Thyname,
I have a notion that our listening tastes are similar. Seether, Eve 6 and Revis are in the changer now. I also suspect we are a minority around here, so the replies to this question are going to be very pro axiom, “they’re perfect”, “ it’s your music, not the speakers” kind of replies. This prim Dona attitude used to rub me the wrong way, but I just read, listen and try to learn a thing or two anymore. “they’re detailed, not bright”….lol. that’s a funny one. What the hell’s the diff? that pseudonym ranks up there with “she’s not fat, she’s just big boned”. Axioms are bright, so folks just need to deal with it and call it the way it is. A person either prefers this level of “detail”, or doesn’t. If not, buy something else. But just stop calling the girl big boned, she’s fat. Maybe if someone would let her know she’s fat, she’d get her big ass into the gym and start to feel better about herself and look pretty dam sexy when she’s fitting into a size 6. And maybe, just maybe if the Axiom engineers would actually listen to un-biased opinions of folks not afraid to call the girl fat, they’d do some tweaking and improve an already great speaker. But if everyone continues to say "she’s just big boned, not fat", then there will be no further tweaking to improve their product, and she’ll continue to wear those size 18 trousers and feeling poorly about herself.
Well, the Axioms are perfect speakers crowd can call it whatever they want, no matter to me. I happen to enjoy my system, and have no intentions or desires to buy anything else (and I can afford to do so if I wish). The 80’s are bright, it’s as simple as that, and probably are not the best speaker choice for metal. This is just something that I choice to live with because in addition to the metal that I primarily listen to, I enjoy other genre’s as well. Alison Kraus and the Union Station for example. – a contemporary blue glass. Her vocals and the banjo cords sound absolutely amazing on my system. Instrumental and acoustical recordings also sound amazing. Even Country sounds pretty darn good. And, most of my “metal” recordings sound great too. But the generalized statements that pop and metal are not mastered to the same standards as say…..classical, well I call BS. That’s a cop-out. Metal just has a different tempo with more strings and cymbals. Build a speaker that will make everything sound good. I know it can be done, even if they installed a user adjustable resister in the high frequencies. But, if no-one brings this to the engineer’s attention, then nothing will be done. Stop relying exclusively on graphs and charts and listen to everyone’s opinion. Not all of us metal heads are pot smoking, half deaf, brain dead criminals that are unable to distinguish what sounds good or bad.
The SSSSS is there – end of story. More so with some recordings than others, but it’s still there with most and please stop trying to convince me that it isn’t there. As I mentioned earlier, the Rotels helped, but did not eliminate it. I put an area rug in front of the speakers, and that seamed to help a little. I also placed the 1070 in the L1 position which seamed to help. A little more bass made the SSSSS less pronounced. Didn’t remove it, but with more bass, it’s less noticeable. And when I listen to music other than metal, I run the 1070 flat. But the statements that the speakers have nothing to do with this and it’s strictly related to environment and source material, in my humble opinion, are made from within a whirlwind of BS from people too proud to entertain the notion that the speaker’s performance can be improved. What will the next excuse be, relative humidity?
…..end of rant. Commence the tar and feathering at will. I’m OK with being the metal crowd martyr.
