Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater New Axiom owner M60ti 2 day review

Probably like many before me my first impression of the M60ti is I was a bit underwhelmed.

Yeah, I hurried to set them up and took no time to adjust my receiver setting wise and played whatever happened to be in the cd changer atm.

"What is this?" I thought to myself. "The hype, the money and geez there is just no "WoW" factor".

Remembering many such threads of people tweaking and moving speakers around to make things right. Not to mention giving the speakers time to break in a bit. After all, they just came from flying from the fozen north to southern California.

Lets see what was that cd? Oh yeah, a burned cd of old recordings from the early 70s downloaded off the internet.

Perhaps its time to give the M60ti's a bit more credit.

Out comes the receiver owners manual for the auto setup. Out comes a much newer store bought cd.
Add a bit of time with the speakers ...

Now, we're talking!!!

After the break in, it was time to audition the new speakers for the all important WAF.

"Hey honey what is your favorite cd these days"
"Still that new Bonnie Raitt cd"
"Where is it, lets have a listen"

Wife is at this point humoring me.
We get our favorite tea all warmed up and I gave her the sweet spot with the most comfortable chair.

Less than a minute into the first track the wife's eyes are close in blissful appreciation for the new $900 speakers.

I'm I good or what? Guess, I've learned a few things after nearly 25 years of marriage. She barely moved a muscle until the cd was over.

Can't wait to get the EP500 for the real big "WoW" factor.

Nice review Ken, with a touch of humor added.

Randy

Nicely done, Ken. One of the things that will quickly become apparent, with your new Axioms, is the incredible variances in the quality of CDs. When you have a well recorded and/or well mastered disc, the "WOW" factor of the Axioms is HUGE! When you find a clinker, it can be a real downer. I wonder if, someday, there will ever be a standard that discs must live up to. Probably not, unfortunately.

Nice review, Several have posted similar reactions.

The WOW factor in the 500 is another thing!

Ajax,

You hit the nail on the head. I sure appreciate a well mixed cd more than I ever thought I could. In the old days I used to use a lot of base and treble when I listened to music so this is a bit of an adjustment.

I find myself wishing I knew how to add base with my new receiver. I bought a Yamaha RX-V2500 and just haven't got the hang of what is what yet. They have pre-sets, but I just want to add more base to get a little more umph behind my mostly rock music.

Looks like I'm gonna have to study that receiver stuff. It sure isn't intuitive for me that is for sure.

So far I can see why some would call these speakers brite. That is my impression so far, but I clearly don't know what I'm doing at this point in order to make it perfect for me. All the high range stuff seems clear and crisp. Mid range feels a bit understated. Base is clear, but lacks punch for my taste.

Any and all advise welcome.

Judging by the wife's reaction to her Bonnie Rait, it sounds like you're stuck with those M60s.

I think you'll discover a new appreciation for jazz, classical and the blues with those speakers. And find that Robert Plant never had much of a voice.

Well,....I, unfortunately, have no advice to give......only understanding.

When I first fired off my new M50s 'bout a year ago, I was similarily underwellmed with the bass output.

.....guess I just 'spected more.

Being an M50 and M3 owner gives me an advantage; I can be expected to have a few idiosyncracies. So I can go off with impunity and do the bizzare; such as:

Using the bass control to add a few db down at 50hz, and a couple more in the receivers built-in EQ at 80hz to bring the bass up flat to my-sub-in-my-room, giving me just what I was looking(listening?)for. I had a great sounding integration, with the crossover set at 60hz!!

(yeah, the M50s and my M3s for center and surrounds like going down to 60, they tell me so)

But then.....something strange started to happen. The bass from the M50s slowly began "getting stronger"("ear" break-in?) and I began dialing out a bit of boost, little by little.

When all was said and done; I still have a few db dialed in to bring the M50s(which are about 3-5db down at 60)up to the sub level(which is now about 4db lower than it was at the start!!)

Bottom line?

The bass from the M50s is better down to 60hz then my sub is at 60 on up!

The bass that I first perceived as weak, has now shown itself to be tight and clean and only needing just a little augmentation to match-up with the sub.(it took a year, almost, to get to this point, cause, to confuse things even further, I purchased a new larger(but still electro and mechanicaly happy in the 1.62cu ft box)sub driver to install in my ancient 1946 era movie theater plywood box) But yes; in the end I still have to add some stuff in the receiver to bring the mains up to where they sound good "to me"!!!



All is not yet complete however

While watching(listening)to "War of the Worlds" for the first time a few weeks back; I had the speakers, including the sub, singing away when at one point the Wife thought the sub was on fire!! She could smell burning wood!!

Turns out it wasen't burning, but we could indeed smell the internals of the sub box. The new driver was so overwelming the poor old plywood container that it was acting like a giant air pump evacuating a major percentage of the internal air volume.

Time for a new larger box, time to start all over again on the integration!!