Lost in the Land of the Axiomites……
My plan was originally to just order my main speakers, and hold off a bit on the surrounds, center and sub. My concern was not only that I might be "under buying" with the Axiom brand, but also that I might be "overbuying" in terms of speaker size. I was unsure if I wanted to give the M22s or the M60s a try… they both seemed to be the most popular choices. I was leaning towards the M60s, but always had the feeling that a large speaker in a small room never really gets the opportunity to "open up" and needs to sound it's best. (Maybe it's more common with less sensitive speakers?)
I was also unsure about ordering an Axiom sub. At the time (pre EP500 and EP600), almost
all the talk regarding subs left an impression that SVS or Hsu was the way to go… that seems like it's much less a "given" now that Axiom has some "Beasts" in it's lineup. As you may have seen in the photos in the previous posting, I like a nice clean look and therefore it
was an important factor to me that the sub match the finish of my other speakers.
So, on a wing and a prayer, I decided to just order the M60s, VP150, QS8s and an EP350 in Mansfield Beech with black grills from the Factory Outlet. The wait time was expected to be seven weeks if I remember correctly, and the wait just about done me in! Someone else described it as a "kid at Christmas" feeling, and I couldn't agree more. It didn't help that it was close to Christmas time! At about five and a half weeks out, I received the famed Golden E-Mail from Amie to let me know that the order was shipped early. Woo Hoo!
Unfortunately, FedEx damaged one of the M60s in Memphis, so I received my order minus one of my main speakers. Although it was in no way Axioms' fault, they went so far "above and beyond" in service that I couldn't believe it! I received the order and notice of the damaged speaker on Friday, and if you don't know, Axiom is closed on Fridays. I sent Axiom an e-mail anyway to let them know what happened and took my wife out to dinner. When I returned, I found an e-mail from Amie apologizing (Ummm, Amie? I blamed FedEx, not Axiom!) and letting me know that she shipped another M60 already and had it sent overnight priority! I can't even imagine what it cost to ship an M60 overnight, morning delivery from outside the country! On Monday (the next business day), I was surprised to take delivery of not only the replacement M60 that Amie sent, but the damaged one that, for whatever reason, FedEx had sent on to me despite the arrangements that were already made to return it to Axiom. I called Amie, and she arranged to have another FedEx driver pick up the damaged one later that day. FedEx could have done better, but to say that I was impressed with Axioms' customer service would be a severe understatement!
It was only matched by my initial impressions of the speakers as I unpacked them. Man, Kid at Christmas is right!
These were good looking speakers! The photos on Axioms' website did not do them justice. I had heard that the M60s were deep, and certainly I saw the measurements listed…. But there was no photo anywhere that gave me an idea of the depth and shape.
So others don't have to suffer the same way:
There are some towers that are literally a work of art, and their prices reflect that. Ninety percent of the others fall somewhere between a boring monolith and a very clean, understated look …. The M60s fall into the latter group and I would put them at the upper side of that range. The "Anti-Standing-Wave" cabinet..(i.e., it's broader in the front than in the back); the radiused front edges and the excellent vinyl that'll-pass-for-wood-with-many-people all contribute! As you may tell from many of the photos, I have a tendency to prefer my speakers with the grills on. Actually, they're a great looking speaker without their grills as well, with those matt silver cones…But hey, as I just said, I like clean, simple looks.
The QS8s were smaller and yet heavier than I expected. The VP150 was both larger and heavier than I expected and the sub was just
much bigger than I expected.
I spent a few minutes looking them over for the blemishes that led them to be classified as Factory Outlet, and I couldn't find any! I had read on these boards that it's pretty common for F.O. buyers to not find any blemishes at all, or, if they do, they're minor.
First Impression upon seeing them? Psyched!
Hooking Them Up / First Listening Impressions
I hooked up all of my speakers with some 12 gauge Radio Shack speaker wire I bought in anticipation of the arrival of the Axioms. Evidently, RS was "getting out of the bulk cable business" and after calling several stores, I found one nearby with 150' or so left and available at the closeout sale price and so I cleaned them out of the last of their stock.
On the speaker ends, I used
Radio Shack dual banana plugs for the M60s and the VP150:
On the receiver end, I used
Radio Shack Single banana plugs:
The single banana plugs are crimp-on, but I soldered them anyway.
OK, so here's the part where I
repeat what I said earlier about this being my opinion, and much of the reason why I put off this "report" for so long. And please, at least respect my honesty.
My first impression was that they were "bright". Let me immediately follow that with "I don't feel that way now"! But yes, for awhile…weeks… that's the impression I kept coming away with.
I would put on one recording and think that they were
beautifully detailed. The veil that muffled the highs on my old speakers was gone, and I never heard an acoustic guitar sound so beautiful. I was thrilled. Then, I would put on another recording, and feel that the speakers were a little bright. And I would wonder if I made the wrong decision.
Let me just break here for a moment to explain that I
do understand the idea of a "monitor". In video production, professional monitors are used because they will expose the flaws in your image quality. You
want to see these issues, warts and all, or you'll never know if the color is correct or not. Ditto with audio in a production environment. If I'm mixing a soundtrack with speakers or headphones that color the sound, my mix won't sound right on other systems.
So, I understood that "monitors" such as the Axioms were going to be revealing, and allow me to hear excellent recordings as sounding excellent and poor recordings as sounding poor. Certainly, I had read it here plenty of times before I purchased! I think, in short, what surprised me so much was that so many of my CDs were really not engineered that well! I should mention that because of my age (42) and being a bit of an early-adopter when CD came along, a sizeable amount of my collection is more than ten years old, and I have seen many discs that I own replaced with remastered versions. I listen to a lot of rock music, some jazz, lots of blues, some classical, but own virtually nothing that would be considered "Top 40" pop.
It could be thought by some that "if the Axioms sound bright with so many recordings, is it really incorrect to label them as bright?" I've come to the conclusion that "Yes, that's incorrect". The material that you assume to have better recording, engineering and mixing….Jazz, Classical, well-regarded rock-pop masterpieces such as DSOTM all sound great. It's the more "mainstream" pop and what I like to call "Top-40 Metal" that sound bright. In other words, the recordings that are frequently engineered for radio airplay, car stereos and boomboxes. You know what? If I engineered for that listening equipment, I might mix the high-end a little hot, too!
I can't vouch for whether or not I have a tendency to ignore the poorly-recorded stuff for the better-sounding stuff, or whether it just took a few weeks for my ears to get used to that "veil" being lifted after years of my older speakers, or if positioning tweaks have made a difference, or even if they've broken-in (!). All I know is that initially, I was a bit unsure of them and now I'm very much enjoying them can't believe that I am on my way to achieving my initial goal – hi-end sound – in my listening room for the price I paid!
Which, does, of course mean that I'm not quite there yet. I don't blame my Axioms, but I need to work on this room a bit, as I've posted recently
here. I need to explore some bass trapping and maybe some of the reflections that I'm getting from the floor and the sidewall from my right speaker. Here's a photo of some of my original testing with sound absorption/diffusion by using some Auralex foam along with a "sound blanket", a location production tool that allows for easier "dry" recording in a "live" audio environment:
I
did find that it helped my frequency response plot, but I have more work to do to improve things further and keep it aesthetically pleasing!
As mentioned, I
have found that there are good and bad recordings, and the Axioms make you very aware of that. I'm certainly aware of it, in that I really think that I've skimmed probably three quarters of my 700 or so CDs. I had read on the boards that when you receive your Axioms, you "rediscover" your music collection, and I've found that it's absolutely the case! I don't think I listened to an entire CD the first week or so though; it was like I was an addict in need of my next fix! I would grab a CD, skip around to a few tracks that I was curious about hearing, and then move on to the next one. Many a morning I could be found in a semi-comatose, fetal position under the coffee table, CDs littering the floor giving away the previous nights' obsessions! I should mention that all of my CDs are particularly easy to sift through, as they've been currently "stored" on 100-CD spindles. I'll write more about this a bit later, but the short story is that I emptied my two CD jukeboxes just about
a year ago and haven't yet replaced them. I would say, if pressed for percentages, 70% of my CDs sound excellent, and 30% of them sound as though the upper end is a little edgy. Of course, 100% of my CDs still sound better than my previous speakers, which were no cheapies! Still, it's unfortunate that the discs I have aren't more uniform. Just a moment ago, as I'm writing this, I popped in U2s' "War", expecting thunderous beats from Larry Mullen, Jr. and I didn't get them. There really wasn't much punch to them at all. Again, I don't blame the Axioms (recent U2 releases sound much improved) my old speakers just never allowed me to hear how mediocre this CD sounded! I put on "The Best of Al Green" instead and it sounds better than I've ever heard it.
I've bought several SACD and DVD-Audio discs and some of them are among my favorite "test" recordings. Steely Dan's
Everything Must Go, Pink Floyd's
Dark Side of the Moon, The Eagles'
Hotel California, Santana's
Shaman, Beck's
Sea Change, Yes'
Fragile, Queens'
The Game, Jimmy D. Lanes'
It's Time, Stevie Ray Vaughans'
Couldn't Stand The Weather, Diana Kralls'
The Girl In The Other Room, The Indigo Girls'
Become You, and Aerosmiths'
Toys In The Attic are among my favorites. In the interest of emphasizing that not every hi-resolution disc is worthy of it's name, I've found Aerosmiths'
O, Yeah! Ultimate Aerosmith Hits to be extremely bright and edgy and Peter Gabriels'
Shaking The Tree to be disappointingly mushy at best. I have definitely come to a favorable conclusion regarding hi resolution discs, but it hasn't been without bumps.
I think the biggest benefit and/or surprise regarding these discs is that I like the idea of surround mixes for music. When I was first reading about surround mixes putting you "onstage" with the musicians all around you, I didn't think I would like it at all. To me, that wasn't natural to hear music as if I were onstage with the musicians, and I certainly wouldn't expect a format that relied on listeners to sit in a sweetspot to succeed. I know that I don't have the opportunity to do that very often…frequently I have music while I'm in and out of the room and multitasking. But, I bought a few discs early on with the thought of hearing amazing benefits to the higher sampling rates, which I'm not sure materialized. In listening to these discs, I never had the previously-described feeling of being "onstage" with the musicians, but rather that the stereo mix that had always come from one direction in the room had now "opened up" to expand all around me. And although there are certainly benefits to sitting in the sweetspot, I find no disadvantage to surround mixes when I
am multitasking. The sound just seems to fill the room. Of course, that's partly due to the excellent QS-8s (more about them later).
