Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo M60's vs Rockets Home Audtion saga

I agree. I would kill spiff for a 5900 too! But in a nice way.

BTW dr, do you have any thoughts or insight you could provide on the efficacy of the Denon manuals?

Alan,

Do you keep a stool and a dunce cap handy for situations where you need to reprimand staff for passing on bad advice?

Pmb,

Ha,ha. Excellent suggestion. A nice little stool from Ikea, and I can staple together something with a scrap piece of vinyl wrap. . .Mansfield Beech or Boston Cherry?

Regards,

Hey Alan,

Just wondering, what is your opinion of Pioneer receivers? Specifically the ones that incorporate MCACC. Would these not be able to handle the M80's as well? Thanks!!

Ah, one day I'll save enough money for a pair of M80s to go with my Yamaha RX-V1400, play 'em loud, and convince Alan to put the 1400/2400 on his 4-ohm short list too.

This thread is fun! On top of that I'm interested to see how the Rocket vs Axiom battle turns out since I'm on the fence between those two.

Any updates?

/greedy

I recently completed my 30 audition of Axiom M60’s vs. Onix Rocket 750’s (see above thread) and I would like to provide some feedback to the forums of both speakers. The process has been very educational. Keep in mind I am a low-tech guy who isn’t very smart. Also keep in mind that all my equipment and my room are new, so there are a lot a variables to consider. The only sure thing is that the Denon manuals suck. I have had to spend nights and weekends on AVSforum.com to learn how to work my 5900 DVD player. One conclusion I have come to early on is that when you know how to set it up it tends to work a lot better.

The customer service at both companies is top notch. Very impressive. Not pushy. I will gladly continue to do business with the company I end up selecting.

I spent a lot of the 30-day review period trying to ensure that I had my DVD/receiver hooked up properly to optimize the audition. I believe I finally achieved that (with a lot of help). Ultimately I was listening to two-channel stereo via the analog inputs from the DVD player. I expect to have a 60/40 music to HT ratio, and I assumed that if the stereo sounds good, the HT would follow.

First a note about the finish/appearance. I have seen some mildly derogatory comments about the Axiom’s vinyl finish, but frankly I thought they looked excellent. (I had Boston Cherry) In fact, I actually preferred the design of the M60’s. When you factor in the finish, I consider appearances a wash. By the way, my wife preferred the Rockets, and that was her only contribution to the exercise other than “turn it down”.

Over the past 8 months I have read many reviews of speakers and many seemed to use the same universe of terminology or expressions, which sometimes leave me wondering how the comments actually relate to the sound. Therefore I am going to try to explain what I heard in my own words, clumsy as they may be.

I found it interesting that the Onix site insists that the speakers require a “break in period’ and the Axiom site believes this is a total myth. Either way, both sets were adequately broken in before I made any decisions. I can’t say whether the break in period was material because I really didn’t listen to them until afterward.

Most of my comparisons were done with music I listen to frequently, such as the Stones, Bruce, Santana, Pink Floyd, Bowie, UB40, Bob Marley, Johnny Clegg, and a host of blues, world beat and reggae artists. I sprinkled in some excellent acoustic jazz guitar, some traditional jazz and a few classical tunes. The 5900 is a universal CD/DVD player, so I tried out the small collection of SACD’s and DVD-Audio disks for grins.

One thing I noticed immediately is how lousy some of the CD’s I own sound. My new system really highlights the lowlights where applicable. I’ve seen it stated many times and proved it with my own ears that the sound is only as good as the source signal.

In general, both speakers sounded great to me. There were only (to my ears) subtle differences between them, and the differences varied from song to song. Having said that, here are the “cons” of both speakers:

The 750’s seemed to need to be cranked higher to fully appreciate their great sound. I don’t know how to better explain it, but although they sounded fine at low volumes, it just wasn’t as good as it sounded at louder volumes. This is not a huge issue as the system is in the basement with a dedicated HT setup, but would probably be a major problem if they were in a family room. The M60’s didn’t have the same issue.

The M60’s tweeter was more pronounced, which normally for me was OK, but on a few songs sounded a bit harsh on things like snare drumbeats. Also, in general, the bass was more blurred, with more of a rumble compared to the more accurate bass notes of the 750’s. More importantly, there were a select few songs where the backup singers were very difficult to hear. Finally, and the most telling, was during the piano solo for “Great Gig in the Sky” on Dark Side of the Moon. The 750’s sounded excellent, but the piano sounded like it was down the hall and in a closet on the M60’s. Generally speaking, it sounded like the 750’s put you in the first row, and the M60’s were in row 25.

Again, these were all my untrained opinions. The differences were in reality to me very subtle.

If I hadn’t compared the two speakers and instead listened to either one on their own, I would have definitely been happy with either one. But since I cannot afford to keep excess speakers hanging around, I decided to keep the 750’s. Other than what I have already stated, I just liked the sounds of the Rockets a little more, and some of the reasoning can’t be quantified. This is strictly my opinion, and I could fully understand anyone who thought differently.

I am very pleased with the decision. After a significant amount of assessment (and much advice from Sean @ 123) I ordered the 200 center channel, the 250’s for rears, the 750 risers and a bunch of cables, all of which I am waiting to receive.

There were a few posters who commented that this comparison wasn’t fair from the outset because of the drastic difference in price between the two. In hindsight, there may be some validity in that statement. The 750’s were almost double the price of the M60’s. I should have probably auditioned the M80’s.

I think the entire process was worthwhile, although I severely misjudged the cost of returning the speakers that I didn’t choose. It cost me a cool $154 to return them. I would caution others to keep that in mind.

All in all, these were two great speakers, and you can’t go wrong with either one. Both are bargains, but at $800/pair, the M60’s are a really awesome value. I will continue to recommend them to anyone who seeks my opinion. (although so far, the line at my front door is pretty short)

I am posting the same message to both sites. I would like to thank everyone from Axiom & AV123 and everyone on this site for helping me out. I’m sure I will have more questions going forward.


I would like to leave everyone with the immortal words of Maria Muldaur, who said, “It Ain’t the Meat, It’s the Motion”, which of course has nothing to do with anything I just typed.

Did I mention that the Denon manuals suck?

good and fair review murray..

its been said a thousand times, get the speakers that sound good to YOU.. i hope the rockets continue to give you years of audio pleasure..

bigjohn

Excellent Review! Thank you so much for sharing.