Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater M3 or M22 for 2 channel?

Quick question - hope you can help...I'm going to use either the M3 or M22 for 2 channel stereo (and occassional movie)...but cannot put a sub in the room...which would you choose? Does one have noticeably better bass???

IMHO the M3's are hard to beat.

Let me state first that I haven't heard the M3s OR the M22s...
But based on reputation, the M3s should sound "fuller" than the M22s as they have a small rise in the mid-bass....

I've owned both, and I can say that they are both excellent, but different.

The M22's
Clear, clear, clear. Excellent detail and imaging. The bass is tight. Impressively disappears in your room with proper placement. Can play quite loudly and still sound great.

The M3's
Warm. Laid back. Clean sound. Slightly less dynamic than the M22's. Bass is thicker. Sound great a lower volumes. Less picky on placement than the M22's.


It is SO hard to pick between one or the other. I loved both, and still consider purchasing a pair of each, but I have nowhere to put them. I think it comes down to personality, and use. If you are looking to listen to music to just chill out, M3's might be for you. If you are a more critical listener and want to hear every little minute detail, M22's would be more up your alley.

The two speakers have about the same "real" bass response -- and if you want to nitpick the M22 seems to have the tiniest bit deeper response if you look at the soundstage reviews. Having said that, the M3 has a slightly laid back midrange and a slight bass peak between 100 and 150 Hz and those two combine to give you the impression of fuller bass.

IMO it depends on the music you are listening to the most. If your preferences run to jazz, folk, small-ensemble classical and the like then M22s are probably the way to go -- extremely accurate and you'll probably never miss the deeper bass. If, on the other hand, you listen to a broader range of music you will probably find the M3s more all-round satisfying.

I would go with M3s myself, although my first purchase was M2s. With the M2s I decided I needed a sub, which then led me to the edge of the slippery slope of home theater. With M3s I would still be happily listening to my stereo system today and would probably have a lot more money.

Never heard either, but been reading this forum a lot. My gut feeling is the M3s. I hope to get a pair for my bedroom once my main HT is done.

Don't forget that you can order both and then return the ones you don't like using the 30 day guarantee. You only have to pay return shipping.