Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Where's my high end?

How heavy and solid are your stands? That could help a tiny bit.

They are the SS24's by Axiom - which I have to say aren't terribly heavy and could be subject to vibration. Perhaps I should see if I can weight them. Back at our old house the speakers were on a very sturdy bookshelf. Hmmmm...?

Cat, the answer is 7), something else, and it's your listening room. As has already been said, there's no speaker that can give you the clarity when operating in a reflective room that you experience with a good set of headphones firing about an inch from your ear canals. You probably should separate your speakers almost as much as your distance from them, which will help, but the M2s have excellent clarity; it isn't their fault.

Okay, here are my brief responses to 1) ~ 7) above.

1), 3), 4) These are things that I would consider much later, if any, after an acceptable sound quality has once been obtained by room/placement optimization.

2) I think people wall-mount the speakers because of practical/ergonomic/esthetic considerations. Wall-mounting will NOT improve the sound quality -- if any, it tends to be a suboptimal for the front L/R, unless the speaker is specifically designed for the purpose. The M2's are certainly not.

5) I would say it is too early to do so -- unless you tend to listen at rather loud volumes. In that case, given the bigger room size, I would simply replace the M2's for a model that can go louder.

7) You may want to try placing a thick floor rug in the front part of the room, in order to tame some early reflections off the hardwood floor.

John-

Not much I can do about the room. But the logic here is interesting. The senns sound great (almost everyone agrees on that) and the axioms don't sound as good (according to me).

It seems to me that I'm asking for the impossible. I want the Axiom 2is to sound like the Puppy 7s. At $22K the Puppys sound great, rival the Senns and acheive the clarity I want.

The real problem is that the Puppy 7s are not available for $280.

P.S. This was never intended as an attack on the m2is. I was merely trying to get some help making them sound cleaner at the high end.

Thanks for everyone's help.

Jeff, about the only thing that I'll add is that if there's a bit of a problem with the listening room(as I suspect there is)it would reinforce my suggestion in the other thread to get a receiver with automatic room and speaker equalization. Doesn't work miracles, but it should help.

I think (as usual) Sushi's got you covered.

My steps would be:
1. Play (a lot) with speaker placement;
2. Think very seriously about rugs/drapes and other room changes that can significantly alter your experience; and
3. Start looking at speakers that can move more air.

I don't think wall-mounting the speakers or getting a bigger amp is going to make the difference that you need.

Good luck. Please do report back with updates

True I did a listen on the Veritas long ago when you suggested. I did not have the M60 in the same room but definitely the M60 kicks butt. The M60 does have more drivers which does specialize in in each range giving excellent resolution...more so with the M80.
I'm a monitor/bookshelf type of guy (my preference) thats the only reason I never went with the M60 or M80.