Hey,
Would you guys recommend the M40's over a pair of JBL S312II's... these speakers would be placed in a relatively small living room and i am looking to use for playing mostly hip hop music and movies... the JBL's have a 12" woofer on the tower so im figuring i will be able to get away without gettin a sub if i chose those speakers... but what do you guys recommend.. thanks

Nate

For the type of music you describe, i think that you would probbly be happier with the JBL's. I used to have the ND310's and after owinging them i dont think i would buy another JBL product again, but thats a diff story.

i listened to the ND310's and S312's right next to eachother at best buy, and i definatly liked the mids and highs from the S312 much better, but i wasnt able to turn them up loud enough to tell which one had more and better sounding bass..... what didnt u like about the 310's?

i just wrote a post and forgot to click continue after preiview mode before i closed the window. so i will keep it short and say i had to glue all kinds of stuff in them because one of them was starting to fall apart and the sound is pretty muffled and overemphasised in the bass. for cheap like 300pr theyre ok but i wouldnyt go much beyond that i dont think.

Ok -my musical tastes are very different - I listen to punk and old new wave, mainly.. but I'll give this one a shot...

I upgraded from a pair of JBL's to M40's. The JBL's were a 2-way with a 1/2" titanium tweeter and 8" woofer. I was blown away IMMEDIATELY by the detail of the new speakers - and it seemed like I could hear MORE bass from these!

After listening to the M40's exclusively for a while, I hooked the JBL's back up... I found that they were definitely louder, had very tinny sounding highs, and very lacking mids (just missing).

Now for the bass - the JBL produced much more bass VOLUME, but the detail just wasn't there. The Axiom just let me hear more bass detail - actually heard the notes! I think that these coupled with a subwoofer would easily blow the JBL's out of the water.

I would say even a cheap subwoofer and M40's would be better than the JBL's - the sub would get some more bass volume for hip-hop, but the M40s would provide detail that the JBL's probably could not provide - which could be really great for some kinds of hip-hop, and possibly matter less for others. I think you'd like the smoother sound of the M40s for movies as well.

It might be more money, but not TOO much more - and I think it's money well spent, especially if you think you will have the upgrade bug. With the M40's, you can scratch that itch with a good sub...

nowave hit it dead on.
I would put the JBL I the backyard even if it got hit by an occasional ball.
I would leave the Axiom in my living room and enjoy the music. One can also save a little more and just get a M22 paired with a cheap sub. Even that would shake the walls playing Sensoria or Kick in the eye.

I'm guessing you would prefer the JBLs over the Axioms (if you don't use a sub) for hip-hop, but for movies I don't think you can beat Axioms.