND a HELL of a lot better than my main speakers. Sometimes I try and I can't figure out where the bass is coming from, my Sub, or the axioms....For reference, my main speakers are too small to even produce good mid-bass, so even though I can't localize my sub with them, I do know when the bass notes are coming from the sub or the mains if that makes any sense at all.

All in all, I give the speakers a 9.5 out of 10, and an 11 out of 10 on what I was expecting!

-Alan