So... spent part of the holiday rearranging the sound systems. I used to have M2 mains, VP100 and cheap tower surrounds on the HT system and M60s upstairs on a bedroom music system.
I donated the tower surrounds as cheap mains for my brother-in-law's new HT system, moved the M2s to the surround position on my HT, and moved the M60s down to the basement to become HT mains. Very nice, almost overwhelming for movies but having matched surrounds and mains made a huge difference in the music reproduction. No more cheap surrounds for me
That left me without a system upstairs. I picked up a pair of used Paridigm Atoms, hooked them up to the stereo receiver upstairs, and started playing some CDs. There was the usual "I can't believe little boxes can make that much sound" but I get that every time I hook up good bookshelf speakers to a decent amp.
What really surprised me was the "familiarity" of the sound, something I never got with the Axioms. I used to have some homebuilt 3-way boxes with Philips / DeForest drivers (the same ones PSB started off with) and always thought their imaging was something special. I pretty much followed that sound -- first PSB Betas then Rogers LS3/5as then Quads then got poor and sold everything -- and the Atoms had that same sound.
Not the wonderful detailed imaging of the Axioms where you can distinguish two sounds 12" apart on the stage, but a simple, blatant kind of imaging. Play "Time" off Dark Side of the Moon and listen to the "tick tock tick tock tick tock..." that runs through most of the song. On Axioms the sound is clear but not very precisely imaged, but on the Atoms (and my older speakers) it's like all the other sounds are pared away somehow and the "ticktock" is floating starkly and clearly above everthing else.
Humour me, it's hard to describe sound sensations at least for me
Anyways, the Atoms had that same familiar sound and the same familiar effect on "Time". I used to think it was an indication of superior imaging but know I'm starting to suspect it is just an artifact of a slightly uneven frequency response emphasizing the "tick tock" sound in that song.
Where do the M3s come in you ask ? I had always thought of my Rogers boxes as being "as flat as they come", and that was one of the reasons for picking M2s over M3s when I bought my first Axiom speakers. I looked up the Soundstage review of the Atoms and noticed that they had a slightly recessed midrange and emphasised bass/treble. Only subtle though, pretty smooth overall. The curve seemed somehow familiar -- yep, looked up the M3 measurements and they had almost exactly the same shape although the M3s went deeper and were a bit different in the upper midrange.
Interesting... maybe that was the response I was used to. Didn't explain why I liked the Rogers though, until I found some response plots for the old LS3/5as. Yep, roughly the same response curve (rising bass & treble) plus a slight dip in the 2-5 KHz range which apparently was well known as "the BBC dip".
Interesting. I still feel pretty strongly that the M2/M22/M60 family is more accurate but I'm starting to understand why people have such strong feelings for different sounding speakers, eg. the M3/M40/M50 family. There is something very "pleasant" about the sound of the Atoms (very relaxing to listen to), and my guess is that the M3s would give the same sound plus more detail and bass extension. Almost tempted to try a pair and see.
The Axioms are still in a different league in terms of detail and "involvement" in the music. Listening to a Diana Krall studio album (look of love ?) on the Paradigms is nice, but listening to the same album at the same volume on M2s somehow seems much more intimate and detailed.
I haven't had time to directly A/B the Atoms and the M2s but will try to do that some time in the next couple of weeks. My current thinking is that the Atoms do a better job of reproducing the sound of my old, much loved, imperfect speakers but I'm guessing that the slight emphasis in the frequency response curve is a big factor in why they sound so good for casual listening.
Trying to avoid getting ANOTHER pair of Axioms to try out. The darn things are like Tribbles, my house is filling up with them ;(
