Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Hearing Things I Have Seen the Light! or rather, Heard the Sound!

I am a Toronto resident who camps annually in Algonquin Park. For more then a decade I have been driving by Axiom Audio in Dwight on my way up and every time I drove by I said to myself "I should see if I can check this place out and audition some new surrounds since I am not that happy with my HT setup. This year I finally did it.

I sent an email in and JC got in touch with me. He connected me to Debbie Swinton and I arranged a date and time to show up. At the appointed time, I showed up with two of my camping buddies, One of whom I had indoctrinated into audio decades ago and the other who was just curious.

Debbie started us out with a great listening session. I had brought a couple of music DVD’s and a straight stereo recording. The technology lineup was M80’s, QS8’s, an EP500 and a VP150 centre. Source and amplification was suitable equipment setup by Debbie. The musical line up was:

Yes ---Fragile 5.1
Porcupine Tree --- In Absentia 5.1
Moussorgsky: Night on Bald Mountain/Pictures at an Exhibition (Telarc digital stereo)


We used Roundabout for mids and high testing Cans and Brahms (2nd cut from Fragile) for sub testing (good low organ notes).

We used the first 2 cuts from In Absentia (Blackest Eyes and Trains) for a full blown rock out and general sound field assessment.

The Telarc disc was used for straight stereo assessment of full range orchestral sound.

Through out we were moving around the room checking dispersion, sound field depth, bass impact and musical presence. I was particularly listening to the surrounds and I could not stop myself from grinning with pleasure. I was impressed with them but I realized that I could not stop at the surrounds now. This whole setup was freaking me out with pleasure so much that I wanted the whole enchilada!

Debbie then gave us a tour of the plant. That was too cool! Getting to scream my lungs out in their anechoic chamber was mindblowing! Kind of like a nightmare scenario where no matter what you do no one can hear you. Tom explained what digitally ampping a sub meant and I immediately became a convert. I have never been in the presence of such innovative thinking.

So the upshot is I am obsessed with raising the budget to do a serious HT Axiom upgrade. I know what I want but it will take a couple of months to raise the scratch. I am jonesing for it in a very serious way and daydream about it a lot!!!

I want to say Thanks to Debbie, Tom and everyone else for the time gave us as well as their patient answers to our questions.

I hope to be totally re-experiencing all of my music and DVD’s soon.

thats pretty awesome,

I wish I lived close to the factory, I would love to take a tour of their factory.

The QS8s are great, I agree!

Welcome.

You will come to really love your setup once you get them. You could also check out the "Factory Outlet". A lot of us have factory outlet speakers and while they always sound 100%, and might, possilby, have some very minor flaw in the finish, most of us can't find anything wrong with them at all (myself included). It is just another way to save some money to the tune of 10%. Oh, and don't forget the 5%discount if you buy a whole setup all at once.

Click here for the factory outlet page.


If you went with the non-factory outlet speakers, but bought them a couple at a time, it would cost you $3508.60 USD for the two M80s, VP150, two QS8s, and the EP500 shipped to your door.

If you went non-factory outlet, but bought them all at the same time, you would save $175.40 USD for a total of $3332.60 USD shipped to your door.

Going Factory Outlet for the two M80s, VP150, two QS8s, and the EP500 would run you $3000.10 USD after all discounts with free shipping.


So you can see that you can save a little over $500 by getting them all at once and from the factory outlet, which again, you will be hard pressed to find anything visually wrong with them, and audibly, they will still be perfect.

Just some options.

Thanks.

Yeah, I am exploring this option. We will see.

Good to have you around, eh.

Yeah I know how to spell CANADA

C "eh" N "eh" D "eh"

Welcome, Rick. Cool story!

Welcome, and thanks for sharing such a nice story!

Thanks!

Next time my family wants to do a camping reunion, I know where to suggest we go.

Thanks for sharing with us, Rick! Nice enthusiastic report. I like it.

It was my pleasure! (that I was talking about)

It definitely was worth the visit.

Regards,

Rick

I'm definitely jealous of the tour. I'll have to make a pilgrimage someday.

I'll definitely have to make the trip to Axiom someday myself. I saved up for about 5 years for a set of speakers, ended up buying the Epic 80 w/ EP600 and can't be more pleased. The sub is especially amazing. I recently watched The Matrix and 300 on HD DVD usng the Dolby TrueHD tracks. The LFE channel on both movies is very active, and consequently so was the foundation of my house

Five years is too long! I hope I can beat that.

I live in a Toronto downtown semi-detached so I won't be rocking my foundation that much, at least not while the neighbours are home.

I'm shooting for Epic 60 with 500. The room is not huge, however, I am primarily looking for quality not volume. Well, maybe once in a while.....

Regards,

I have a rather large and oddly shaped listening area summing up to about 9,000 cubic feet and the EP600 provides more than enough bass. I'd say you'd definitely be safe going with the 500!