I met the FedEx man at the door. "I've been tracking these for a week!" I exclaimed while grabbing both boxes. I immediately open said boxes and replaced my bedroom mains (Tannoy PBM 6.5 professional passive nearfields which I love) with my newly acquired Axioms. The anticipation was overwhelming,
I had spent the past six months reading (and re-reading) all the reviews, posts, comments, testimonials, propaganda, rants etc. about this beloved bookshelf (and other Axiom products), but still, I was a tad dubious about the possibility of actually scoring audiophile grade kit, sound unheard, from the internet at such a ridiculously low price.
I mean, the speaker stands I have them on cost a $100.00 more than the M22's did!
Anyway, now comes the time to "feed" these lil' Canadian boxes some audio!
First up is 'The Yellow Shark' by Frank Zappa and the Ensemble Modern. As the music hits me, I am utterly transfixed by the unreasonably great sound from my M22s. Beautiful! I mean, I did have high expectations, but the M22's have far exceeded them.
Next up is 'The Mirror Pool' by Lisa Gerrard. To say that I was enamoured by the quality of the sound is an understatement.
Then I play the Steely Dan 'Gaucho' DTS surround disc. Jaw, meet floor...
I received the M22's 12/10/09. Since then I have been feeding them everything from regular cd's and 180 gram audiophile vinyl to multichannel dvd audio and movies. I am simply stunned at the fidelity of these speakers.
I am an audio professional. I have high end gear in my studio (Genelec, Blue Sky, Tannoy) and have been a life long audiophile since my first teenage Kenwood set-up. I have had many choice pieces from DCM, Quad, Mark Levinson, Maggies etc, and I have NEVER been this blown away by anything with such a bang for the buck ratio than I have with my Axiom purchase.
Except maybe by my aforementioned Tannoy PBM 6.5's. I bought them the same day that I got the Genelecs. The Genelecs cost over two thousand for each speaker. The Tannoy's cost $475.00. The Genelecs were/are pretty amazing. Of course, they should be at that price! But the Tannoy's always made me smile because, imho, they were the best deal EVER for a small passive nearfield. And unlike NS 10's, they didn't sound like sh*t! The PBM 6.5's have been used to track and mix many, many famous recordings. I'm sure a lot of Axiom owners have recordings that were, in fact, mixed on these $475.00 bargains.
Now, for five dollars less, I have the M22's which BLOW the Tannoy's away. I cannot believe how wonderful these speakers are.
But enough gushing. I plan to write an in-depth review of these giant killers soon, so I can add to the other great write ups I have read here on the forum.
Add me to the converted Axiom lovers!
Now I gotta get some M80's for my living room two channel set-up!
