Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners M3 at loud volumes

Actually the M3s play very loud for the category they are in. It is important to remember that the M3 is a 6 1/2" 2-way design with good low bass extension. At some point the physical limitations of the design will reach its maximum output. This is going to vary widely depending on the source material but the large motor structure of the M3 will allow it to play quite loud without any distortion. For high volume in large rooms the options are to move up to an M22 or larger, or use a powerful sub to take over the bass frequencies and remove some of the load from the M3 woofer. It is also important to not confuse amplifier clipping with speaker distortion. Lots of bass at high volume will drain the power supply of most amplifiers quickly and change the output from music to distortion. This phenomenon is not speaker distortion but rather the speaker reproducing the distorted signal it is receiving. This is why the expense amplifiers (assuming the cost is justified) will have such large power supplies and remain sounding "warm", or better not distorted, when playing high dynamic source material.