Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Speaker face-off this weekend

That was well over a year ago now so remembering my exact impressions of the M22s is somewhat faded.
Just offhand though i found them to be thin. I wanted more and i didn't want it from a subwoofer so i moved towards the floorstanding models instead.
I hear the M3 is more robust in its sound than the M22 so perhaps if i had auditioned them instead i would have reconsidered. Who knows.

If Sushi offers a face-off at his house I'll bring the beer and some Maggies and some KEF's and some M22s!!! Hell, I'd even bring some components. Someone else would have to bring the dancing girls for intermission.

I should have jumped in earlier - my apologies to all!

I understood completely when Curtis contacted me that he was going to be performing casual listening tests, not double-blind listening tests. He was very clear that he was not hosting the event, so he wasn't in charge of the wiring, switch boxes - even the beverages! I think Curtis has done a great job of giving an overview of his opinion of several popular speakers.

I'd like to extend an invitation to Curtis to come up to Axiom, visit our facilities, spend some time on the lake oggling the neighbours (but that's another post!) and to the NRC to conduct a controlled double blind listening test. Ian, Alan, and Dr. Floyd Toole of Harmon-Kardon (amongst others), spent years developing those tests and any audio lover would enjoy the experience, I'm sure.

So that's what happened, and what we'd love to have happen, and thanks Curtis for the opportunity.

Best,

mwc,
What kind of Kefs do you own?
Newer stuff or older?
I have a friend of mine who is a Kef nut.

Curtis, re your "break-in" question, since in the very first minute of play a woofer cycles thousands of times and a tweeter hundreds of thousands, I think it was a wise man indeed who opined that "Break-in was invented so that we couldn't return anything".

And now see, little did you suspect that this would wind up with you getting invited to Canada.

Amie,
Your comments again reinforce what a unique company Axiom is. Very classy indeed.

Whenever we sell our house and get something smaller Axioms are coming in the door and I suspect that 30 days later they will still be there .

Curtis,
Your event sounded like a lot of fun, I'd love to attend one sometime if it ever makes it up to the Great White North.

Amie,

Thank you very much for your post and your kind phone call this afternoon. Your support is much appreciated. I want to reiterate, in no shape or form did I take comments made on the board as a reflection on Axiom.

I would love to visit your facilities if I get I ever get the chance. Does Shania Twain own Axioms? That may cause me to sway my opinions, especially if she was in the room....double blind or not!

No matter what the reviews said, one thing is perfectly clear to me. All of the folks that I dealt with from the internet speaker companies, Axiom Audio, Ascend Acoustics, and Aperion Audio, have been extremely supportive and gracious. I believe in the internet direct model. The main reason for this event was to be able to listen, first hand, the various speakers. It would be nice to have "showrooms" around so people could listen and touch these speakers.....which is the only drawback of the model.

If any of you are ever in the Los Angeles area, I would love a shout, and maybe we can set something up so you can listen to other speakers in my home.

curtis

hello everyone,

i am the individual who offered to host this INFORMAL comparison...

first off, i'd like to thank curtis and Axiom for making the comparison possible...

secondly, i'd like to thank each one of you for reading my review.

now i've read all of the replies that there were paid schills and inherent biases and what not and would like to address some of these things.

i did say in my write up and will repeat once again that everything i shared was MY PERSONAL OPINION. nothing more, nothing less...i also told folks to take everything with a BIG GRAIN OF SALT...why? because i know i like smooth yet detailed sounding speakers...

in reply to those who have insinuated that some of the attendees including myself might be paid schills...i can tell you that i am not. whether you believe it is up to you...based on my interactions with curtis, i do not believe he is a schill either as he has told me and posted that he is still learning alot about this wonderful hobby. a schill would know how to setup his speakers to sound better than the rest...curtis did not handle any of the speaker placement and yes, each speaker was placed in the EXACT same location to minimize variables. sa-dono is not a paid schill...he doesn't own Rockets and is still waiting for his Reference speakers...shokunin is not a paid schill...he doesn't own any of the budget branded speakers and preferred the Ascends...bioforce is not a paid schill...he is a dealer of other brands of speakers and like shokunin, found the Ascend sound more to his liking...panofka is not a paid schill...he doesn't own any speakers at this time and came over hoping to gain some direction on his decision...

regarding partiality to one's own speakers? i can only address this by saying that i am a former owner of Polk, Def Tech, Wharfedale, Thiel, Dynaudio, Acoustic Energy and other speakers...if i was partial to my own speakers, i'd still be listening to my Polks...no need to upgrade if i was so accustomed to picking speakers i own.

in reply to the metallic, tinny sound that emanates from metal tweeters...i've auditioned Revel and Aerial speakers, both of which use metal tweeters and did not find them to be metallic sounding...both of these offer LOADS of detail yet do not sound "bright" to my ear...

so i encourage you all to take our opinions at face value...they are simply our PERSONAL OPINIONS...nothing more, nothing less...

i have been through a lot of speakers and i am really enjoying my metalic bright sounding speakers, the ones they replaced sounded too polypropoleeny and kevlaraoonie and my klipsches were too horney....just a joke, please dont attack me

Mad Dog....I think we have finally gotten everything out of our systems. These folks have been very nice since Amie stepped in.

I think I am going to leave the reviewing to professionals and just enjoy the music now on. I really hope someday someone does a REAL comparison.

curtis