Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners M3 v3 vs B&W CM5

In that case, he should order regular finish M3's, then if he likes them, he can upgrade them to custom finish. Afaik, there is no extra shipping charges on the upgrade(confirm with Axiom).

I discovered later that I was very, very impressed with the M3v3 during my double-blind listening session in Dwight last year. I would not hesitate to have them in my home or recommend them to others.

This is Tom's way of telling us what he wants for his next birthday.

A double blind listening test?

Well my deal for a package of lightly used Sonos equipment fell apart today, but I ended up picking up an older Harman Kardon AVR-310 for $50 and going to hookup an Apple TV to it for now. Anyone know if this would be a decent receiver/amp for the M3's?

Korie, the 310 came out more than 10 years ago and the features are quite dated, of course. If it's still in good operating condition though, it should do the job as far as basic amplification goes. The 60 watt two channel driven rating(and HK is typically somewhat conservative with its ratings)would be sufficient to drive average sensitivity speakers, such as the M3s, to slightly over 100dB on brief peaks. This should be plenty for most uses.

Well I've quickly learned you get what you pay for, the thing has an annoying ground hum, and it seems to be a common issue for these receivers. That and the second I walked it the house with it my wife $#it a brick and said no way its going in her living room (even though I told her its basically an old version of an HK I already have in my secondary TV room). So now I'm trying to see if the guy will take it back otherwise I'll be out $50 minus whatever I can resell it for...

Too bad that it apparently isn't in good operating condition. You shouldn't assume that it's a "ground hum" though. If it was just that, you could get rid of it by using a cheater plug, for example, and have a usable unit. More likely is that the rectifier or filter capacitors in the power supply section are defective and that repair isn't economically practical.

I think you are right and its not just a ground hum, but I got lucky and the guy who sold it to me offered to take it back, which is awesome.

Now I'm back on the hunt for an amplifier solution again, and I think I should take a break from trying to find a super cheap "bang for the buck" solution and just stick with my original plan (deal hunting is an addiction for me sometimes haha)