Hi Tim,
Just a few observations on your questions and continuing quest to improve the sound from the M80s in your room.
Yes, to your question about using the 9-volt battery at the speaker terminals (or with a short speaker lead attached if it makes it easier). The battery will activate all the drivers but by putting your ear close to each one on the front baffle, you can isolate its operation from the other drivers.
That nonsense in the manual for your amplifier is just that: nonsense. Some years ago, there was a faddish interest in the notion of "absolute polarity" -- that if a recording showed reversed polarity, you should adjust your system to reflect that, thereby "hearing" the recording playback in the same sequence of compressions and rarefactions that occurred in the recording. There is no scientific support for this idea. Sounds are made up of rapid compression and rarefaction of air molecules, and whether it's a positive pressure change or negative one makes no difference to the perception of the
sound and its timbral quality by our ear/brain system.
Stereo is an imperfect illusion. To quote Dr. Floyd Toole, the Canadian scientist and pyschoacoustician, all you can hope for is a "plausible recreation" of a musical event. Stereo with good loudspeakers can manage small ensembles rather well -- think string quartets and the like, or a small pop group or jazz ensemble. But a large orchestral work with a massed choir and soloists? You get a suggestion of the experience but it's a far cry from the real thing. One of the intrinsic limitations of stereo is that the two front loudspeakers fire all the musical energy plus all the reverberant energy at your ears from the front, whereas the reverberant information should come from the sides, as it does in concert halls and other live venues. You might consider adding a surround facility to improve the illusion. Dolby and dts both have effective systems to extract reverberant information from 2-channel recordings and re-direct those sounds to side speakers in a 5-channel configuration. I do much of my classical listening using Logic7, a proprietary system from Lexicon, which is owned by Harman. I'm sure there would be objections about additional speakers from your spouse, but I assure you the "plausible illusion" is greatly enhanced by multi-channel playback of a variety of recordings. (It doesn't do much for dry studio multi-miked recordings; live recordings, choral, classical, opera and jazz benefit the most.)
Nice to know you play the viola. I studied violin for many years and played in several local orchestras (Woodstock, Ont), and the U. of T. symphony.
Of course, our quest to improve the illusion in our homes is what makes this hobby fun.
The PSB Alphas were nice little bookshelf speakers, not in the same class as the M22s or the M3s, but pretty neutral overall.
And the Advents in their time were very good.
Ken C has a point. I am not a fan of Audyssey and other auto-EQ systems (nor is Ian C., the founder of Axiom). They have some utility in smoothing out bass response, but they can make good neutral loudspeakers like the Axioms sound bad. So turn them off and listen to the M80s unsullied by electronic manipulation of the M80s' excellent smooth frequency response. You can use it later on if you wish. (Audyssey does have the ability to make lousy speakers sound significantly better.)
Also, I'd ignore any advice about applying absorptive panels to "the first reflection points". This will diminish the envelopment and spaciousness of speakers like the M80s. You are not trying to turn your living room into the control room of a recording studio, with ultra-absorptive panels everywhere. Normal furnishings of most rooms, with rugs and the like, provide an ideal mix of reflective and absorptive surfaces.
I've known Kevin Voecks (the designer of Revel speakers) for many decades since he worked for Mirage. He has designed some excellent speakers for the latter as well as Snell and Revel. But keep in mind that Revel is a "luxury audio" division of Harman, and the Revels are aimed at a carriage-trade market, with carefully positioned prices for that market.
Although many audiophiles have difficulty accepting this, sound quality and musical accuracy do not correlate with price. I have heard various Revels and they're excellent, but there is no reason to believe that a smallish 2-way bookshelf speaker from Revel will be superior in sound quality to Axiom's M22.
I've not heard Paradigm's B15, but it seems it's a further evolution of the excellent Paradigm Reference Studio 20, at a much higher price. I own a pair of the Studio 20s and they are almost identical to the M22s, except for a slightly greater bass emphasis and a bit less overall linearity.
Regards,
Alan
