I listened to the bw601s3's yesterday and was not blown away by them. I wondered if anyone could give me their impressions of the sound differences of the above speakers. I am leaning towards the M22's from all the great feedback.
Thanks again

I've not heard the Diva's, but I did compare the M22 and B&W 601's. Your ears were not deceiving you. The B&W's are waaaaaaaaay overrated. Muddy, muddy, muddy. My bf, who couldn't care much less about my HT hobby even mentioned that the B&W's sounded really bad. From what I've heard, B&W doesn't make a good speaker until you get up into their new 700 series. Then you're talking about big money.

For a bookshelf speaker at $500 or less, there were only three contenders when I was shopping.

1) Energy C3
2) Ascend 170
3) Axiom M22

I went with the M22ti. I fell in love with it's clarity and detail. The Ascend sound really, really good too, but you'll have to deal with their looks. Finally the Energy C3. A beautifully made speaker. If you'll be using these new speakers without a subwoofer, the Energy may be worth checking out. It does have quite a bit more bass than either the Ascend or Axiom, but it sacrifices some midrange clarity. Still a decent speaker. (And by far the best made, best looking of the three.)

Good luck!

i looked at the rocket 150 too. probably has the best finish out of the group here, but i didnt think they would sound better then the axioms. also, i have heard great things about the ascend. But it is BUTT ugly.

If you thought the B&W 601 wasn't very clear, don't even bother listening to the Rocket RS150. Wow...not that's an odd sounding speaker. They did put some effort into the finish though. Very heavy and solid. It would make a great looking door stop.

In reply to:

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But it is BUTT ugly.

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Hey now!!!

Hopefully by the end of the year they will have wood finishes. They already offer semi-gloss painted finishes.

I make it a point not to plug Ascends here...so I will stop now. I will mention the "metallic" word over on the Ascend forum now. heheheeeh.....just kiddin'.

Curtis...

In the end it's the sound, and those Ascend 170's are an AMAZING bargain at $328.

btw...I sent my logo ideas to Ascend. Haven't heard back yet. I'd like to hear what they had to say, even if they don't like it.

Cool!

I think the contest ends in February. When I get a chance, I will send David an email.

IMO the axioms are the best speaker in this price range(i have not heard the ascends though). but, some people dont like bright detailed speakers so i wouldnt reccomend them, but for those that do, axioms are the way to go. BUT, i definetely want to hear the ascends i have heard a lot of great things about the ascend. but they really are not pretty. i would never buy them.
i would like to see how much the markup for the wood finished ascends are and if they look any better.

Ascends in a wood finish would be hot! As would Axioms...

Seriously...how much more would it cost for Axioms with real wood veneers and nice magnetic grills? My ONLY complaint with Axioms from the beginning has been their lack of wood finishes.

what do you mean 'magnetic grills'?
i have never heard of that before
i think it really depends on the finish you get. my m22s were black. they didnt look much better IMO then the plastic speakers i could of bought at best buy.
but my white maple speakers look like real speakers. i really think they look nice. especially with the grills off

The Grills have magnets on them where Axiom has plastic tabs. The magnets "click" into place on the face of the speaker. The Energy C-3's have grills like that. I believe the B&W's do now as well. It's a nice little feature. Not quite as "cheap" looking as the plastic frames on the Axiom grills. Certainly not a big deal, but being a step ahead of the competition is quite often in the small details.

If you take a look at the GR Research A/V-2 speaker I demoed a few weeks ago, you can see that there is no hardware to hold on the grill. There are magnets underneath the veneer that hold on the grill.

Pretty speaker. How's it sound? And how much...

is that real wood?

The cabinets are MDF finished in cherry wood veneer built by Brian Bunge of Rutledge Audio Design. Brian does great work and is the guy that built my maple veneered stands.

http://www.thechangs.us/clean.JPG

Yes....THOSE are my ugly Ascends on the stands. Granted, the shape of the CMT-340 is nicer than the CBM-170.

The A/V-2 is a nice speaker, not to my taste though. Smooth, and just a tad rolled off in the highs. I would like a little more detail.

The cost for a pre-built pair is about $1000. About $700 in kit form. http://gr-research.com

They have demo pairs of speakers floating around. No charge to demo them, all you are required to do is pay for shipping/insurance to the next person in line for the demo.

Brian Bunge's website is http://www.rutledgeaudiodesign.com
He also makes custom subs.

Your 340's aren't ugly. It's those poor 170's that have the beauty problem.

Heck...Barbara Streisand isn't much to look at but she's got a hell of a voice.

Barr--boorrah, Barr--boorrah...

Her voice...


it's like butta'.

Too nasal for my tastes. And I mean that in both the vocal and visual sense.