Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners M3 vs. M22

You guys are pretty funny. At risk of beating a well flogged horse, I just ordered some M3s and then reread all the reviews to see that everyone - the owner of Axiom included - think the M2s are better if you have a subwoofer.

I have a Velodyne something or other-8 which is supposed to be decent and plenty loud enough for my small living room.

Some multichannel discs don't do LFE (sub) channel, so I think the bass of the M3s might be very useful. (Damn Channel Classics - they make some of the best sounding classical music and then put it in only 4 or 5 channels).

Is the M2 a substantial improvement over the M3 sound (with a sub) or is it a slight difference? The Axiom expert (Allen?) said it was slight difference but he preferred the M2s for their midrange.

Perhaps we need to solve your sub problems first... Tell us more about your setup. What about room size? The M2s could be a bit small.

Don, welcome. Since your room is small, the M2s plus the sub should be excellent if the lowest bass can be redirected to the sub. On the bass point, as Ken commented, a description of your setup would be helpful. I'm aware of the Channel Classics SACDs and it isn't at all uncommon for multi-channel SACDs of any label to be 4.0 or 5.0 without a LFE channel. The LFE(low frequency effects)channel was basically created to play explosions, etc. in 5.1 movies that had special low frequency requirements; it doesn't handle the regular bass frequencies from the other channels. There's little or no advantage in most classical recordings(which is what I listen to)in including a LFE channel. On SACD the bass management(sending the lowest bass from the four or five regular channels to the sub)could be done by the player, by a separate device such as the Outlaw ICBM, or by a very few receivers. So, there are ways, even on SACDs, to direct the lowest bass to a sub.

I have a Onkyo 501 receiver, right now 2 Paradigm Titams (that will move to the bedroom or the inlaws house), a variety of cheap yard sale speakers that are standing in for whatever Axioms to come in a 5.1 setup.

Velodyne CHT-8 subwoofer

Pioneer 563a cd/dvd/sacd/dvd-a player

Room is about 9 ft wide and 22 feet long. TV is near stereo but the space is so small I have not attempted to put the center right on the TV. There are a couch and a subwoofer in the way.

Oh - just to brag on my yard sale speakers - a Polk bookshelf speaker so old it has no model number (1st ever modle?). The other one died so this one is now my center. NOt bad in the treble, lousy every other way.

And two KLH911b for surrounds. Rated not bad by most people but I think that implies not good. Best Buy had them on sale for $10 recently. That should tell you what kind of quality we are dealing with here!!!!

Also a pair of Pinnacle AC600s in the bedroom.