Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Speaker face-off this weekend

We were just contacted by Curtis Chang of AVSForum.com to participate in a face-off between Aperion 522D's, Rocket RS150's, Ascend CBM-170's, and the VMPS 626R's. AVSForum requested the M22s to face off in this challenge, which is taking place at the home of a Rocket owner.

Curtis wanted me to invite anyone in the Los Angeles area to partake! Saturday, from 12-4pm in Monterey. If anyone would like to partake, you can email me for his address.

Incidentally, I believe that this is actually in Monterey Park in the LA area, for anyone interested.

That is going to be interesting. I look forward to the reports by the participants!

This should definitely have some interesting results, I can't wait to see.

So, it looks like some of the results of this face-off are coming in. Not surprisingly, considering the format of this face-off, the M22's did not fare that well. As an Axiom owner, I could certainly rebut some of the comments on the AVS board, but I fear a flaming if I did so (and I would leave that to some of the more seasoned Axiom owners anyway). Most of the comments of the M22's focused on words like metallic, tinny, and bright, which as Axiom owners know, is more cliche than reality. And, I certainly wouldn't question the reviewers' opinions, because everyone is entitled to their opinion. But, considering that one of the reviewers is an ardent Rocket speaker owner, and those speakers are often defined as "too laid back", it's no surprise that he found the Axioms too bright and not to his liking. My only fear is that some people may take this stuff as gospel, not just opinions from people who either prefer or have become accustomed to a very different sound, not necessarily better or worse.

Plus, I believe the speakers were tested without a sub. So, on the one hand, they were each tested the same way, fairly. But, it could have been some effect similar to the M3's vs. M22's. I have read that the M3's are tweaked differently than the M22's, so they may sound better without a sub. But, with a sub, the M22's seem to be preffered over the M3's, as the M22's midrange and highs really shine.

These are just my .02 cents. I obviously would have preffered to see the M22's fair a bit better (hey, at least they were preferred over one brand), but these are just opinions, and opinions vary.

It always up to the individual. People have varied tastes. I used to have the M22Ti for 5 months. They are good speakers. I traded them for the M3Ti because my ears enjoyed the sound of the M3Ti much better. Its all personal taste.

Saturn

gem,
Your comments are well placed. I certainly agree with your thoughts on the reviews.

One major problem with a speaker face off with multiple people over a weekend can be quite hard to accomplish properly. Considering the time it takes for the brain to break into the new sound of each speaker, a single day with several people may not be enough time for you to decide whether this sound is better or worse. You can easily define how other speakers sound in comparison to the original reference that the listener is used to hearing, however, that original reference is just that, the point at which the listener feels is often the best to begin with (biased towards what you know well).

Although the Axioms have been reported as being bright (and they are) very few people report on how clear or precise that also makes them. I think the descriptions of tinny and metallic are coming from those who researched the tweeter materials ahead of time. It looks to me like at least 2 of the other tweeters are not pure metals and hence get the reputation of producing a 'softer' sound (silk vs. aluminum...it must be 'softer' right?).
That being said, the different materials can produce a different frequency curve, different spikes or dips, or rolloff quicker at the upper end. My Tannoys employ the soft dome (silK) tweeter and i find them to be really smooth in their delivery but a bit less detailed than the Axioms. I have yet to hook them up to my system that powers the Axioms though so this is not quite apples to apples.
So which do people prefer then?
Accuracy in sound from a flatter frequency response curve with a metal tweeter?
Or the rolled off upper end that may sound 'less harsh' to the ears but then 'less accurate' reproduction of sound?

Perhaps you can post the link to the AVS forum talk on this. I would enjoy reading it i'm sure.

I love my m22's. I think Axiom was mentioned about 3 times in 65 posts. the reason for that face off was for the host to compare his aperions or ascends with the Onix shill and a really high priced speaker. Man, that site is slow. Looks like they are closing portions of it as well.

here is one

and


here is the other

Frank

blame it on amie she sent a bad color-lol
it sounds like they all like what they bought before the showdown -already had perceptions on what the sound would be.
but hey no one makes a speaker that works for everyone anyway.