Polk to Axiom or Ascend - Will I hear a difference

I'm trying to decide if I'll see a noticeable benefit by upgrading my speakers.

I do about 70%HT and 30%Music. The reason I have started to look into upgrading is twofold. First, the highs and soundstage on my current speakers don't seem "enveloping" enough during movies. Second, the Polk soundstage (on my speakers anyway) seems to be very pointed in that if I move around any, the soundstage falls apart easily.

I have gone through lots of tweaking and moving around in my HT room which is about 25' x 14' with an 11' x 20' kitchen hanging off of one corner (so it's a large area). I have a 1' high soffett running on the ceiling from the back wall behind my couch to the front wall where the speakers are (kind of dividng the listening area).

I was in Best Buy helping a friend look for a *budget* set of speakers and was actually quite impressed with the Athena AS-F2's in terms of soundstage. Even in the terrible BB atmosphere, the soundstage stayed the same as I moved 10 feet to the R or L. It got me thinking that I could do better than my Polks.

I've done a bit of listening at both basic retail shops and a couple of high end at many models and I'm actually considering either an Axiom M80ti setup or possibly Ascend 340 l/r (both with surrounds and center channel obviously).

My question is whether or not I'll hear a benefit from upgrading the Polk RT2000p's to either Axiom or Ascend or if i'd have to jump way up in price to get an improvement. I can certainly "demo" the ascends and axioms, but before I even get to that, do you all think I'm going to hear a big difference? Will my sherbourn be able to power the Axiom M80's to a sound level close to what I can get from the Polk RT2000p's? Am I losing something by moving away from the polk powered towers? I'd certainly like to utilize my Sherbourn more and be able to unplug the Polks if I can get similar performance.

I read a review of some of the newer Polk stuff on the Polk forum and someone said they hadn't had speakers that gave them the home theater experience quite like their RT2000p's

So what do you think? Is it worth even going through the demo process for the axioms or ascends or will I not hear that much of a difference?

My setup
B&K Ref 31
Sherbourn 5/1500A
Polk RT2000p Front
Polk CS400i Center
Infinity Overture 1's surround
SVS 20-39 PC (upgraded to PCi driver)
SVS 20-39 PCi

The Sherbourn will power just about anything.

The M80 is a much larger speaker than the CMT-340. If you are looking for loud volumes, the M80 will get louder than the 340.

As for differences to the Polk, I would bet that you would hear them. If they are to your liking, only you will be able to be the judge of that.

I say take the demos, and listen for yourself.

The Ascends compare to the M3 or M22 speakers musically. However, the M60's or M80's would absolutely trounce anything from Ascend with music. Axiom speakers also look a hundred million times better (really, I did the math).

Ascend speakers are also not very strong for HT, they do music just as well as Axiom M3's or M22's, but Axiom does HT so much better. Look at Axiom's Surround technology. Ascend only has direct radiators, Axiom has Quadpolars. Ascend does not have the VP150, Axiom does.

Did I mention the Ascends are unbelievably ugly?

Get the Epic 60 or the Epic 80 if the Axiom people think your room can handle the Epic 80.

Also, you may find the sound strange if you are used to bloated bass from your Polks, Axiom bass is tight and musical, not boomy and bloated.

In reply to:
The Ascends compare to the M3 or M22 speakers musically.

That would be the CBM-170, not the CMT-340.

In reply to:
Also, you may find the sound strange if you are used to bloated bass from your Polks, Axiom bass is tight and musical, not boomy and bloated.

Snippy...have you heard the Polks in question?

Where is that actual research?

I don't think you could go wrong with either the Axioms or the Ascends.

Hi Andrew

I had a pair of Infinity Composition Overture IIIs, an Infinity CC3 center and a pair of infinity RS3s as surround speakers. This set up cost me a pretty penny - the Overture IIIs listed for about $3000 for the pair alone. All I can say is you are in for quite an experience if you go with Axiom. My first Axioms were a low end Merak center channel speaker which blew away the expensive Infinity CC3. Then I picked up a pair of M3Tis and immediately sold my Overture IIIs - as a matter of fact, I sold all my Infinities. I ended up with a pair of M60 like fronts, QS8s side surrounds and M2 back surrounds - an SVS 20-39 and a Velodyne CT10. My current center is a GIGANTIC Klipsch KLF C7 which sounds terrific but is so enormous I'm looking forward to selling it and getting a VP150.

I also used a pair of Polk RT25i's for my garage system. These were actually very nice speakers for the price, but not in the Axiom's class.

You have very nice processor/amplifier components. I don't know what you're using as a source, but what I would recommend is this:

Keep the processor/amp
Sell everything else.
Buy a pair of M60s for the front mains, a VP150 for the center and a pair of QS8 surrounds. If you want to go 7.1, then I'd pick up a used or manufacturer refurbished 2 channel amp and a pair of M2s for the back speakers.

You will be in for a shockingly wonderful musical experience!!!

BTW, welcome to the site.

I'm actually considering M80's because of my room size - 14x25 isn't huge but one of the speakers will be facing my adjoining 11x20 kitchen/dining area. At this point, I'm really not sure what to do. I have also read good things about Phase Technologies Velocity speakers - but I think before I'd actually buy anything, I'd like to try it in my home first to A/B test with the Polks. I would be nice to be able to buy an M80/VP150/QS8 combo at the 10% (factory second) + 5% discount but only have the M80 shipped. That way I could A/B test them against the Polk RT2000p's and if for some reason I don't like them, I wouldn't have to ship the VP150/QS8 back - I'm sure that's gonna be real expensive from the States.....

2x6spds:
In regards to your comment
"Keep the processor/amp
Sell everything else."

I think you meant to say....
"Keep the processor/amp
KEEP THE SVS PC's
Sell everything else."

I'm at the point that if I can easily get some speakers to demo at home I'll try that - otherwise, I'm going to ditch the Infinity Overture 1's for my surrounds and get Polk FXi5's just to get a better surround stage. Infinity Overture 1's on stands below ear level really stink for surrounds....

Yup, that's exactly what I meant to say. Hope you haven't sold your SVS yet!

Andrew, welcome.

You have TWO SVS subwoofers AND powered towers?!?! Good grief. Time to diversify your assets!

I still own a Polk RM3000 sub/sat system (about 15 years old). It was a fairly high-end setup when I got it, and still sounds great in the bedroom. It has a "voice" that I like very much.

But the Axioms are *transparent*. More importantly for me (and for you too, I believe), the addition of a true three way speaker really opened my eyes as to how glorious Stereo can be. While your Polks are a very fine piece of engineering, I have never heard any powered towers that sound as silky, wide and full as a comparably priced three way speaker. Powered tower speakers seem to me to be just a two-way system mounted atop the same box as a subwoofer. Consequently, you lose the placement flexibility you need for both bass and imaging.

With the SVS's (!!), the Polk subs are totally redundant. My opinion is that you would be absolutely delighted by the soundstage presented by the M80's. I have M60's, and am astounded by the size and depth of the sonic image.

And, oh baby, get the QS8 surrounds. They'll change your life.

I'm probably going to give a 5.1 M80 system a test drive. Just found someone in town who will be getting an Ascend setup in the next couple of weeks so we may do a "head to head"

Cool! Be sure to post your impressions of the two setups.

I'll definitely do that. Unfortunately, I am not able to get a set of Phase Tech V-12's for comparison. They don't have a dealer within 3 hours of me and there is no use buying from Onecall.com since I can't return the speakers if they don't work in my environment (yay Axiom)

I'm going to listen to some M60's this weekend and I'll make my decision on Monday on whether or not I want to test drive the Axioms...