Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler New Forum Suggestion: Product Innovations

Ian, Amie, Axiomites et al: What would you think about a forum where your cherished customers make suggestions for new product innovations? Or would that be TOO open, giving your competitors too much info?

I want to open with a suggestion for a hybrid TV stand / center-channel speaker, something that can replicate the M60 as a center channel while holding a TV monitor -- so we could all match our center-front with our floorstanders WHILE owning a center that can also perform equally as well as M60s or M80s, and at close to the same vertical axis, for Hi Rez audio.

Other ideas out there?

Birdman

I have an idea.
Bman, can you draw us a picture of what the heck you just described?

No, I definitely can't draw it, that is beyond my skills, and I'm kinda blue skying it here anyway ... the concept is really more a need to be met, than a solid product idea. The need to be met is that I'd like

• to own the equivalent of an M60 as a center channel
• I do NOT want it to be above my TV -- it can be at a slightly different level vertically than the mains, but not that out of whack because of next point
• the real purpose should be Hi Rez audio, while seamlessly enhancing HT
• for purposes of Hi Rez audio, which is where a certain pioneering element of hifi is heading, I want this new center to handle bass info at the same full-range of M60s
• elaborating on last point, while a center with a low cut-off around 70 or 80 Hz seems fine for HT, for music the ability to match the mains seems preferable, and perhaps the forward trend.

How to meet these needs? I don't really know, except that the VP-150 isn't quite the answer, and there's no physical way I can realistically get an actual M60 under my TV, shorting of digging a hole in the floor and redesigning a lot of woodwork.

The hypothesis of the idea is that old chestnut from the 1930s or so we've all seen bandied about that the originators of modern loudspeakers knew at the outset that 3 or more speakers were better at setting up a soundstage than just two. Now, one can debate the current state of Hi Rez and clearly many sources are still optimized for 2-channel, but it just seems inevitable that a certain critical mass of us will someday soon want to own 3 or more "mains" for the front sound-stage, and with HT setting us up for 5 speakers, it does seem natural to envision a future with 3 mains for imaging and soundstage, two HT rears lending a hand for ambience ... marketers will muck it up on SACD/DVD-A awhile longer, but this will come to pass, if for no other reason than that it gives the music industry a chance to recycle all its titles to us and the hifi industry a chance to sell us more hardware.

But how will someone who loves fuller-range speakers reach the 3-front nirvana, physically (okay, that comment is open to perhaps a few too many interpretations)?

This was the source of my tv-stand idea. If you could design an attractive TV stand with a modular set-up for advanced, larger center channels, maybe a full-range M60-quality center could fit into it ... or maybe there's another way to solve this problem. My TV cabinet idea is surely impractical marketing-wise, since tastes are so divergent on furniture and it's a bit much to buy a whole new cabinet just for a speaker, but bottom line is I could see a market for a product that meets the needs outlined above ... a route to the "five matching speakers" dream of many. (Personally I'd settle for 3 matching speakers and two kick-ass rears, no pun intended, that like the QS8s are designed for HT and enhancing ambiance of music.)

Birdman

PS - And re: the forum idea, I'd like to know about other innovations people would like to see.

M-45 similar in size to the M40 but with a 6.5" driver and a single 5.25" midrange driver.

P-80 - same driver compliment as the M80Ti except with silver wiring, upgraded capacitors and resitors in the cross-over.

P-60, P-50, P-45, P-2 - premium version of each speaker except for the M3Ti which doesn't use cross-overs.

I believe that there is no crossover for the woofer, but I'm quite sure that there is one for the tweeter.

I also second the M45/M55. It would be similar to an M50, only would have only one 6" woofer and would replace the other with a 5.25" woofer to give it less bass than the M60, but the same quality midrange as M2, M22, and M60. That would be a great speaker since I find the M40's and M50's to be useless to the type of sound I prefer.

I'm with tinfoil here. I'm positive that the tweeter isn't being fed a full signal.

Sounds great (P-80s et al) although I'd prefer if these just became suggestions incorporated into their new line whenever it appears one day. Something I really appreciate about Axiom is that there's just ONE line, not a bronze, silver and gold set of 3rd, 2nd and 1st place finishers. Because there's just one line, with two families but otherwise distinctions mainly on size, I don't feel like I shoulda bought the more expensive one. Also, because there's just one line, it makes me feel like the company has put all its best efforts into the one set of products. As an average middle-class consumer, it's somewhat disconcerting with Energy or Monitor Audio to know my "affordable" $1250 speaker would be nice, but the $2500 one I can't get is where the engineers put their best work. Axiom has a market distinction by having just one line, which I don't think they should give up. Since so many speaker companies use the graduated line approach, the absence of one distinguished Axiom, and leads to happier owners IMHO.

But I like those upgrade suggestions.

Bman

Hello Austinbirdman

I hadn't thought of that - I think you are correct. Axiom should put all its efforts into a single line of speakers. I'm sure that the good folks of the north upgrade Axioms - they certainly upgraded the M2s and changed the driver arrangment on the M80s. Maybe they should continue to upgrade the speaker lineup, and offer a "Tweaker Special Edition" version from time to time.

BTW, I never looked inside the M3Tis, but was under the impression that it doesn't use any cross over - but instead relies on the roll off characteristics of the tweeter and driver. I could be wrong. Wouldn't be the first time.

The review summary on this page only states that the woofer is not crossed over.