I have a pair of Michaura M55s, a beautiful speaker which used 2 Axiom 5.25" drivers and the Merak/old M0/M1 3/4" titanium tweeters. Joe V used to say about the 3/4" tweeter that it was "bullet proof" and they could have stayed with it instead of the 1" Ti tweeter which Axiom now uses. The cabinet is a hex shaped, internally braced thing of beauty, somewhat smaller than the M22 despite the similarity of their driver kits. The x-over was a simple affair, consisting of a circuit board, fuse, ceramic resistor, and a low end cap.

I swapped back and forth between a pair of M3Tis and these M55s. Both speakers integrated beautifully with a Velodyne 10" sub. The mids were a bit 'richer' with the M3s, but the mid-highs and up were so beautifully extended and pure that I ended up using the M55s with my 5 watt per channel single end triode distortion generating integrated amplifier. The soundstage extended far beyond the speaker location for both the M3s and M55s.

Both speakers suffered from a little (but noticeable) graininess. I removed the fuse, isolated and damped the circuit board, replaced the ceramic resistors with some Mills in one pair and Caddocks in another, and the caps with Jensen foil/oil units. I used silver internal speaker wire, and added additional damping to the cabinet.

The sound quality improved. The graininess disappeared. the Sound Stage, large as it was, became huge - wider, higher and deeper. I finally experienced from my system what some refer to as the "wall of sound."

I don't know whether the Ninja folk have improved on the M22s or not. But, if I improved the sound of a pair of M22 analogs by simply upgrading x-over components while retaining the Axiom design and, of course, x-over component values, it certainly would not shock me if the Ninja redesigned x-over using upgraded parts improved the sound quality of the M22s.

I also have a pair of M22s but prefer the modified M55s to these excellent speakers. I don't know how the Ninja folks "voiced" their x-over, whether they used their ears, frequency plots or both. But, if I had to bet, I'd say the Ninja modified M22s are an improvement.

I 'stole' my M55s from U-bid back when you could get ridiculous deals on audio equipment. I spent more on the replacement capacitors than I did for the speakers themselves. I don't know if the cost of the modifications justify the results, for most folks, but I'm good with them.

Just a heads up.

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BTW, I used an Ah! Njoe Tjoeb tube output CDP with upgrades, Mapleshade Clearview Double Golden Helix Plus speaker wires and high end snake oil Maple Audio interconnects for all A-B comparisons.



Last edited by 2x6spds; 09/16/08 06:33 AM.
Enjoy the Music. Trust your ears. Laugh at Folks Who Claim to Know it All.