Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo large room, small speakers

What did people do before subs came along?

I concurr, a very nice room - nice light.

Fullrange speakers

Or at least we thought they were. They were certainly advertised as so but I don't think most could really pull it off.

I agree Rick, even the old floorstanding speakers with 12-15" woofers back in the day are not the same thing as a well designed Sub.

They seem a little big, and are starting to stretch the budget, particularly in cherry wood finish. They also would probably benefit from a little more power than I have going on.

I would definitely consider these though.

On a different tangent -- the Axiom wall mount brackets, I assume, allow the correct/enough clearance behind for the port(s). Would I want to mount M3s or M22s right into the corners, or set in from the corners -- and if set in, by how much?

According to the bracket info, "for heavy speakers like our M22, an optional wedge is supplied to help balance the weight." Can anyone explain what this wedge looks like and how it fits?

The wedge is relatively thin and made of sturdy black plastic. It is the same length as the part of the bracket that goes against the wall, do it blends in and looks like it's part of the bracket when installed. It (optionally) goes between the wall and the bracket.

The brackets can be adjusted to rotate your speakers horizontally or tilt them vertically. My speakers are pointed straight ahead (no toe in) and are tilted downward slightly. I found that the vertical tilt increments provided by the brackets alone weren't fine enough for my tastes, so I ended up using the wedge thick part up behind the brackets in order to point the speakers downward to the exact angle I wanted.

I don't own the M22's or M3's so my advice is very general. But given the price difference, I think you need to decide about the subwoofer first. If you are going to spend a good bit more $$ to get a sub, then perhaps the M3 is the best bet for you to save $150. If you are not getting a sub, I would be very concerned that two 6.5 mid-bass drives for a room that large would disappoint you and thus make the $$ you spend more of a waste. (I’m a big believer in high return on my investment. – No cracks about my $$$ Transparent Speaker cables! I was young, it was the booze talking.) The M22 doubles your mid-bass surface area so I would expect dramatic improvement in your room as compared to the M3 without a sub, for a moderate investment increase. But, the M22 makes 50 wpc a more pressing issue, however. If those are real watts, your fine. If they are 1990's claimed watts on a Japanese AVR (overstating watts as a fund pastime for many companies), you might have some problems filling that room with decent mid-bass (i.e., male vocals, acoustic guitar, stand up bass, piano, etc.)

As always, the answer is to up the budget! Real helpful, right. But my point is this, get the better speakers and find a $200 used but decent AVR. You can get 100 watts and a sub level output. Go to the Axiom outlet or factory store and get the M22s or a sub and the M3s. For under $1,000 you could dramatically increase your enjoyment of that room. Or spend $500 and risk not being as happy. Of course, you have 30 days to return the Axioms so you should at least try the M22s and see how they work out.

I have exhausted my two cent.

Relax, we like the deaf monk. Its all good.

There's such a huge range in what people consider "reasonable" sound levels that it's hard to give good advice. My primary music speakers are M40s, which are basically tower M3s, in what amounts to a 20x40 room with cathedral ceiling.

They can easily play quite a bit louder than I would normally want without any stress -- but if I crank them up for that "wall of sound" they are instantly and clearly not up to the task.

If you're looking for "pleasant" listening levels I think a couple of M3s on the wall would be fine. If you need to crank the volume then IMO M22s plus sub aren't going to be "better enough" to justify the cost & complexity.

I'm very surprised to hear that. While I own neither, I would expect a pair of M3's to be incomparable to M22's and a sub. If you meant M3+sub compared to M22 alone I could see it. But M22+sub is dramatic change in sonic character - three additional drivers and probably 5 times the driver surface area. I find that hard to comprehend.