<groan from the Axiomites....>
Yes, yes, another 'VS' round of debate. I'm sorry, m'kay!
So I *finally* got a chance to visit a Paradigm dealer this weekend. I have been told by several folks here that the RS100 sounds very similar to the M60/80, and might be about as close as you'll get to 'Axiom' sound without actually listening to Axiom's. So I've heard, anyway. With that in mind, I headed straight to the pair of RS100's that they had set up. All run by NAD equipment, it looked to be a pretty nice setup....
We weren't really blown away by the speakers. They weren't bad by any means, and I do think that I heard some similarities to my M22's somewhere in there. Bass was great, although not amazing. Low-midrange was pretty good, but not really smooth nor rich. Female vocals (Norah Jones) did not have that lush, full presence to it that I've heard on other larger floor-standing speakers (B&W, Energy Veritas). The midrange sounded very similar to what I'm used to in my m22's. That is to say, quite good. But the highs were extremely bright. The shop's demo CD was some Dave Matthews, and the cymbol hits where almost piercing. My wife (who has better ears than I do) winced. I brought along a couple of my own CD's that I know are mastered well, and they sounded better, but were still awfully bright.
These speaker's MSRP is $2,500, and the store had this last pair on 'clearance' for less than $1,400. Always tempting to see such a huge discount, but we were only mildly impressed with the sound, and that's a lot to just be 'ho-hum' about.
So here's my question, oh Axiom lovers. To anyone that's heard the RS100's, how do they compare to the sound of the S60/S80 siblings? I know this topic has appeared once or twice before, but I'm curious if anyone has any information that they'd like to share!
Thanks for any/all advice!
