Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Their here...

Got them hooked up and been listening for the past few hours.

Let me start right off the bat and state I am NOT an "audiophile". Also, I haven't owned that many sets of speakers in my life, but do work as a studio engineer for a group of AM/FM stations here in Memphis.

In one word if I could describe these speakers: WOW!!! Actually, that is an understatement...HOLY @#$% out to be more appropriate.

These speakers are not quite what I expected-they actually SURPASED my expectations. This is definately the very first pair of speakers I have ever owned that made me go "WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!".

Not being an audiophile, I have learned quite a bit thru this, and various other forums. One thing I have definately learned, is I will never EVER again buy anything "stereo" or "HT" related from "Worst Buy" or "Short Circuit City". OMG, so THIS is what GOOD speakers are supposed to sound like!

Now, down to some specifics....I do not really know how to describe what I am hearing....I have heard on more than one occasion as Axiom speakers sounding "bright". I even listened around at various stores, and dinked around with some Yamaha speakers we had at work, and those were bright; to the point where the high end was so accentuated, I could easily hear amplifier hiss at moderate listening levels during quiet passages. This is just NOT the case with the axioms. I do not know how they did what they did, but the high frequency components of music are brought out with CRYSTAL CLEAR detail without being "in your face" or harsh. And when there are quiet passages or inbetween tracks, the speakers are quiet as a churchmouse-no hint of "hiss" like I heard on those Yamies I brought home. How can the highs sound soooo good without the normal side-effects that normally go along with a typically bright speaker? I do not know, but Axiom sure did something right!

For the first time in my life, I can finally run the built in tone controls/EQ "Flat" and be fully satisfied at the quality of the music. It must have been all that low-fi gear I have been so used to over the years that always made me bump those tone/eq controls to get it to sound right.

Just to balance my quick review, I will point out a few minor things I noticed (not necessarily bad):

1) Speaker efficiency-Although they are rated at 89dB, My other speakers on the A channel are 90dB rated and are considerably louder than the Axioms-not that I have golden ears, but definately sounds like more than a 1 dB difference, but this could maybe be attributed to placement? No biggie, just something I noticed. Although I am kind of dissapointed that the Axioms make my main speakers sound like strings with tin cans on the ends.

2) Would have liked a *tad* more bass; BUT, this is no fault of the Axioms. I chose M60Tis because I wanted an "easy to drive" 8 ohm speaker for my SonyES receiver. I love my SonyES and it fits my needs PERFECTLY, BUT...it would be the LAST receiver on my list to drive a 4 ohm speaker. I know the M80s have lower extension, and I do understand I gave up some of that extension when I chose the 60s, but thought I'd point it out. The other aspect of desiring more bass, is I have probably been used to a slight "boost" on a few systems that seem to be so common today.

3) Small blemish on the underside of one speaker (not visible). Things like this happen, so no biggie. I am probably just going to keep them instead of shipping one back. Its small (about the size of a pencil eraser), but not visible since its on the underside of the speakers.

Back to the positives, one more note....I swear these speakers make my subwoofer sound BETTER. They definately BLEND a HELL of a lot better than my main speakers. Sometimes I try and I can't figure out where the bass is coming from, my Sub, or the axioms....For reference, my main speakers are too small to even produce good mid-bass, so even though I can't localize my sub with them, I do know when the bass notes are coming from the sub or the mains if that makes any sense at all.

All in all, I give the speakers a 9.5 out of 10, and an 11 out of 10 on what I was expecting!

-Alan

Enjoy, Alan. On the bass, since you have an excellent sub I assume that you have the M60s set "small" with about an 80Hz crossover(you really should use the sub for just music, too).

Good stuff, Alan! We all know that the Axiom sound won't be appreciated by everyone. So, when someone DOES appreciate it, and that is, far and away, more often than not, we really enjoy hearing about it. ENJOY!

Many speakers seem to do bass "better" than the M60s, my MA Silver8s included, but some are simply muddling up the lower freqs or, when pushed to very high levels, they are unable to handle that deep bass.
I wouldn't worry about the bass, or lack thereof (and I wouldn't cross the M60s at 80hz either).
Use the subwoofer, pay attention to placement, and crank those M60s to your receiver's limits and you will hear what I'm talking about.
They will positively scream w/out a hint of distortion or wonky bassiness.

>>Would have liked a *tad* more bass; BUT, this is no fault of the Axioms.

Remember that you can sometimes fine-tune the amount of bass you hear by moving the speakers towards or away from the wall. I find that a foot or less from the back of the M60s to the wall gives me too *much* bass, and I normally end up running about two feet away from the wall to get the sound I like. Depends on the room and the speaker, I imagine...

Oh, please don't misunderstand me; I am VERY pleased with quantity (especially quality) of the bass from these speakers!

In all the research I have done over the years, the one thing I have found that gets to me are glaring reviews with nothing but praise for a product, and no mention of weaknesses. A good example is my current main speakers, my little Klipsch Quintets. Do a search for reviews, and you would think they are the best thing ever. Every review is positive, with slmost no weaknesses pointed out. I had to have something small, and when I listened to them, I *knew* something was missing/wrong. For HT, they do an okay job, and sound quite nice, but for music they are horrible. I guess for what they are (tiny speakers) then maybe they are good, but surely they could have sounded better; the reviews sure led me to have high expectations.

Anyway, the M60s are every bit what I had hoped for and then some! I have to admit, I wonder if Axiom would ever release a similar speaker with dual 8" woofers... *grin*

But now I see what people mean about them not being "bright". IMHO, they are not at all. Accurate is a good way to describe it, but definately not bright.

As far as my setup, I tried both large and small, and they sound equally good either way; But for ease-of-use I have it setup as small, crossed over at 100Hz (I only have 3 choices: 60, 100, and 150). The reasons I am leaving it like that is because I switch between the "A" and "B" speakers (A-quintets for movies, and B-M60s for music). Its a screwy way to do it, but I can't do large speakers all around for HT; I can't even do bookshelves, so the Quintets have to stay for HT. But the M60s are there for music duty.

Even crossed over at 100hz they sound fantastic. They blend SO WELL with my sub it is amazing. As I mentioned above and in other threads here and elsewhere, my Quintets don't blend well with my sub. I realize I have them crossever over too low, but honestly it makes no difference; my sub's high freq limit is 100hz, and my mains low limit are *supposed* to be 100 Hz, so no matter if I set the cross over to 100 or 150 I have a hole.

The m60s on the other hand blend so seamlessly with the sub it truly is amazing!

-Alan

PS. My TRUELY ONLY regret is that now I wish I could have an all axiom setup for HT duty. Maybe one day in the future when I have a room dedicated to HT I will...