Introduction:My audiophile friend came by, we met on HeadFi.org an audiophile community consisting of mainly headphone fanatics, and brought his trusty Axiom M3ti that he has been very happy with since he got them a year or 2 ago. We unpacked his M3ti and tried several spots before we came to the agreement to place the M3ti inside the Strata Mini infront of the Martin Logans.... we didnt want to place the M3ti too far apart.
We put the M3ti's on a 31" stand to align the tweeters up to the same level as the Minis and we pulled the listening chair back to form the "equilateral triangle" of critical listening. We dimmed the lights and listened...
At first, tried out his $30 Sonic T-Amp for fun. As you can see by the pictures, it's a nifty little device, but wasnt impressive to me at all. Too thin, too diffuse, and easily distorted especially with the Minis at about 80-85db of listening volume. Ok for a $30 product, but worth a serious look? Nah.
Matt was quick to ask me to hook up the big boys and toss the "toy" aside... referring to his T-Amp. So we did.
We hooked up the Squeezebox3 to the Cary SLP-98L Tube preamplifier and into the Plinius SA102 Class A amplifier... we had almost $10,000 worth of front end equipment that was to be readily plugged into either the Axiom M3ti or the Strata Mini.
We demoed 4 songs total... we went from the Axiom M3ti then to the Strata Mini and then to the Axiom M3ti and then back to the Strata Mini... rinse and repeat PER SONG (x4).
The song selections:1. Pennies from Heaven - Louis Prima
2. Sleighride - Ella Fitzgerald
3. Mr. Big To Be With You - Extreme
4. Keys to the Highway - BB King and Eric Clapton
Initially, I listened to both speakers and made sure they were aligned and properly positioned. I made sure each pair was imaging well and had proper staging. I manned all the switching and Matt stayed in the chair, thereafter.
Matt's Comments:1. Pennies from Heaven:
Axiom
- "No grit in the sound, clean."
- "Background singers were piercing."
Mini
- "There was grit, Louis' voice was gritty... in a good way. The Axioms had barely any grit, it was there, but it wasnt noticeable. The Minis were more resolving of this hidden detail."
- "Tonality of the trumpet was better than the Axioms could resolve, in terms of tonality. Seemed to be more real."
- "The background singers did not have that slight metallic quality of the Axioms... very natural sounding even in the upper registers."
2. Sleighride - Ella Fitzgerald
Axiom
- "Metallic, slightly grating at times."
- "Sounded clean overall."
- "Trumpet did not remove itself from the speaker, slight boxiness was detected."
Mini
- "Laid back, maybe a little too laid back."
- "Trupmet was to the inside right of the Mini (R) speaker. Very cool effect."
- "Preferred Mini in this track, but not as much as I did on the first track... lesser of a lead, I'm impressed by the Axioms."
3. Mr Big to be with You - Extreme
Axiom
- "Boxed in imaging, no lateral soundstage outside both speakers."
- "Good center image, probably just as good as the Minis in terms of the lead singer."
- "Good depth and background vocals."
- "Very nicely renditioned lead singer."
- "More calculated sound, vs the Mini's musical sound."
Mini
- "Imaged well beyond the outside lateral borders of the speakers.
- "Tonality of the background singers was better than the Axioms presented."
- "Similar lead singer... well done by the Axioms!"
- "Minis was more musical, more organic. Better overall. Man, that was an awesome track, Joey! I want that one! Burn it!"
4. Keys to the Highway - BB King
Axioms
- "Eric Clapton was a little too bright, didnt sound realistic.
- "No drums were resolved by the Axioms whatsoever, I couldnt see it on the stage at all."
- "Guitar was piercing, not realistic."
- "Imaging wasnt solid on this one.. not sure if it was biased to the Right or the Center."
Minis
- "Drums were lifelike, so much easier for me to see on the stage."
- "BB King's voice was far more realistic, very gritty, very dynamic and deep in certain parts... very real."
- "BB King's guitar solo was realistic and was very well done. I've had this CD for some time and I've never heard it done as well as the Minis did them just now. That was truly the best demo song of the night, I want the Minis now! Very impressed with your selection of songs, Joey!"
My (Joey's) thoughts:First off, I want to say that it was a great opportunity having Matt over at my place today! It was certainly great having an audiophile with atleast as much (if not more) dedication to this hobby of ours as I do, over for a listening session. Matt is a very critical listener, and I wouldnt be surprised if he has better ears than I do.
It was great seeing the Axioms again... one look at the M3ti and the memories of my black M22ti came rushing back. The cabinet, the asymmetric walls, the vortex port, the titanium tweeter, the aluminum woofer... it was as if the Axiom M22ti never left my room. It wasnt long before the Axiom and I were reacquainted.
My impressions of the Axiom M3ti are very favorable. First, I will say that they image wonderfully. The center image is on par with speakers that are far more expensive, most definitely. It had body and soul in the vocal reproduction. Vocal imaging was good, and vocal focus was definitely good through my system of preamps and amps. The midrange was clean and it came through clearly. The bass was tight, with nary the hint of bloat. I did not fault the Axioms for not reproducting bass as extended as the Minis, I listened mainly for coherence in the midrange and up, which by the way, the Axioms were quite coherent in.
The Mini, however, is a different animal. The Mini is more musical, better at resolving, better at staging, better at being box-less than the Axioms. I felt that the Minis were more, shall we say, "organic" sounding whereas the Axioms were more "clinical" sounding. Hard to explain, but if you were in my room with us, you'd understand. Irregardless of bass, the Mini had a better and more coherent midrange and treble.
HOWEVER, during the listening session, there were times when I felt that the Axiom M3ti were right on par with the Minis in terms of resolution and transparency, but the M3 lacked that last bit of realism that was instilled into almost every detail reproduced.
There is detail, and then there's
realistic detail... probably the best way I could put it in words.
The Axioms were very good in their own right. I certainly have a lot of respect for the Axioms and what they can do at their pricepoint. They are certainly solid speakers and all you people on this forum should be proud that you own such a speaker.
Conclusion:The Minis are $1600 while the Axioms barely tip the scale at $300. The price discrepancy is large, but was it worth it? According to Matt, yes it was. He is getting a pair of the Strata Minis and moving his Axiom M3ti to bedroom duty with his upcoming Sonos system.
Sidebar:I didnt want to muddy up the playing field by including the Martin Logan Summits in a 3-way shootout. Matt came by to specifically listen to the Minis vs the M3ti and playing the Summits, to me, would be detrimental to his listening session as it would add another factor to consider in determining overall value of each of the speakers he was auditioning.
But in the end, Matt requested that I play 2 songs on the ML Summits before I had to leave for dinner. Reluctantly, I said, OK.
So I plugged in the ML Summits... and let 2 songs play. The first song was BB King's Keys to the Highway and the second song was Extreme's Mr Big to be with You. I stood behind Matt while he sat in his chair... we were embraced by luscious music. A few minutes later, I turned on the lights, the songs had ended.... and I asked him what he thought.
He asked for the Minis to be plugged in again and we listened to the same 2 songs on the Minis. Lights off while the music played, and Matt closed his eyes and drifted to the Mini's version of this acoustic landscape. The 2 songs ended, we played it one last time on the Martin Logan Summits. Lights off, 2 songs, lights on.
"Well?" I asked, "... and dont sugar coat it."Matt:- "Absolutely amazing centerfill. The Summits' centerstage had so much more information than the Minis. The imaging on the Summits were very very much tighter than on the Minis, listening to the Minis right after the Summits made me realize how "non-imaged" the Minis are. The vocals arent on the same level of focus. The lead singer was never as controlled on the Minis as he was on the ML Summits. The guitar solo was far more pronounced. Everything was much more realistic, when I didnt think it was possible to exceed the realism presented by the Minis. The staging was more accurate, the guitar was always 3 feet tall and the vocals were always 5 feet tall or so."
"The initial drum strikes sounded so much more real than even on the Minis, there was no comparison! The staging is better, there is absolutely no boxiness to it. By comparison, the Minis is more boxed in by a large margin."
"The Summits were truly
mind blowing. Joey, I will tell you, I was just at Glenn Poor, the high end esoteric dealer in Chicago, and I listened to their $150,000 super system with the $50,000 Wilson Maxx2.... and your ML Summits are better to my ears. You have the best system I have ever heard."
"And considering the fact that the Logans had the worst placement of the 3, being too close inside and too close to the front wall, it's scary to know that the Summits can get better! We're only scratching the surface..."
"If you get a better DAC, it'd be sick!"
"
Mind blowing. Absolutely mind blowing... I dont know what else to say. I never heard anything near that level of reproduction, period."
Pictures:Setting up the systems...
The Sonic T-Amp... so cute!
The Cary SLP-98L Tube preamplifer:
The Plinius SA102 Class A SS amplifier:
Speakers...
