Hey, everybody. Thought I'd follow some of the other folks on the board (big props to Randyman and Alan) and relate my experience in an all-out Axiom tower showdown. This is a VERY long post, so if you only want the bottom line, feel free to skip ahead.
Until this most recent purchase, my 5.1 setup (which serves double duty as a stereo system) used a pair of M3s and a VP50 across the front, the older Axiom AX500 handling bass and LFE, and the shockingly decent Cerwin-Vega LS-5's in the rear. I have run-of-the-mill JVC and Technics DVD and CD players, respectively. The superb Arcam AVR100 is the heart of the system.
I'd been having a few problems prompting me for a speaker upgrade, not that anyone ever really needs an excuse to buy better speakers. Since we'd moved, our living room turned out to be too big for the VP50, and I was getting too much audible hiss when the volume was up to satisfying levels. Secondly, our cats had been using the M3s as launching pads for their daily prizefight, meaning I'd come home many times to find the poor speakers knocked face-first onto the floor. Finally, switching from music to movies or vice versa entailed a trip to the sub to adjust the gain and audio/video switch on the back. It was all becoming a big pain in the rear, and at the end of the day I prefer towers for stereo anyway.
I went into Replay Electronics while on vacation in Toronto to audition Axiom towers (and the VP150). Sadly, the M60 wasn't in stock, but I grabbed the chance to hear the other speakers head-to-head. To my surprise, both salespeople at Replay said their favorite and best-selling tower was the M40, and assured me that the M80 sounds very similar to the M60 for the purpose of comparison. The CD player and integrated amp were both Cambridge Audio. Incidentally, I'm really shocked at how small the Epic Micro speakers are in person...the QS2 is literally the size of a softball.
From an aesthetic point of view, I have to point out that I much prefer the Maple finish. The pics on the web site make it look a little too yellow...it really is an elegant color that fit in perfectly with our light-colored living room decor. I could easily see a Maple-finished speaker as a contrast element in a room with cherry woods or dark leathers as well. In any event, it's a far more interesting color than everyday black. I can also dispute the Soundstage claim that the M80 is "imposing". The new Paradigm Reference 100...THAT is an imposing speaker. If spouse approval was making you worry, you can rest easy that the look of a room won't be dominated by a pair of M80s.
Now, onto the listening tests.
First up was 'Popsicle Toes' from Diana Krall's "When I Look in Your Eyes", my screening song for any piece of equipment--if this song doesn't sound good, the audition is over in my mind. All three passed with flying colors of course, and to be honest I heard very little difference between them except a little more openness with the M80. All three just filled the room beautifully, and the bass added a richness that the M3 just cannot deliver without a sub.
Next up was 'Pie Jesu' on Sarah Brightman's "Classics". I am neither a fan of Sarah Brightman nor this song in particular, but it's a great piece to test a speaker for female vocals and weed out serious problems like sharp treble or a flat midrange. Again, all three speakers sounded VERY similar with nothing audibly offensive that I could pick out. Nothing so far pointed to one tower over another, so defaulting to cost, score 2 for the M40.
Stepping away from the wimpy:) music, I played 'I'm in the Mood', a duet with Bonnie Raitt on John Lee Hooker's "The Healer". The first 45 seconds sports some wild guitar jamming by both artists that has to be heard at loud volumes to be appreciated. Here the contrasts between the speakers became apparent, but it was tough to discern at first what was simply a matter of volume versus true qualtitative differences. Whether or not 98 is the actual sensitivity of the M80, it is nonetheless a LOUD speaker relative to its little brothers. I'll do my best not to rehash the Soundstage reviews, but most of the descriptions they use are bang-on.
The M40 has a rich, laid back sound that added a bit of warmth to Raitt's vocals and slide guitar, but still delivered with clarity similar to the M3. It made for a very easy listen. The M50 sounded much like the M40, but the second woofer adds a lot more presence to male vocals and lower guitar octaves. If you don't mind thinking in metaphors, the M50 adds 4 ounces of beef to the music sandwich. I could also appreciate the effect Randyman described of slightly muffled vocals, and this was relative to both the M40 and M80. I'm also confident the effect was real, and not just "expectation bias" (i.e. I only heard the difference because I was expecting to hear it). The M80 was a horse of a different color. It sounded crisp, clean and very open. I felt the M80 added some genuine RAUNCH to the music that blues fans will probably drool over, and I suspect that's the way the recording is intended to be heard.
"Hell Freezes Over" by the Eagles turned out to be the final CD in the showdown. Track 1, 'Get Over It' is my standby rock song to audition audio equipment. The M40 "rocked" a lot better than I expected for a laid-back inexpensive speaker, and again the clarity was astonishing given the price. However, the M40 was just a TOUCH shy in the mids and highs on this song, and couldn't quite "lift me to soaring heights" like I'd hoped it would. The M50 had significantly more impact on the low end, but to be honest seemed imbalanced to my ears. I thought the low end was too prominent relative to the mids and treble, and the result was bass that sounded somewhat "fat". This was nowhere near as blatant or annoying as with say, a Cerwin-Vega monster, but I did notice a little listening fatigue after a few minutes. As might be expected, the M80 played rock to an AWESOME level of fidelity...every guitar lick and crash of the drums was presented in stunning detail, squeaky clean without the slightest hint of distortion or background hiss.
Onto 'Hotel California' on the same CD (what else?), and again I was pleasantly surprised at just how good the M40 sounded. It couldn't deliver the same level of detail or sense of openness as the M80, but sounded cleaner and more balanced across the frequency range than the M50. If fault could be found with the M80, I noticed it on this song...the mids and treble sounded so clear and prominent, the volume needed to be turned up a fair bit before the bass really kicked. Think of the M80 as a means of exacting revenge on a neighbor, rather than a speaker to play alongside a candlelight dinner.
My final decision took about 30 minutes to reach, with replay after replay of my audition discs. In hindsight I should have brought in a few more classical discs, but I doubt it would have made the choice any easier. It was a REALLY tough call between the M40 and M80 on a price-for-performance scale. While I would say the M80 is the better speaker design, the M40 holds its own light years beyond the price difference would lead you to suspect. To put this into perspective, the first time I carefully auditioned speakers in a store (M3s vs. similarly-priced Energy, Cerwin-Vega and JBL), the contest was over in less than three minutes. Two months ago, I went into a local A/V shop expecting to take home the Denon 3802 (which has reached legendary status in multiple online and paper publications), but within three songs the Arcam had it beat embarrassingly, saving me hundreds of dollars. The M40 vs the M80 was a FAR closer contest, a testament to just how good both speakers are.
For the first time in the two years that I've been into the A/V thing, I took a long and hard look at our real-life listening habits in the context of the Law of Diminishing Returns. While we're very much into slamming action movies, most of the music we play is in the late evenings at a moderate volume. It's rare that we have the time to sit and listen critically for longer than a few minutes, paying attention to imaging and fine musical detail. In the end, I was offered the M40s and older-model VP150 for an absolute steal of a price, and opted to take the plunge right then and there. I can't help having a LITTLE remorse for passing on the magnificent M80, and I wonder how the M60 would have sounded standing up against its big and little brothers.
Since the M40s have been broken in at home, I've been totally satisfied with the way they play anything from Rachmaninoff to Nickelback. Rich, clean, and fantastically clear given the price, I can't believe there were actually details the M40 missed compared to the M80. Much like the M3s, the M40s also have that wonderful quality of being able to play all styles of music for hours without generating listening fatigue. I would, however, caution potential buyers to buck up and fork over the cash for decent electronics...I played the M40s on my parents' system while still in Toronto, and they had no problems revealing just how flat a cheap receiver can sound. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when they came home to the Arcam.
I can testify that the M80 is indeed everything it is advertised to be. If you're a critical music lover who plays a lot of well-mastered recordings at high volumes, don't hesitate for one second to audition or outright buy the M80. I can't fathom finding the same quality at a better price. On the other hand, if you're looking for a great full-range speaker that's easy to listen to, with remarkable clarity and performance considering the cost, put the M40 at the top of your list. It's an unreal value relative to other brands in this price range. You won't be disappointed at all.
