Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo New to Axiom, $800 budget, tried BA & Paradigm...

Hello all, I'm new to this board and this is my first post.

I have roughly an $800 budget for a set of floorstanders. I've been back and forth to two different shops trying to compare the new Boston Acoustics VR-2, and the Paradigm Monitor 7. I'm running a Yamaha 6.1 receiver (RX-V1200) 80 watts to each channel. I guess my question is, should I first try the Axiom M60s?

Thanks for your help, especially if you have listened to all the above speakers. Based upon the review on Audioreview.com Axiom really does well. I just want to hear it from those who have listened to them, and the competition.

Thanks -Adam.

I was there :-)
Listened for Paridigm Monitor 7 v3 in a local shop, almost fell in love with those (power handling, clarity, craftmanship), almost bought it ( made a deal for $650 USD - very good deal as a matter of fact), but I heard about AXIOMs and decided to gammble even without listening to AXIOMs and bought M60ti. WOW! Crisp highs, VERY detailed mids, precise bass ( not muddy, but good enough to live without sub for STEREO listening, I listen to a lot of jazz, like solo Monk, Peterson, Webster, Loussier, a lot of opera, rock (Aerosmith) , solos (Kaas)
The buttom line is - Am I glad I took my chances and got M60s!

The only thing to keep in mind - if your listening room is "bright" you might have to do some work to change that, or you might be overwelthed by highs ( they are so detailed that some call it "ear fatigue" - but it really -DETAILS or "hot" records made for boomboxes or car stereos.

Also, there are a lot of folks here who might let you audition AXIOM, depending on where you live.
Good luck

Thanks for the advice.

Anyone have Axiom in North Carolina? My listening room measures 20 x 18, and the 20 side opens even further into our foyer, an additional 10 feet. It is also a vaulted ceiling. I've got space. In fact I have just bought a sub to cover that space. I got a great deal on a Boston PV800, $400 for a demo model from a local shop. It's 300 watts and shakes the house!

Anyone else with comparisons on these speakers?

I've heard the Boston speakers and own the M60's. CLARITY & DETAIL. Those are the two words that come to mind imediately whenever someone hears Axioms for the first time. Well actually I think something more to the effect of Holy SH*T comes to mind first, but then they realize their shock is about the clarity and detail possesed by a speaker that costs far less than anything else they've been listening to. The only pair of tower speakers I've ever heard that have the clarity and detail of the Axioms are the Energy Veritas 2.4. They cost well over $3000.

I have people come to my place quite often to hear my setup. Most of them end up buying a pair of M60's themselves.

fyi...I know your budget is $800 +/-, but you have a very large room - the M60's will handle it fine, but it is actually big enough to jump up to even the M80's and there are some M80's in the "outlet" for only $990 right now!

I demoed Monitor 7's and PDR-10 at a local shop. It was driven by a Marantz (don't know which). Was OK in my opinion, too muffled, not a lot of clarity or separation.

I have the M22's w/ a VTF-2 driven by a 45TX and it's a much better set up.

Thanks for the input.

You've all helped to make my decision. I will definitely order the Axioms before I try anything else in my home.

The only problem with going the route of the M80 is that it is a 4 Ohm speaker. My Yamaha will go 4 Ohm to the fronts and 6 to the rest of the speakers. Which is fine, but I have 8 Ohm rear diffused surrounds by Boston. I don't want to risk damaging the rears by running 6 Ohm into their 8 Ohm load. The surrounds are rated at 150 Watts, I'll be sending 80 to them under an 8 Ohm load.

-Adrock.

Adrock,

It will cause NO problems whatsoever if you drive 4-, 6-, and 8-ohm speakers simultaneously by the same receiver (assuming that your Yamaha will tolerate 4-ohm loads in the first place, which I believe it will). Also, you will NOT damage a speaker by driving it by an amp that is "too powerful" for the specs of the speaker -- in fact, the vast majority of speaker damage is caused by an amp that is not powerful enough and thus forced into clipping. An overt amp clipping often damages the tweeters.

Finally, if your receiver has a switch for speaker ohmage, simply leave it at the "8-16 ohms" or "high" position, unless the receiver ever shuts itself down in the middle of a playback. All this switch does is to lower the amp's power-supply rail voltage a bit when flipped to the "low" position, and therefore decrease the max available power from the amp -- you don't want to do it unless you need to (i.e., thermal or over-current shutdowns).

But, say I get the M80s which are 4 Ohm. If I run the amp at the setting of 4-6 ohm, wouldn't I be sending more wattage to the M80s? And these speakers require a bit of power to really bring them to life,...at least that's what I've read from the owners. Here is what my owners manual says about Ohm/Wattage:

MAIN, 8/6/4/2 Ohm = 105/130/170/200W

a little help please...

No, Adam, it's as sushi said; the lower impedance setting on the receiver reduces the maximum voltage and therefore the maximum power available. It should only be used as a last resort in the unlikely circumstance that the receiver keeps shutting off. At any speaker impedance the higher setting on the receiver allows a higher maximum output than does the lower setting.

Got it. So I leave it set at 8, the speaker in turn receives the higher wattage just because it is a 4 Ohm, right?

You got it.