We got a new receiver as well so I hooked them both up to the new Onkyo TX-SR500, no subwoofer. One of the first things we noticed was that unlike our Onkyo TX-DS939 it will drive both sets of speakers at once, and that sounds REALLY REALLY good! Does M40 + M60 = M80?
The biggest difference between them is that the M60s have a lot more bass. The imaging differs between them as well, with the M60s being more up front, and the M40s being laid back. (The sound stage moved away from us switching from the M60s to the M40s) The M60s have a wider dispersion pattern which makes vocals sound a little wider.
After playing with that a while we switch both sets of speakers to the TX-DS939, and confirmed that things still pretty much sounded the same. Then since the TX-DS939 can handle different settings for the A and B speakers we added the subwoofer to the M40s, leaving the M60s by themselves. It took a little tweaking to get the bass just right, but we got it close. Now they sounded much more the same. But, the M60s still had more bass, the nice tight kind you can feel. We could have turned the subwoofer up more, but then it was overpowering. (We might need to try moving the subwoofer somewhere else) I think the other issue is that the TX-DS939 doesn't let me adjust the cross-over, and I think it might be good to move it from 80 up to 100 or 120. I can do that on the TX-SR500 but it applies to both A and B speakers, in any case I want to try it just to see if I can get a M40/sub combo to have the same feel as the M60s. (The sub we were using is not a Axiom sub - yet.)
At this point I would say if you mostly listen to music just get the M60s, no sub needed. If you watch a lot of movies get a good subwoofer and a pair of M40s they will do good by you. An exception here is that if you listen to a lot of Jazz type music I think you will be happier with the M60s.
Listening to A Cappella choral music between the two - we could barely tell which speaker was which. I had to carefully determine if the voices appeared more forward (M60) to choose which speaker set we were listening to. Overall I was very surprised how many times I guessed wrong and turned the speakers off instead of swicthing to the other pair.
Now if I can get my hands on a pair of M22s (we are thinking they would be good for the music room) I can add to the comparison.
As a side note even our cats appreciate the Axiom speakers! We were listening to a Chet Atkins CD and one of our cats moved directly in front of the speakers and was staring at them listening intently. I think we got a good picture of it and will try and get it up tonight.
Michael
