Hello,
I'm in desperate need of upgrade, the surrounds I'm using now are some real dull Bose acoustimass 5s. My mains are Paradigm studio 100s. Wondering if anyone else is using a mix of Paradigm and Axiom and how well they sound together. the Axiom QS8s' dimensions and optional wall brackets would work much better than the Paradigm surrounds in my room as far as fit goes. Paradigm offers no flexibility with mounting options.
I'd also like to meet someone who has some Axioms in the northern Virginia area so I could hear them. I'll buy the beer.
-Hogie

That'll be just fine. Studio 100s and Axioms are reputed to sound pretty similar, and you don't really run into as many timbre mismatch problems with surrounds. I've heard of some people in NoVa...

Nova Scotia?? That's an awful long drive .

Just noticed that was your first post, so I'm warning you that many of us here have M80-EP 800 syndrome so we might try to talk you into them

Yeah, I understand. I'm still beside myself with these studio 100s, It'll take a hell of a jedi mind trick to separate me from them. Thanx for the quick responses.

Those Studio 100s are some nice speakers, Hogie, I looked at some myself. I think the QS8s as noted by Ken, would blend with the 100s quite nicely as they are both very detailed.

I was actually joking around, kind of an inside joke. Everyone is extremely helpful here, as they've helped me immensely and continue to.

I agree with Ken and Adrian; the QS8's would be just great with those Paradigms. I heard the QS8's paired with Monitor Audio mains at the home of a former forum regular, and the results were very satisfying.

Now that's the kind of stuff I wanna hear! Thanks everyone.
Hey TomTuttle, your signature is a phrase I have been standing by for years. Cheers!

I think the Q's will blend nicely with the Studios.

Hogie,

I live in Leesburg, have Axiom M22s, VP100, QS8s, and an EP500. I love beer, too. Send me a PM (click my name to the left and choose Send a PM) if you want to come by some time.

Caveat: our schedule's a bit tight this week and through the weekend, and my wife has final veto power on the home schedule.

I use QS8s with AV123 x-statiks. They work well together.

Hi Hogie,

I have quite a few Paradigms left over from my years as an audio-video magazine editor, and the timbral (tonal) match of Axiom's QS8s to the Paradigm Studio series is excellent. Some of the double-blind tests I've done with Axioms and Paradigms have shown that the Paradigm Studio 20 bookshelf models and Axiom's M22 v2 bookshelf models are virtually indistinguishable. Or, as my old mentor, Dr. Floyd Toole, used to say "similarly good."

My condolences on your use of the Boses as surrounds. You'll be thrilled with the surround sound field delivered by Axiom's QS8s.

Regards,

Alan

This started as a quick response but turn out a tad detailed, so here is the summary: I like them a lot.

More detailed: I use PSB L/C/R, not Axioms, and the QS8s blend perfectly. The multi-pole nature of the speakers really diminishes the need for timbre matching as reflection is more the name of the game. I have not used it for SACD music (need an HDMI AVR!!!), where direct radiating surrounds could be better, but on concert Blu-Rays and 5-ch stereo music the QS8s never stand out. The just create a very nice rear image that is both subtle and broad, but detailed. Yes those are opposites. What I mean is, 90% of the time they just make a wide non-distracting image behind you that makes may small room feel much larger - as they should. But when a detailed sound (train, bullet, etc) actually travels L - R, or F - R, you can track it detail along its path. And my system is 5.1, not 7.9 like some here, so good rear imaging in my low-level theater is even more impressive. (Did I just call my multi-thousand dollar system “low-level”? I got to get off this forum, you 7.9 freaks are giving me woofer envy.)

My experience with decent direct radiating surrounds is that they can be setup for either, non-detailed reflection (by aim) or pinpoint accuracy, but not both at the same time. The Qs8s do both very well and I’m extremely happy with them. I won’t try to give you a golden-ear review of the harmonics, but I can attest that they hold their own at well over 100 db (total system, not running alone). Playing Pink Floyd’s ‘Brick in the Wall’ at absurd levels the helicopter circles the room and moves from towers with twin 6.5” drivers to the QS8’s twin 5.25 drivers and the sound does not crush at all. The Helo is the same size, with the same wallop of the blades. That impresses me as the front stage has a total of six 6.5 drivers plus a nearby sub, so I expect a dramatic shrinking of the soundstage once it gets to rear – didn’t happen. I did hear one QS8 clip while torturing it, but I have to blame my amp. I was running all 5 channels at over 100 db and the sound I heard could easily have been the amp petering out. Have never heard another bad word out of them and that’s impressive. I love my PSB’s but they have flaws I could name. The QS8s are not subject to the same level of scrutiny as surrounds, but they give no reason to complain so… I must say 5 of 5 stars for performance.

Value is 5 of 5 without a doubt. You don’t get the warm fuzzy feeling of a local store demo, but at this price I would have to give 7 of 5 stars if I got to demo them first. I don’t count the return policy as a free demo as I would have to pay for return freight. At this price range, that is an expensive pure demo. Good price for caveat emptor insurance, but not for a demo.

I do have some criticisms I’ll relay. To be completely critical: (1) Ergonomics: the banana plug binding post can’t be used with supplied wall bracket – I think that could be tweaked and should have been in the design phase as it is so easy to fix. Not a big deal, but if you want to use really short wire coming out of the wall it is hard to put bare wire in its place. 4 of 5 stars for Ergo.

(2) Fit and Finish: 4 of 5 stars, not considering price. (In this price range, again, this has to be reference level.) One problem with the finish is Axiom’s inability to cure my cheapness. I ordered black vinyl, too cheap to order real wood veneers, and I got black vinyl that looks like black ash wood, not the piano gloss mahogany real wood veneer I wanted. I’ll let them slide on that. The veneer is perfectly applied with near seamless edges. Not that you would expect less with modern mfg, but as most of the speaker is hidden behind grill cloth they could have skimped here and didn’t.

But the real imperfection (on my unit anyway) is a tweeter plate not mounted perfectly flat on the surface. It is a surprising imperfection given that I don’t recall ever seeing such a problem, even on cheap speakers. And the tweeter plate is not mitered or recessed into the face so it is hard to make it uneven – but it is. Looks like a hand install as a robot could never make that mistake. I’ll give them credit for hand crafting, which I appreciate, but take star for QC. Bear in mind, the tweeter at issue lives under a cloth, so only I know it is there. Otherwise, fit and finish are very good at any price.

And to the extent it matters, they are tiny. When I first saw the boxes I almost shipped them back without opening – I have outdoor speakers bigger than this. But they are dense little bastards; feel like little tanks. They are easily 50% heavier than a comparable bookshelf speaker. Much of that is magnet (4 drivers) but the cabinet is 100% solid. Gives a great feeling of quality to any woodworker. And the small package size really helps on the WAF, and placement. I had several issues to deal with (we call them windows) and the small QS8 gave me options larger speakers could not. They disappear; until you pull off the covers, at which point the aluminum-ish cones have a very nice hi-tech look (that matches my PSB drivers, if the fashion-tech police come by). So I have to give appearance 5 of 5.

Overall, they have exceeded my expectations and made me wonder if the M80 could equally exceed my expectations of towers.

Glad to get that off my chest.

That's funny.

But I must say, Bose was the gateway drug for me. Bose 201's were my first real speaker and I enjoyed them for years. Then I did 301's and was pretty happy. Once the Canadian's moved in the 301's were a joke, but they were good for what they were good for. I think Bose lost their way and sold their musical souls for the cubes. Alan, was the 901 as good in its day as the hype I recall as a too-young-to-afford-them lad? Or was Bose just ahead of the marketing curve in my little town? Just curious.

Zimm

I checked all 10 tweeters in my Epic 80 system and found no issues with faceplates sitting flat on speaker cabinets. If this is bothering you, and I think it is since you mentioned it here, you might want to give Axiom a call.

Also, none of the tweeters in my system have the tweeter faceplate recessed, so this is by design.

paul

Not bothering me enough to deal with it, but worth mentioning to a potential buyer in terms of an overall review. And I did not mean the tweeter should be recessed. My point was that an unlevel fit would be easily explained by a bad cut on a recessed mount, but that is not the case here as they are flat mounted on the surface.

Excellent review, Charles, although it might have been better still with a few sound effects thrown in...like the helicopter circling....for effect.
Re. vinyl veneers: if I'm not mistaken, the 'base' vinyl choices(boston cherry, black oak etc) actually come attached to the 4x8 mdf sheets as a unit and are then machined and cut to make the cabinets from that sheet...making sure not to cut all the way through a corner joint so when it is folded over to form the corner there is an 'invisible' seam and continuous grain pattern going around the corner. The custom vinyl is likely just that: a custom vinyl, separately applied over the speaker(not part of the 4x8 mdf)if I'm not mistaken, hence the slightly higher price/cost in manufacturing.
It sounds like the QS8s are quite successful when paired up with a number of other speakers (PSB, Paradigm, MAs, oh yah and Axioms)

You know, I am not in front of the speakers and perhaps their lack of a seem is why I recalled them having very good seems. Impressive given the number of facets on a QS8. And you final sentence is a good summary of my view, these speakers blend very well with other brands from what I can tell. i guess I could have just said that and moved on...

Thanks, everyone, for all the help. I can get by the clearance issues with the wall mount, because the way I'll need to mount them will incorporate the optional 'full metal bracket' wall mounts. Seams? As long as they're structurally sound, not stapled or duct taped or something, I could care less if you can see them or not. I've never really sweated cosmetic details.

Your reviews are very helpful, above and beyond what I was expecting, and I'm next to sold. All that's left is an audition, and Pmbuko was kind enough to offer one. It looks like I'm gonna have a real happy birthday in early March!

Zimm, Pink Floyd will surely be one of the first few to grace the new speakers. Yeah, I play it at absurd levels, too.

Zimm, Bose was a gateway for me, too. I've had two pairs of Acoustimass 5s for well over a decade now, and they did serve me well. My biggest problem, outside the ridiculous price I paid for them, was that they don't seem to perform well at louder volumes, and I like it loud. The remedy was a relatively inexpensive pair of older Pioneer 4 way floor speakers I bought at a clearance, I use them in a 'B' array for when I play music, and they crank pretty well.

Zimm and Hogie,

Yes, my condolences line was a bit of a cheap shot. Funny, but I think I like throwing zingers at Bose because they are a triumph of marketing over sound quality. The first Bose I heard was the 901 in 1964 and since it was the first system to use a combination of direct and reflected radiation, it was very impressive at the time. No other speaker I'd heard did that, and it was more spacious sounding. It also used active equalization but the same rinky-dink paper-cone drivers that are used in most of the Boses now.

We all heard about Bose because they are brilliantly marketed, with millions going to ad campaigns. They aren't terrible, just rather colored and not musically accurate. One of their bookshelf models--I think it was the 201 or 301--was better than others in the line. You could manually swivel the tweeter and in our blind tests if you faced it forward, the speakers did quite well. When you turned the tweeter to face the side wall, the rankings went down.

Regards,

Well, when I think back to how much better of a speaker set up I could have gotten for all that $$ I spent, maybe I deserve the cheap shots, and I welcome them. The marketing was pretty damn clever, though. Quite a routine they had. Anybody remember a super store called 'Incredible Universe'?
On the other hand, you can imagine my ear to ear smile when I first lit up those 'digms....

I too, am a former Bose listener. I went from 201s to the M22s and now have M80s. It was the higher quality sound I got from the QS's and VP150, when I upgraded the surround system, compared the 201s that allowed me to get the Ok from my wife to get better mains, thus the M22s entered my life.

If I could get Studio 100s for the same price as the M80s I would have them as well, love the slightly smoother top end of the 100s compared to the M80s. It is only marginal but I notice it when I get to listen to 100s. You should find the Axioms to be a nearly perfect blend with them