Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Help me pair speakers for a PrimaLuna tube amp

Just bought a PrimaLuna Prologue Two tube amp. What speakers do you recommend? I looking at the M60ti.

A bit more info could help us help you. How big is the room? How loud do you intend on listening? Will there be a sub in the mix? What kind of music do you listen to? Any other info you can think of too.

BTW welcome to the forum.

My wife would prefer bookshelfs due to size. The room is 12X13 with 9 foot ceilings and french doors into the den and hallway. In other words a lot of space. Music is everything from rock to classical. Not too loud. No sub planned.

If you don't plan to buy a sub, then floorstanders is the answer. Get M80s, you'll never regret not buying the top of the line. Otherwise, M60s would be just as good.

Agreed M60's. I run my M22's w/ a Sophia Baby. Sounds great w/o the sub but w/ the sub it's definitely much better.

Great amp BTW.

M22s and M60s are great speakers indeed!!

But, in a smaller(listening)room, with no sub, playing lower volumes, music only, preferably bookshelves, with TUBES....!!

No Question!!......Gotta be M3s!!

Check out this forum history.

Check out the last five years of "profesional" reviews of M3s and more than just a few tube reviews.

You'll find the words "match" and "heaven" sprinkled all over the place!

If it is a bookshelf speaker with no sub I too would have to say the M3s would be by all account the one of choice. If there is a chance the wife would allow towers, and then if it were me I would have to give the M50s a try. This all being that there is no sub in the plans.

I recommend either a pair of Axiom M3s for $300 or a pair of Reference 3a de capo mmi's for $2500.

And that is not a typo. The M3s really are that good.

Sud, if you're going to get bookshelves, my suggestion would be the M22s, which are fine for most music(no pipe organ allowed)without a sub in your size room. You can expect room gain to give you good bass to about 50Hz and reduced but still usable output to 40Hz. Study the SoundStage review which first made me aware of Axiom and led to me getting M22s(I can do without an upper-bass hump).

The most recent review of the M3s is in the Audioholics face-off from last week.

Hey!...for the first published review(Audioholics)in quite a few years, it's good to see that the M3 hasen't lost it's edge to the competition!

Thanks for bringing it to our attention!

It was a good read, the M3s did great in this review.

Yes, but the competition in this shoot out was weak. I would have liked to see a comparison between the M3 and the PSB Alpha B, Epos EL S3, Usher S520, Monitor Audio Bronze B2 (in the $250-350 range) and heck, throw in the $900 Totem Rainmaker, $1500 Dynaudio Audience 52SE, a Wharfdale bookshelf and a KEF.

Now, that would be a shoot out!

While we're at it, I hope our good friends at Axiom have a big shoot out of their own ... as part of a development program of a new book shelf speaker. My hope, collect the following:

FOCAL JMLAB ELECTRA 906 $2200
DYNAUDIO AUDIENCE 52SE
VANDERSTEEN 2CE $1500
PROAC TABLETTE REFERENCE 8 $1200
SPENDOR SE3/5 $1100
TOTEM HAWK $2300
PSB PLATINUM M2 $1995
REFERENCE 3A DE CAPO MMI $2500
SONUS FARBER CREMONA $4500

Make an Axiom bookshelf which sounds as good as the best of these and sell a pair for under $800, and that would be a giant killer I'd be all over.

You're heard all those speakers? You've been busy!

My BestBuy doesn't have any of those, 2x6.

Yeah...compared to the speakers tested in previous Audioholics shoot-outs(like the earlier one for the M22)the competition wasen't nearly so up-scale.

Rather unfortunate

A couple points they did make were somewhat interesting, however:

An "agressive tweeter"

Hmmmmm......somehow missed that one with my three M3s

And to refute the long lasting impression that the M3s and M50s are "laid-back":

They stated that the M3 was slightly foreward of neutral!(can't get much better than that!!)

So I guess the "laid-back" Axiom speakers are laid-back only in relation to the "other" "more-foreward" Axiom speakers!

I agree on the Dynaudio 52se. I have a pair, and they are my absolute favorite monitor speakers. No disrespect to Axiom. I do love the 3Mtis I have (and M22tis, and VP150, and QS8s), but there are clear differences with the Dynaudios.

And if Axiom could come up with a contender @ $800, I agree that it would sell well.

Hmmm, I wonder if I could convince Amie to swap an EP600 for my pair of Dynaudios so they can have them for their development team?!

Rich

Well, considering the significant price difference between the Axioms and the Dynaudio, I would hope for an improvement in sound quality.

I guess I'd feel pretty stupid if I had spent that much $ and didn't think they sounded better! I've always loved the Dynaudio sound. I wonder if I'd gotten 5 pairs of M3tis and stacked them up if I'd get the same/better sound?!