Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Room Treatments

Not much yet, still playing with setup. Sierras like to be toed in towards listener while Axioms seem better either toed in less or pointing straight ahead. I really need a speaker switch box, going to start another thread on that.

- Sierras sound a bit more neutral (a bit less midrange) but I don't know which is "right"

(but the slightly more forward midrange in the M3s is also something that gets a lot of positive comments re: detail)

- Sierras seem to have a bit more bass but M3s seem to distinguish different bass frequencies more readily

- Sierras hit volume limits at relatively lower level than M3s (surprisingly low on some electronica)

- didn't notice big differences in efficiency

- main thing I noticed about Sierras in comparison with larger speakers was more detail in complex passages (suspected less cabinet vibration but only a guess)... relative to M3s the difference certainly isn't as obvious, may not be there at all

(if I had to use short words I would say that the Sierras sounded more "solid" than the larger speakers but I haven't done enough testing yet to tell if that is still the case vs M3)

(this may be why I have always liked bookshelf speakers on stands - thought it was 2-way vs 3-way crossover but maybe it was small/rigid cabinet)

So far it's turning into one of those "they do sound different but I'm not sure which one I like better" things, but the differences aren't as big as they were between Sierras and larger speakers eg M60s.

EDIT - I was starting to think along the lines of the Sierras sounding a bit "bigger" than the M3s, but after I moved the M3s out to the stands and toed them in a bit more I started getting the same "big" sound from the M3s, at least as close to the same as I could detect when unplugging & moving speakers.

Speaker reviewing is hard, at least doing it well is hard.