Thanks, exlabdriver -
That was my feeling, but my audio buddy is adamant that I'll regret it should I get ANYTHING less than the M80s. I respect his ears and his opinions. That said, his M80s didn't work too well in my room (probably because of the amp). Even he agreed that the M80s just didn't sound anything like he thought they should.
I'm thinking that with the amplifier I now have, that there will be no bass reticence from any speaker used in the room. I'll also have sufficient damping factor that woofer control won't be an issue.
The speakers I'm now using (Paradigm Eclipse BP) have an anechoic -3dB of 28 Hz. They have great bass in my room, but the midrange and treble are somewhat recessed. From what I've read online, Paradigm deliberately voiced these to have a reduced tweeter output with the expectation that the speakers would be used in a "live" room where the rear tweeters would supplement the total treble output.
Alas, in my room, I've got ATS sound absorber pads directly behind & between the speakers and another immediately behind the listening couch. These make the room non-echoey. The M80s sounded AWESOME from the midrange on up (far, far better than the Paradigms) in this room, which is why I'm still strongly considering Axiom Audio speakers. I believe that the M80s have the potential to produce stronger bass in my room than what we previously heard.
Nevertheless, a pair of subwoofers would also work well here. I've previously used subs in this room with other speakers and had excellent results. The room is blessed with NO bass pile-up modes, and has absolutely flat frequency response from 25 to 90 Hz. (per measurements from the listening position).
So the ultimate question becomes: Assuming that I will use subwoofers, what do I give up by going to a smaller Axiom speaker? Obviously, the treble ultimate volume capacity that comes from having two tweeters...What else?
