With all of my efforts concentrated on my dedicated HT room the last three years, I have very much ignored my living room. So I went on the hunt for a pair of bookshelf speakers and a new flat panel TV. I got the flat panel last week at Future Shop (LG 50" for $979 Cad).
I was very fortunate to find these Axiom AX2 Millennium Series 2 Bookshelf speakers on Canuck Audio Mart yesterday. They are in perfect condition, packaged in their original boxes and packaging, including plastic wrap. Even the foam on the drivers are in excellent shape, no sign of "foam rot". I picked them up for $130 Cad.
The AX2 is a two way loud speaker with a 1" soft dome tweeter and an 8" bass driver. They also have the Axiom tapered cabinet to eliminate standing waves. These are in a very nice Rosewood vinyl. Even though it is vinyl, it doesn't look like it, from a distance they could easily pass for real wood with a matte finish.
These speakers won the Sound and Vision Critics choice award in 1993 and after spending about 2 hours listening to them last night, I can hear why. They have the same accurate detailed sound that I get from my M80's. Voices are natural. The sound stage is good, but not as wide as or as deep as the 80's, which is to be expected. Bass is actually better then I expected from a speaker of this size and from 1993. Speaking of size, Axiom calls these book shelf speakers. I think they are a little too big for a book shelf speaker myself. For music, a sub would be a nice complement, but not an absolute necessity.
Freq. Res. - 43 - 22000 Hz +- 3 db
Sensitivity - 90 db
Imped. - 6 Ohm
Rated - 15 to 250 Watts RMS.
They were able to eat everything my 50 watt Rotel power amp was able to feed them. At very high levels they did start to sound a little harsh, but that was a levels I wouldn't maintain.
I was looking for a good sounding pair of speakers for my living room for background music, and the odd listening session without blowing the bank.
I know you can get great sounding speakers today that are a fraction of the size, B&W 686 is a beauty, but at $600 Cad, I just couldn't afford them.
If you are in the market for used speakers and get a chance to grab the AX2, it is a steel for anywhere under $150. Highly recommended!!!!
