Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo M2 vs. M3 first impressions (CAGE MATCH !!)

St_Pat, the M3s sound was great in a 14x14 spare bedroom. They lost out to some MA Bronze 2s (a decision which I have second guessed frequently) for a few reasons:
-with no sub, the deeper bass of the MAs was a big plus
-I ordered the M3s in Beech and, IMO, they were hideous.
-I didn't think the slightly chesty mids of the MA B2s would bother me.
-I already had M60s, VP150, and QS8s, and figured a little variety was in order.
Seriously though, the M3s are great and capable of filling spaces much larger than your 10x10 room. Soften the reflective surfaces (so that the Axiom tweeter doesn't overpower your ears) and they are excellent.
I moved my M60s up into that 14x14 room and I'm stunned by how good they sound there. They're hooked up to an early 90s Onk CD player and sound better than they ever did with the newer Denon stuff I have downstairs.

Seeing as how I used to have a couple of Klipsch towers in my room, I don't think the Axiom tweeter will bother me .
Yeah, variety is nice. I need another set of speakers like I need a hole in the head, but when have I let rational thought get in the way my audio hobby? My grand plan is to get into the world of tubes (thanks a lot 2x6!), and it seems the M3s are a good match in terms of efficiency.

So, just to close this off...

During the testing, I found that the M60s could fit into the bedroom if I put them in the right place, and they sure did sound fine up there. The M3s were surprisingly good but the M60s are still even better.

M2s are back downstairs in the HT, waiting for my sub to come back. I was expecting my sister-in-law to send the sub back and say "I never want one of these in my house again" but they seem to be really enjoying it. So far I have $300 of their money in their HT system (cast-off mains, cast-off surrounds from another family friend, $250 for HK130 and $50 for a Quest center) but I haven't had much luck finding a low budget sub. They're would probably have been happy with a real cheap system but friends don't let friends listen to crappy sound, right ?

I noticed a cheap used Paradigm PDR-8 in the canuck audio mart today and will try to grab that. It's pretty small for their room but they don't play very loud so should work out OK. The other option (now that I have an M60 bedroom system and don't need to buy more mains) is to wring out the ole budget a bit and pick up an EP500 or an SVS cylinder (hey, I like the shape) and have them keep the PSB sub.

What is the current thinking ? Has anyone seen any head-to-head reviews with EP500 yet ? My guess is that the EP500 is a bit more accurate while a comparable SVS can play a bit louder but I don't know which is going to be more useful in the new room. Heck, I don't even know if the new room is going to be great or a total disaster...

Going back to simpler things, the M2s sure do sound good in the HT system. Who'da figured ?

... and to close this thread off for good, here's the happy ending :

I was pretty happy with M60s upstairs in the music system and M2s downstairs in the HT system, but with all the minor issues you would expect. The M60s are kinda big for a bedroom, even a large bedroom. The M2s won't play really loudly so for some music and some movies they start to hit their limits... but hooked up to a big sub with a 100 Hz crossover you can go a long way before hitting the limits.

I was about to pull the trigger on a pair of M3s for upstairs so I could move the M60s back down to the HT, when Axiom discontinued the M40s and cleared them out. I think I grabbed the second-last pair (in Boston Cherry), installed them upstairs, and moved the 60s downstairs.

The M40s are perfect music speakers, to my ears some of the best I have heard (but I have always been partial to 2-way speakers for music). With the M60s back downstairs I'm back to having an HT that can fill the room with as much sound as I can handle and still sound good.