Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners M60 First Impressions (long-winded, I'm afraid)

I’ve had my M60s since Monday, and thought I’d pass along some first impressions. Sorry, but it’s a bit long (guess I have a lot of first impressions). I’m very interested in any comments folks might have.

First off, the speakers arrived in excellent condition. Good thing they were double-boxed, because FedEx apparently decided to run one of the boxes through a hay-bailer. There was a huge gash cutting through the outer box, but luckily not the inner box. The foam inside the inner box was a bit broken up, but it will be reusable. The speakers themselves looked great. The black oak finish has a high-quality appearance (esp. for vinyl), and blends very nicely with the rest of the black components in my HT.

I initially hooked the speakers up without bi-wiring, partly because I didn’t want to run more wiring before listening, and partly because I wanted to do an informal comparison later. I did a rough placement, popped in some Steely Dan, and we were underway.

First impressions: What a huge improvement over the Bose 201s I was running before. Obviously there is no direct comparison warranted here, but it’s a big change for me. The M60s are my first towers. Nice, tight bass was evident immediately. Clear imaging wasn’t there right off the bat, but a little toe-in helped in no time.

I was going to install the carpet spikes at this point, but found that the nuts would not thread onto the spikes. The spikes threaded into the speakers, though, so the nuts were too small or the wrong thread. Joe from Axiom was very friendly and helpful, and agreed to test out two sets of spikes and mail them to me. Has anyone else run into this problem? It’s probably just as well for me, since I’m still playing with the speaker placement a bit.

I spent some time the first night finding good recordings to study the speakers’ performance. It’s true that good speakers reveal bad recordings, and I was surprised to find some unexpected duds. One CD that really shined was the Norah Jones’ “Come Away with Me”. Even at low volume, bass was clear and present, and imaging was very precise. A bit of sibilance in Norah’s voice, but this might be a part of the recording.

Tuesday I stopped by a local high-end audio store and auditioned some B&W 603s for comparison. Not a fair comparison, mind you, since they were running all Rotel equipment (compared to my Sony) and had the speakers in a much airier and acoustically-friendly room than mine. The B&Ws were very impressive, but very comparable to the M60s. The imaging was a bit more precise and even across the soundstage, but I think this was due to the placement within the room. With some fine-tuning, I hope to get the M60s imaging that good within my tighter confines. We’ll see.

Yesterday I bi-wired the speakers. I tried to listen with an open mind and without preconceived notions, but will admit that I am skeptical about the potential benefits of bi-wiring. Anyway, I found no improvement in the sound after bi-wiring. In fact, my immediate impression was that the sound was not as full. There seemed to be a small gap in the midrange, and Norah’s voice sounded a bit more “nasaly”. I double-checked the speakers for correct phasing, and they were connected properly. Now, if there was really any difference in the sound, it was very slight. It could very well have been due to a tiny change in speaker placement, though I marked the positions with tape before moving the speakers for re-wiring. I’m going to try replacing the bridges tonight and see if I notice an improvement. Needless to say, I am still skeptical about the potential benefits of bi-wiring.

So far, I am very happy with the speakers, and look forward to some experimenting with placement/bi-wiring over the next few days to see how truly good I can get them to sound. That, and just rediscovering my CD collection!

I hope to hear some comments and advice from the experts here!

Scott

Thanks for the thoughts!

How far away do you sit from the speakers? How far apart are they from eachother/side walls/rear wall?

Properly set up the M60's should leave those B&W 603's in the dust. The B&W's biggest issue is clarity. They simply don't have it. (The 600 series that is. Their more expensive lines are quite nice - but MUCH more expensive.)

Here are a few CD suggestions.

Dead Can Dance - Into the Labyrinth (DCD is too hard to explain. You've just got to hear it to understand)
Kristine W - Land of the Living (an incredibly well recorded/engineered dance/pop album)
Propellerheads - Decksanddrumsandrockandroll (electronica at it's finest)
Dave Matthews - Crash

Thanks for the CD suggestions. The speakers sit about 6' apart and about 1-1.5 feet from the wall behind them (constrained to that, I'm afraid). I'm sitting about 10' from the front plane of the speakers. Center imaging is best when the speakers are slightly toed-in. I'm still trying to find a toe-angle that provides good center imaging, but also expands the soundstage beyond the width of the speakers. The speakers are still quite identifiable in the soundstage. I've yet to make them "disappear". Any tips?

If you can spread them apart a bit more, and sit further back it'll help a lot. Give that a try. Mine are about 9'+ apart, and I sit about 13-14' back. They're a pretty big speaker - they need their space.

But how can you see the TV from that far back? At that distance, your TV's apparent size could probably be measured in inches!

Why do you think I want a new tv so badly?

The only reason I'm relatively immune to TV upgraditis -- although more inputs would be nice -- is that I only sit about 9 feet away from my 32" screen.

Scott,

Yes, if you can, try to place the M60s 8' or even 10' apart, with varying toe-ins. That should make a BIG difference in the imaging, soundstaging and transparency (i.e., the "disappearance" of the speakers). Also, I would experiment by moving the speakers a bit forward toward you.

Peter, I watch the 120" screen only from 13'-14' away, and believe or not, that is approximately the THX-recommended viewing angle for home.

Scott- I agree 100% with Sushi and Spiff about opening up the "across" placement of the speakers. I seperated mine to about 9' from their original 6' setting and it was as if someone had removed plastic from the front of them. That's when they came to life. At that placement, too, I no longer needed to toe them in. They sit flat across the front as I've found for my setup/system, that's when they sound the best. I also sit about 9' to 10' back, too.

Looks like you're off to a great start so far.

Good luck,
Kevin

I take it you don't go out to movies much...