Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Need advice, disappointed w/M22's, VP150

I second the Hsu recommendation.Hell of a sub for the money.

My listening room including the kitchen beside it since open concept is 27 x 16 with an area where the speakers are that is open to the second floor which is 17 feet. The M22 is kinda small for that area. I used to have M22's. I upgraded to a floor stander. If you can not return the M22 then MWC has the best suggestion in that make the listening area smaller. Bring the M22 closer to the seating. Get a big sub like HSU VTF3. Thats what I got. It definitely fills the space and then some.

I agree with everyone else who said the M22's are too small for the room. I'm not sure what the angle of the slope is, but off the top of my head, the room is roughly 6000-7000 cubic ft. I doubt the M22's were designed for rooms larger than 2500 honestly, but I could be wrong. If your friend decides to stick with Axiom, I think the M60's would be his best bet. It would work well with the existing receiver, since it is an 8ohm speaker, and is meant for larger rooms. The M80's could also work, but he would be using his receiver to drive two 4ohm loads (unless he decided to get an external amp) and that would put considerable strain on the Yammie.

As much as I hate to sound like a broken record...the M22's are simply too small for a room that size.

I too suggest putting them in a smaller room, to see if it's the "Axiom sound" he dislikes, or if it's only the fact that you're asking too much of the M22's in that particular room. If you move them into a smaller room, and like the sound, trade them in for the M60's or maybe even the M80's. That's a damn big room.

If it were my decision to make I'd return the M22's and put my subwoofer budget into a pair of M80ti's.

He can always enjoy the M80's without a sub, but he can't enjoy a great sub without great speakers.

Of course if he moves the M22's into a smaller room, and still hates them, send them back, and keep searching for some new speakers.

kibe, M22's are definitely too small.

I would totally agree with Spiffnme on this one.

This is a seriously HUGE room by any account and needs a large speaker to fill it. Although the M60's will play very loud and cleanly this is the kind of room the M80's were designed for. The M60's are for medium to large rooms and I think in this room even the M60's will be approaching their upper limit. I'd definitely want some reserve power for that room and I don't think the M60's will have it. Your neighbours room is Xtra Large and that's why I'd say go for the M80's. If you're neighbour can't have both the M80's and a sub then just put off the sub for a while. My reckonig is get the M80's no question. Then when his budget allows get a big ass sub. He doesn't want to be dissapointed again. The M80's do very well in the base department and should be satisfying enough for your neighbour until he can get a sub.

I'd also suggest talking with the folks at Axiom, they should definitely beable to tell you if the M60's are even worth considering.

Good Luck, Jag

I agree with Jag and Spiffnme on this one. I did not think about going the M80 route without the sub. Going that route will give him a great system from the start and when he has the $$ he can go with a kick A@@ sub. The 80's would do a great job for him. You may want to see if there is someone in your area that has the M80's to get a listen.

Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to listen last night so I can't give feedback just yet. He just got them this past Wed. so there's plenty of time to test out the setup in a smaller room. I hadn't thought about skipping the sub for now to go for better mains, that's a very good idea. What are the differences between the M60 and the M80's? Also, since the M80's are a 4ohm load, would a different receiver be better? The Yammie isn't his yet, it's actually mine and I was going to sell it to him for cheap IF it matches well with the Axioms. That way he could spend more money on the speakers instead of having to worry about a receiver budget as well. Without the sub, that might free up enough $$ for him to get a different reciever that could drive the M80's instead...

Kevin

I'll have to fall in line with the rest on recommending the M60s over the M22s. I purchased both for comparison purposes. In my living room (maybe 16X18), the M22s w/ a sub could still not match the M60s sound. Then, after recently completing my basement theater (mostly), which is longer but much narrower, I tried the same setup out and the M22s still couldn't match the 60s. The 22s are a wonderfully detailed bookshelf speaker. If I had a better sub, they might have been able to do better (who knows). But, in my opinion, you just can't stack them up against the M60s. In every case, I had my wife doing the listening tests with me and she agreed fully, which is an honest opinion, since she REALLY didn't like paying so much for the 60s. If she had a chance, the 60s would have been boxed up and posted on Ebay, but she just didn't get what she wanted from the 22s.

Good Luck

I have not heard the M80's but I am sure someone here that does will chim in. On Monday I would call Axiom Support to get their thoughts. There is nothing like the words oming out of the horses mouth.

I took a quick look at the Axiom page for floorstanding speakers. Their recommendations were pretty clear :

- under 2400 ft3 bookshelf is OK
- over 2400 you want floorstanding; larger room -> bigger speaker
- M60 OK up to about 4000 ft3
- M80 recommended for >4000 ft3
- M80 plus 150-250w recommended for >6000 ft3

I think the room you're talking about falls into the >6000 ft3 category. Axiom's recommendations are obviously aimed at "filling the entire room with sound" and could be toned down a bit if you are OK with lower volumes or "filling part of the room", but at first glance that looks like an M80 room to me, M60s at absolute minimum.

Right now I am running M2s in the HT system and M60s in the main stereo system upstairs. The place I'm moving to in the spring has a 16x23 living room with high ceiling open to dining area and loft -- I figure the M60s will be the absolute minimum for that area whereas the M2s are just fine in the current area (one end of a low-ceilinged 13x23 room)... and the only reason I feel 100% comfortable with the M60s is that I don't really need to fill the entire space with sound, near-field listening will be fine.

M80 without sub really does sound like the right first step. Good luck, sounds like this is going to be fun !!