OK, that was interesting. Now that the room is finally beaten into shape I figured the next step would be to roll some different speakers through it. I figured that Magneplanar 1.6 or 1.7 would be the next step (I really liked the Quad ELS's I had during my mis-spent youth) but I ran across a pair of B-stock Ascend Sierra-1 speakers and ordered them. One of the reasons for trying Sierra's was that the most virulent Axiom haters (the ones who spit when they post) usually said nice things about Ascend speakers, so I figured I should own a pair of Ascends as well as my Axiom farm.
So... after disappearing from DHL's computers for a couple of days they finally showed up at my place. Executive summary is that I really like them, and they sound surprisingly different from my M40's, but the difference is a mix of "better" and "less better".
The M60s, and to a lesser extent the M40s, have an awesome clarity that's hard to explain without listening to them. You can pick apart different instruments, and there's almost a "clinical" aspect to the sound. Example is No Doubt's "Hella Good" -- with electric bass and bass synth both happening in the intro, normally it's hard to tell them apart but with the Axioms it's totally obvious that there are two different instruments at different positions in the soundstage. I haven't found the CD yet (I have a 200 CD changer and have to write down numbers for each CD) but you get the idea. The Sierra 1s don't have that level of detail, although the NRT (Neodymium Ring Tweeter or something like that) option apparently gives you that.
Anyways, I think the M40s play deep bass more clearly than the Sierra's, but the Sierras do something in the mid-bass that is more open than anything I've heard on M40s or M60s (both ti vintage). The newer Axioms have different crossovers and different frequency response, so I think I need to sync up with current sound rather than 10 year old sound.
Current thinking is that I want to combine Axiom M60ti sound from maybe 1 KHz up, Sierra sound from a couple of hundred Hz to 1 KHz, and something I haven't owned for years from 30 Hz up to a couple of hundred Hz. Looking at the different curves between regular and HP speakers there's a good chance that the HP woofers & associated cabinet/crossover changes do just that.
Seems like I need to carve out time for a trip to Dwight.
Anyways, between M40s, M60s and Sierra-1s I'm really enjoying my record collection
Major things to investigate so far :
1. Grand piano sounds more realistic on the Sierra's, which is a surprise -- I expected the Sierras to be different around the crossover freq but not so much at other frequencies
2. My primary test recording for ~30 years has been the first track off Triumvirat's "Old Lives Die Hard". Still not sure why -- it's a pretty bland recording -- but there's a mix of bass drum and bass guitar that seems to be a pretty good leading indicator for how I'll like the sound of the speaker.
Best playback so far was the old PSB "acoustic feedback" servo speaker using a Philips DeForest 8" woofer with a servo coil, followed by my old 3-way KEF DIY speakers. The Sierra's sounded better than the M40s but will try them against the M60s on the weekend.
The difficult thing about comparing these speakers is that the Sierras are M3 class in terms of ability to play loudly, but M40/M50 class in terms of bass response. Anyways, they're interesting.
