Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Saying hello, M22's vs M40/50/60 for roomsize

I have to ask a quick question here. If the recommended distance for the M60's is 10+ feet then what is the recommended distance for the larger M80's? I ask b/c it seems to me that Peter's room at roughly 2500 cubic feet (19x15x8) would be large enough to accomodate the M80's, and easily the M60's as long as the speakers were put along the short wall. Placing the tower 3 ft from the front wall and the listening position approx 4ft from the rear wall would still leave 12 ft. for him to play with. Would this not be enough for the M80's to breath?TIA

Yeah. I don't think we can stress that enough. I got my M22s before I got my sub (an SVS PB1-ISD). I fell in love with them even though they couldn't go very low. As my "brain broke in", however, I began to appreciate the bass they did have more and more. (This was a big adjustment for me, since my previous speakers were Paradigm Monitor 9 towers.)

I had a couple weeks of time on the M22s before my sub arrived. After I set that up and calibrated it, the difference was astonishing. Wall o' big frickin' sound.

No no, I don't think the M80's would happen - they're just a little bit outside my price range and there's no good way to rearrange that room so that the speakers are in the short end. Thanks for the advice though!

Believe me, my wife and I have tried different room combinations to try to open up the room a little audio wise and there's just no good way to do it. One short wall is to the outside with a row of windows with a radiator (house built in 1910) in front of them, so anything placed over there would A) block the windows and B) be subject to the heat of the radiator in the winter. The other short wall has a closet that can't be blocked and has no access to outlets or cable (w/o drilling, anyway). Floating the couch 3 or 4 feet from the rear, closet-wall might work if I could be convinced that heat wouldn't be an issue against the windows, but we have hardwood floors and the couch has wheels - so it likes to move.

The worst part about living in an old house is there's never an outlet where you need one.

Ok, I see Peter. I had a similar situation in my previous home so I understand.

I'm looking at the M60's now for my wifes room which is approx the same size as my theater room (19x13x8) except my theater room has vaulted ceilings @ 10 feet, and she had her eye on the smaller M60's, but I thought we might be able to swing the M80's in that size of a room. Maybe not though.

Anyway, I was just curious since the consensus is you should be 10'+ from the M60's and 13'+ for the M80's. Seems like alot of "breathing room".

In general, a large speaker's drivers occupy more linear space than a small speaker's drivers. For example, the distance between the topmost driver and the bottom-most driver is larger on the M80 than the M22.

As a rule of thumb, try to put a proportionate amount of space -- I'm not aware of an exact ratio, so just experiment -- between your ears and the speaker in order to allow the soundwaves coming from each driver to reach your ear coherently.

OK, so that means that the high frequency drivers should be further from the listener than the lower frequency drivers. To attain the "coherence" you seem to be talking about, you'd need a slant faced cabinet with the drivers aligned parallel to the floor. That's how "time coherent" speakers are designed (like Thiel, Dunleavy, MM deCapos, Meadowlarks, etc.)

Peter, I wqs in a similar situation, I ordered and received the M60's. They were quite beautiful, however they were a bit too large for my room. They did not fit, and stuck out from their assigned area, leaving them eye-unappealing. I had to ship them back and order the M22's which I am waiting on. Make sure of the room size, hate to have to spend extra cash to send them back. In my case it was 90.00

Once again, a big thanks to all who have replied. Thanks too on the FYI on the reverse-shipping cost on the M60's, if I weren't to like them. Good to keep in mind.

Visited the local Paradigm dealer today and listened to several in their line, and my wife and I like the sound of the Legend quite a bit. At $750, it's just as much as a set of M60's. So since I can't actually hear the Axiom M22's or M60's, can any Paradigm owners comment on how the Axiom's sound compared to the Legends?

Another goofy question... how common are Axiom dealers in Canada? I ask because my wife has been bugging me to take a long-weekend trip to Canada (Windsor is about a 12 hour drive from where I live), so I'm wondering - we could actually drive to Canada and buy them there, depending on where the nearest dealer is. Living in Illinois, can anyone tell me where, exactly, the closest Axiom dealer is?

Thank you, once again.
Peter

True. I'm not sure how speakers such as Pipe Dreams ( a very tall tower filled with tweeters and midranges) maintain coherence -- unless they electronically time-delay the drivers...