Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Help choosing good floorstanding speaker.

Poor is a rather strong term. "Not as good as other albums."

To make comparison by some of the stuff you referenced, you'll hear amazing stuff with, say Cryptic Writings, but Ride the Lightning (assuming you don't have a remastered version) won't sound as good--and by as good, I mean the soundstage won't be as wide, it will be harder to place the instruments in space, etc.

when one isn't sure about the quality of a recording,
just increase the volume a Db or two above the recording's
"live" reproduction level.

any distortion will show up very easily, and that will tell you
it's the recording and not the audio system that's at fault.
of course, the system first has to be able to play cleanly at that reference (live) level.

hope this helps. :-)

I would kind of lean in Ken's direction.

Maybe I'm just fortunate to not have a lot of crappy recordings/masterings. but I think it's not that the poorly mastered stuff sounds awful as much as it just really pales in comparison to the well-recorded stuff.... which knocks your socks off and leaves you craving more!

I agree with you and Ken, Mark. I actually have two bonus tracks on a Jethro Tull disk that are so badly recorded you can't listen to them on a good system, but those are the only two I've come across.

Yes comes to mind as a group I really like that fall in the 'just OK' category. I find myself wishing they had done a better job, but I still listen because its great music.

On the other hand stuff by SRV, Dire Straits, Hiromi Uehara Clapton and many , many others are such a joy to listen to an a good system.

Ok thanks thanks for your input. Few point I would still like to have comments on please:


Mp3/acc/cd & ps3 : some of view pointed out that axiom can let say hilight weak recording and improve sound of good recording. So what do you think about the fact that my music is currently mainly on mp3 and acc(apple format) song? Would it be terrible? I hope it's going to be better than a bose system at 300$..... What about the sound of ps3 for gaming? What about the sound of cable continu music channel?


Axiom and boxing day : do you think it'sa good idea to wait on dec 26th? Is there any sales normally on the boxing day?
Right now i was going to look at black factory M60 at 1313$.

Hp placement : in term of placement I won't be able to place them 6' from the wall maybe 12-18 inch max. Do you think it will be a problem.

Thanks again.

Just looking through this thread so i will add some thoughts.
And damn, i can sometimes add ALOT OF thoughts.


I don't know about improving sound quality. The quality of sound from really good speakers is evident for sure. Really crappy recordings, let's say like a 128 kbps mp3, is VERY evident compared to a 320 kbps mp3 with a good quality sound system.



Depends on the bitrate to a large extent. I have mp3s in 192 up to 320 with most in FLAC format (non lossy i know so not a direct apples to apples comparison). However, when using my Sonos system, i cannot tell the difference between a 320 kbps mp3 and the cd original with my Axiom speakers.
I haven't tried Apple's lossy aac format, so perhaps some Appleseeds here on the forums have more to add in that regard.



Have no doubt that an Axiom system will sound better than just about any $300 surround setup. Bose makes a lot of bassy sounding speakers IMO. That isn't sound accuracy, but it does lure in a lot of people who think that sounds really "full" and hence end up buying Bose.


The sound we get from our digital signal satellite music feed is pretty good. Ultimately here as most have already stated, the source of the signal, the source of the music and quality of that source is the real limitation in the quality of sound that you hear. If the digital signal music is low quality, it will sound low quality compared to say a CD equivalent source.


Going out on a limb here, my memory may be fuzzy, but i don't recall Axiom ever having a Boxing Day massive sale like some box store retailers.


Another option to consider, if budget is a huge concern, is to try and buy used speakers. Axiom has this on the site, but you can also find options at Audiogon and Canuck Audiomart.


Generally, no.
Most people don't have rooms with enough space to place a dimensionally perfect speaker setup. Heck most people don't even agree on what a dimensionally perfect setup is, though there is the concept of a "golden ratio" (e.g. http://www.cardas.com/room_setup_main.php) . The closer the speakers are to walls, the more bass response you may get, but this is something every person has to play around with in their own space. Personally my M60s are about 10 inches from the back wall and i think it sounds just fine.

<Braindead>

Perfect condition for drinking coffee (or beer if you're into that sort of thing at 7:30am on a Sunday) and listening to music. Not so good for posting.

Glad that we didn't scare you off with our barrage of thoughts.

To answer your questions, the quality of recording can fall into two parts. The original masters and the medium it's recorded on.

When I talk about the masters, the best example that I have is my old Rolling Stones hot Rocks CD. I have one of the original CD's from the late 90's. On my speakers, the best that I could describe it as sounding hollow, or lifeless, even tinny. You need to crank up the bass and turn down the treble and then it sounds almost right but not quite. On an ipod with earphones, it sounds fine.

Compared to all my Eric Claption CD's, they sound like Eric is actually sitting in the room with you and you feel the muisc all around you. That I consider to be a great master recording. Now, some recordings are just the way that they are. My Forgotten Rebels albums you just play loud and they don't have any dynamic range but then again, I don't think they were ever meant to.

Then you have the mp3 issue.. you will be hard pressed to get a 64kbs mp3 to sound good. I have heard some 128 that did sound reasonable, but the fact is that mp3 is lossy and when you loose something it's not the same as the original.

as has been said here before. Axiom speakers are very revealing, and reproduce the sound they are given very well. Give them a good recording and they will reproduce the wonderful sound with crystal clarity. Give them a sub par recording, and it will give you sub par right in your face.

When it comes to movies. I have yet to find a movie that I wanted to watch that didn't spend the money in making the soundtrack match the calibre of what was on the screen. I think that they seem to go quite well hand in hand. Now if you are watching a movie from a VHS tape, then you will be very disappointed. I mainly watch Bluray now and the DTS sound is far better than most and CD. Likewise, DVD movies have an audio track that has far more S/N ratio than a CD can offer and I have yet to find a movie that my speaker choice made me cringe.

Speaker placement can play a roll in what you hear. So can furniture and other acoustic modifiers. You can have the best sounding speakers in the world, and put them is an acoustically challenged room and they won't sound as good as they could.

You have to end up making a choice as to what you consider good enough for the time, money and effort that you are willing to put in. I am sure that there a many speaker options better than what I have, and likewise, I know I would need to spend thousands more to get them. But I also know that the increased level on enjoyment that I would get from doing that would never justify the cost involved. it comes down to a personal choice as to what is good enough for you.

I listened to the Studio line from Paradigm and didn't bother listening to anything above them as I knew I could never justify the cost of the speaker to the sound improvement they might offer and the level of other kit that would be required to make them sound their best.

Chessroo : tahnks a lot. I'm like you I can have sometimes a lots of thought.

By the way. Fyi info in general between AAC(MP4) and mp3. it for the same bit rate AAC will have a better qaulity in general. Anyway I was just asking in general. I guess I will see when I will try them:-).

Matt. Thanks also. No worry I don't even have a VHS. Right now I only watch Blueray on a PS3 and cable TV 1080i. And like I said most of my music is either AAC or Mp3 on my iphone or bose stereo speaker on my PC. Mainly AAC I would say for now. At the end of the day. With a pair of speaker like this M60 at around 1500$ and my denon 1000$ it. Buying couple CD of music that I really like. it's nothing and will worth I think every penny. At least I know if I take a 128kbps mp3 and I'm not happy. Well I know I should not jump right away to comclusion but give it a chance with couple CD ect...

For my room guys. There is not much I can do. I'm not in a closed room but more open space and furniture I can't really move anything.
Like you said Matt. Just because of that I won't probably get 100% of the HP capability. But this problem "the room" is constant. It's the same situation regardless if I take a pair of PSB, paradigm or axiom. It's just I try to know if it so much a big deal.

I think I will give them a chance to the M60.
Worst case scenario I will return them. But it's rare that We see and Axiom owner or former owner complain about it.