Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Bookshelf hell!

Feels like AVSForum... gotta love the sensless name calling.

IMO, I didn't really see Alan's statement as inflammatory or derogatory. I didn't think it warranted an derogatory post.

Wow, I feel like I stepped into the wrong board.

The M22's may just be a little to tall for my proposed placement. I was not thinking of going over 15" or so....

Now I have to wait for them and make the ever hard choice of what to play first........

Again, thank you!

Back to the topic!

I got to listen to these on Saturday. What a wonderful sound. No need for a sub.

Couldn't afford one anyway. A pair of these are $10,500.

BTW. I also auditioned Lexicon and Krell amps. Can't afford those either.

Russell Novak reviewed equipment for many years for Stereophile. Here is an excerpt:

"were well under control. Vocal crescendos and strings didn't go glassy, and the midbass reproduction provided a good underpinning without going too warm.

CONCLUSIONS
I don't really have criticisms. One must remember that the XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX X.X is a small speaker and that it won't give you that bottom octave. But music is an emotional and intellectual experience, not a testicular one. You should be able to choose musicality over oomph and not pin your ego on the size of your woofer. If the XXXXXXX X.X sounds better than a larger speaker system in your room, overcome your compulsion to equate "bigger" with "better" and buy a pair. Consider the product: the sound, not the size.

I reveled in the uncolored sound these speakers produced driven by a passive preamp and transistor amp. That alone should make the XXXXXXX a big candidate for new or midprice audiophiles. At Houn' Dawg's house, a converted church, they filled the room without loss of body, proving that small speakers are not only suited to small rooms. With tubes they sounded euphonic, like tubes. They faithfully reflected all changes in associated equipment, thereby providing an open-ended path to upgrade your sound.

Till the day they were ripped from my clutches and carted away to Santa Fe, the XXXXXXX X.Xs remained a musical experience. Of the many speakers I have admired and coveted, speakers that have done special things I've thrilled to, I recommend the XXXXXXX as a natural musical experience at a modest (by today's standards) price. They got me emotional about the music again.- Russ Novak

I have removed the specific speaker reference and will tell you this is a 10 year old article. The market has obviously changed over that time, but it reflects what I am looking for in 2006! The use of the word musicality may be an issue with some, but seem very appropriate.

Thanks

I was expecting this to degenerate into a real dog fight. I guess cooler heads have prevailed. Darn!@&%$. I was looking forward to an old fashioned AVS style donnybruck.

Such outbursts from 2x6 in the past have perturbed this board beyond a temporary inflammation, but we've come a long way since then.

As a musician, I tend to equate the term "musical" with "life like" in terms of performance. If we recorded a song, I expect a "musical" speaker to reproduce the sound that was produced during the performance. The term is open to interpretation.

What I find interesting is the opinions that a bookshelf can not compete with a floor standing model. Even Doug Schneider mentioned to me that the M22 sounds much like the M60 and M80 albeit with much less output and bass. I have not had the time to compare frequency curves (likely impossible for me) but I would have to think that when Axiom designed their bookshelves, they created the accuracy of the larger floor standers with less output and bass. Is this not the case? Are the Axiom bookshelves an inferior speaker? I have a hard time believing that.

Has anyone actually performed a "double blind" listening test using M22s and an EP500 versus an M60 or M80? If the claim of the accuracy of the subwoofers is true then it should be able to handle and reproduce the low frequncies produced by the 6.5" drivers used by the floor standers (or perhaps even better) unless the EP500 is also a sub-standard speaker (no pun intended) only useful for home theater and not music.

Things that make you go hmmmm.....

In reply to:

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Has anyone actually performed a "double blind" listening test using M22s and an EP500 versus an M60 or M80?

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I have a distinct feeling that it would be far too easy to distinguish btw. the M22+EP500 and either the M60 or M80 sans sub -- unless you restricted your test material to recordings that didn't dip below the rated ranges of the towers.

I agree it would be easy to tell the difference. I've got both the M22's and the M60's and although they share the same tonal characteristics, there's still a difference in detail and fullness of sound. It doesn't seem like it's just an issue with bass.