I've managed to make the actives acoustically disappear in my room. As you can see in the photo, I had to toe them in very extremely to make that happen. Both DSPs are at a NEAR2 setting. This gives me pin-point imaging across the soundstage. Mono pink noise is dead centre. As you might be able to see, they are only inches away from the back wall. Unfortunately this results in almost no soundstage depth. frown But the bass continues to be sublime and this is the only Axiom ported speaker I've heard with this capability.

I spent two weeks experimenting with them up to 3 feet into the room. I got depth across their width but they refused to acoustically disappear like the M2 and M5. There are technical reasons for this which have to do with the size of the speakers vs. the size of my room. More drivers and active DSPs can certainly fix this but the algorithm to integrate all those drivers with boundary feedback into the DSPs is likely very elusive.

As I increase the gain to the rear drivers, the images get wider. Some material sounds better with this more diffuse imaging but as the rear gain is increased, the speakers start to become acoustically visible. So far I prefer tight, well-defined images with no speakers "showing".

Performance across the entire frequency range is exemplary at all listening volumes. The entire bass range is the absolute best I've ever heard but as I've posted elsewhere, how can I possibly know it's the best it can be with the equipment I have?

All the above is for music. As for movies, feel free to place them anywhere. These are the first Axioms where I can claim they make a big difference for movies particularly with dual subs fed off the DSPs. The bass is more dimensional. Everything is more visceral.

Bottom line is I have everything except soundstage depth and I don't know if my bass is the best it can be.

P.S. I took two of Trevor's panels off the front. The two that remain help with imaging and ringing.


House of the Rising Sone
Out in the mid or far field
Dedicated mid-woofers are over-rated