Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Axiom vs. av123's Rockets

Excellent post Jack. I have been looking for a reasoned comparison between the rocket line and Axiom tower.


That was me and you are right, I should have mentioned that the 750 is discontinued. If you look at the anechoic measurements for the Xstatics, the other example I used as a 'yardstick', they also have a raised midrange.

Your comments on the M60 vs rocket 850 fits with what I have been guessing at. A raised midrange (as opposed to midrange hump [think camel]) will give a speaker a warmer sound and the rolled off highs is probably what gives them a more laid back sound. I am willing to bet that an anechoic graph of the 850 would look similar to the Xstatic.

I puzzled over the fact that both the M80 and the 850 had been compared to the Paradigm Studio 100, but now that I understand a lot more about how some things affect sound, it makes more sense.

If you found the M60 a little more detailed than the 850, the M80 will have more detail again. If you like that detailed live sound (like I do), then the M80 would be the ideal choice.

Technically a neutral speaker is one that produced exactly what it is fed, no broad rises of rolloffs in response. There, like it or not, Axiom gets the nod (with the plusses and minuses you noted). I am still willing to bet that the M80 is as close to neutral as you will get in that price range. That does not mean that the rockets will sound bad or even a lot different than the M60/80, just, as you noted, a little different.

Your comments about the center reflect the general consensus on center speaker design and is what drove me to use dual M2s as a center. The vertical alignment of the tweeter and mid drivers eliminates horizontal comb filtering and provides a better off axis response. The penalty for the better sound is that the bigfoot is quite tall for a center and doesn’t always fit into an equipment cabinet (not a good idea anyway).