This battle is over and the results are in...
A few points need to be made first.
1) This was by NO means scientific
2) The speakers were played at my local Good Guys listening room
on to the results...I'm just going to give quick notes on each thing we listened to.
Round One - Nora Jones
We listened to the Veritas 2.2 first, and it was beautiful. Full rich midtones, detailed and smooth. Smooth and Rich are the two words that immediately come to mind. Bass was tight, and again, very smooth. Certainly not huge though - but nice.
The M22's held their own with Nora. Yes, they weren't as rich and full sounding as the Veritas, but they were very clear, detailed, and had a wonderfully large, spacious sound. The highs, though as clear as the Veritas, did seem a bit harsh. I've never thought this of the M22's before, but compared to the Energy's, I could hear it.
Round Two - The Propellerheads
I listen to a good deal of electronica. The Propellerheads' "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" is an amazing piece of music, and quite a workout for any speaker. The Veritas handled it very, very well. The initial quick baseline in this song is fast and tight, I've never heard ANY speaker that can handle it alone. A subwoofer is really needed for this cd. The Veritas did what they could with that bass, but their real strenght came in the horns. The opening trumpets were full, and strong.
I've listened to this particular track more times than I can count, so I know what it sounds like. When I listened to it on my M22's, something wasn't right. I can only chalk it up to the particular room we were in - and the speaker positioning. (There was little I could do about the positioning) but something was definately amiss. To put it mildly it sounded like crap. At home it's totally different.
Round Three - The Saint Soundtrack
I listen to this CD a lot as well. It's a great cd to bring to demos as well, because it has a great mix of songs from electronica, and rock, to ambient and quiet female vocals. Once again, the Veritas were dead on. Their rich, smooth sound came through with any cd I put on.
What confuses me even more now, is that this cd on the M22's again sounded not so bad. It couldn't keep up with the Veritas, but compared to the Propellerheads track, it sounded much, much better. ????
In the end, it was as expected, the $1500 Veritas were the hands down winner. But again, they cost nearly 4x what a pair of M22's go for. I know what my M22's sound like at home - in the proper positioning, and they hold up much better to the Veritas then they performed tonight at the Good Guys.
The Good Guys district manager happened to be there to hear this showdown. He too was impressed with the soundstage put forth by the little M22's. He also commented on the very nice finish they had. I told him they were $400 speakers, and he was quite surprised.
Bottom line on the Veritas...wonderful detail, with a very rich midtones, and a clean tight low end. I think if you were to buy a pair of these, you wouldn't be upgrading for a long, long time.
Bottom line on the M22ti's...going in I realized this was not a fair fight. It was like sending a lightweight boxer into the ring with Mike Tyson. Knowing that, and also having done side-by-side comparisons with my M22 against speakers in it's own weight division, they are one hell of a speaker. An amazingly large soundstage, wonderful, wonderful details in the highs...you're not going to miss the subtle notes in any recording with these speakers. Bass is surprisingly not that bad...they don't go very low, but what the do produce is tight and very clean. Heck, I own them, and I listened to the likes of B&W 600 series, Ascend, Rocket, NHT, Energy, and the list goes on. For a speaker under $650, I don't think you can go wrong with the Axiom M22. It's just not going to stand toe to toe with a $1500 speaker.
