Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners M50

OH MY GOD I LOVE THEM!!!!!!!!!!!! Got my M50's today. To anyone reading these posts who cant decide which speaker to buy I can tell you that the M50 is downright awesome. You dont have to fuss over them and contemplate whether you like them or not, you know immediately. I cant imagine anyone buying the M50 and being disappointed.

Until you buy the M60 and hear what you're missing.

Very nice, mreed! Glad you like 'em.

Wonderful. Enjoy.

Are these the ones that are tonally similar to M3s? Judging by their graph, they should be warm and forgiving.

Chess, I can't believe you said that. Poor reed will now be up all night wondering what he's missing. Just enjoy them and don't listen to anyone .

Oh boy. Now reed will be really messed up.

Yup; that's just what can happen.

Well cruelty on the Axiom forums comes in many, many forms, not the least of which is the infection to "upgrade" to just about anything after the first purchase.

Congratulations on the new speakers. Someone should be along to welcome you to the M50 posse any minute now.

re: "sounding like M3s", a bunch of us compared notes a year or two ago and concluded that M50s were about half way between M3 and M60 in terms of "forwardness", ie a mighty fine speaker.

Welcome to the M50 Posse!

Lately we've been campin' out up at ol' Boot Hill, lookin' at M40 Tombstones.

No new shovels have shown up lately, so I guess we're ok!

......actually; maybe I should add a little about the "M50 Posse"!

Once upon a time; there were two camps within the Axiom faithful. There was the bright and accurate crowd(but it was taboo to utter the "B" word on the forum at the time)and there was the laid-back and "pleasant" bunch. And they would have tons of fun arguing and bickering good-naturedly at every opportunity.

The bright guys would say the laid-back speakers(the M3, M40 and M50)didn't adequately display all the data, and the "pleasant" crowd would say the bright speakers presented sibilance along with their brightness. There was even talk about adding resistors and modifying tweeters to tone down the highs!

Really! Some folks actually did modify! Axiom even supplied the resistors and installation instructions for a while!

But something cool started happening slowly over time.

The bright crowd stopped hearing so many complaints about about harshness, and the "pleasant" laid-back speakers started getting fewer comments about their particular shortcomings.

V2 changes were in the works! Even the poor M40, although they had lots of love by some folks; couldn't keep up and was left behind. Sad; very sad.

Now the M50 is a little closer to the M60 which is a little closer to the M50. They still have slightly different presentations of course and it's up to each listener to determine which philosophy they prefer best, but the differences you and I hear between our more modern M50s and the current M60s do not seem to be as great as those of a few years back.

Yeah; most of us M3/M50 types really love our speakers, but there are just more of the "other" guys who love theirs too, and they're just louder than we are and it can really work on our subconscious if we let it!

Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya
Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya
Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya
O Lord, kumbaya

Which one is Rich

Well, hopefully that should be an easy guess....hopefully!


And to think I originally ordered a pair of M50s, had 'em setting in my house for a few days, still in the box and *unopened* because the M60 Posse made me upgrade. I sure wish I would have taken a listen to them while they were here!

Ya never know now days

Oh Wow, guys! I love this groovie picture! I outta blow it up and print it and put it up right next to my Abby Lane poster!

Far out indeed!

...so I looked at it and studied it and and I...see...myself...inside....ALL OF THEM!

...with different moods; of course.

It just took me 40 years longer to see it!

.....rats; I just put a flower in my hair....and it fell right out.

Peace....love....hairpieces.
Rich.

There is nothing wrong with belonging to either camp but frankly, I would like to belong to both. I would like to enjoy the M80 clarity, accuracy and transparency with works that deserve such treatment but I would also like to kick back and relax with the M60 sound for pieces that are under-whelming from a recording/mastering perspective.

I know what you mean about being able to switch camps now and again. My M50s are in a really sucky new listening room which lead me to headphones to take up the slack.

A simple switching of cans can make such swaps easy! My Alessandros are much like Axioms while my Senns are much darker and laid-back.

....I'd just be happy if my M50s could sound as good in this house as in the old one.

Anyway; I've gotten the impression that while in the old days the M40s and M50s were in a different camp than the M60s and M80s, now they're all in the same camp, but just on different sides of the campfire.

Even though I belong to the niche M40 posse, I thought I'd chime in. The M40s are a very easy speaker to get along with and partner up well with just about every type of music. You may not get the "wow" factor with some recordings like you do on other speakers, but, like Mojo alluded to, the gap between well and poorly mastered music is diminished. Everything hits a pleasant status quo.

I always felt a kinship between my M3s and M50s with the M40s. I certainly was one who was sad to see them go.

They even seemed to gain more popularity and appreciation after their demise.

sad; very sad.

After I got them, I, too, was sad to see them go. Before I got them, I wasn't sad because the discontinued price tag was unbelievable!

Thank you for the welcome to "the Posse"! I am trying not to let the M60 gang make me wonder what I am "missing" but some days its harder than others. Your post was helpful in easing my mind that I am not missing anything. I had a pair of M22's and had to turn the treble down quite a bit on my receiver to be comfortable at high volume. I figured the M60 would be the same. With the M50's it is set right at 0 and perfect. I LOVE these M50's!

You say 'had' a pair of M22s? Did the leave? If not, try running them with the M50 and report back. The M22 and M60 is one extremely pleasant sounding speaker combo. I am interested if the M50/M22 yields a similar result.

No no! Foul! I call a foul here! The word "pleasant" is a registered trademark of the M3, M40, M50 series! Can't use it without the full permission of the "Combined M3, M40, M50 Posse!"

You have 30 days to change your statement!

Yup; I have my M50s set at zero on the high end myself. I couldn't imagine wanting them to have the slightest bit more emphasis up top. I was so in love with my M3s that my target was to duplicate them with floorstanders. They're a great match! My entire system consists of M50s for mains and M3s everyplace else.

Works for me!
Rich.

The M22's were my first purchase. Took me months of research to find, pick and finally buy Axiom. Everything everyone has said about the M22's was right, they were crystal clear and open and sounded much bigger than they are but my ears are sensitive to high pitch sounds and the highs were killing me even with the treble turned down, plus I couldnt stop wondering what I was "missing" with my treble turned way down so I sent them back and got the M3's. I have been very happy with the M3 but they were temporary, now that I have room for the M50's I suspect they will be my mains for many years. Right now I have my M3's set up as rears and it is spectacular but I have to send my maple M3's back for trade in so I might reorder them in cherry to match my M50's and go with the M50/M3 combo myself.

Have you tried running your M3s and M50s in parallel as fronts? I'm curious if it will sound fuller and better.

I'm really quite happy with the M50/M3 setup. I really like the way the center duties are handled by the M3s since I sometimes find that I hear some voices sneak through the sub when I cross at 80hz, so I usually cross at 60 and the M3s just luv that. But generally I'm just happy with the sound of the M3s. I've been watching for years to see if Axiom would come out with a center using the 6.5s, but so far it ain't happened. Another thing I feel kinda bummed out about is there's no 6.5" QS10. I'd really like to see some surrounds with the 6.5s. I like the sound I'm getting with M3s as surrounds, but I'd really like to hear the sounds of a QS series rather than just strictly direct radiating. The only concerns I have about a 6.5" based center and surrounds is the lack of the ports and losing the lower extension that I'm currently so happy with. I've tried every way I can think of to be happy with crossing at 80, but each time I try it, I just keep going back to 60.

Our M3s are the older M3TiSE models in Boston Cherry. They're in the back as surrounds now of course, and we have newer Black M50s up front cause the Wife wanted to kinda hide them and cause the TV is black/gray, as is all the other stuff around the TV. We have a newer but still pre-V2 M3 for center also in black, and it mates up really well with the newer pre-V2 M50s. In our situation though, the Cherry surrounds fit the back of the room better than Black would, so; we're cool!



I use the center M3 vertical and inverted and it covers the listening area quite well. I'd like to set it on its' side cause it'd just look better, and I may well do just that if I can sneak a W3 in below the screen. It's almost too easy to localize the M3 way up on top!

But yeah; I'm really happy with my M50s and the presentation they give. I can't imagine that I'll ever be changing them!
Rich.

Not sure how two pleasant sounding speakers will make them fuller, I think it might work out like the M80/M22 did.

Voices through the sub at only 80hz! pretty sensitive sub or ears. Any possibility of the sub turned up way too loud to make voices audible? I have never heard anything other than LFE through mine, any one else find this? Not that it really matters as you like it crossed at 60 anyway.

I would think a VP200 might sound very similar to dual M3s laying on their sides with tweeters at opposite ends, just not quite as full with out the ports.

A QS10 does sound very intriguing

Yup; voices in the sub are a problem I've had going back about four years. The first time I noticed it was with the Carol Duval TV show my wife was watching. That's right; a Gals Voice! I don't know if the problem stems with my receiver in the way it presents the signal to my plate amp or the amp itself, but the voices are occasionally there. To add to the fun the sub's in the back of the room, so the higher bass freqs are even more localized when I'm at 80. The sub is turned down fairly low to get better integration. I had to argue with the rest of the family to get it down to a reasonable level! Why do so many folks like such overbearing bass!

I dunno.

....I had to sneak around and crank it down little by little as it is, but I did it!

It doesn't happen during DVD movies or more receintly on HD channels transmitted in DD, but usually on standard TV channels(cable). So as we slowly transit into all-digital and eventually HD TV, the problem may totally go away.

That would be nice!

I'll probably eventually go with an M3(already there)on top of the TV, and then maybe add a W3 below. I'll sneak in my two 6.5s that a-way and keep the ports too!

I'm not sure either but I'm curious. Nothing like learning on someone else's time :-).

Indeed, welcome to the posse... even if I'm only an ancillary member now.

I loved the M50s the second I got them; the first thing I listened to was Sting's Mercury Falling. Incredible sound.

And they still sound great in my back room!

Thanks kcarlile! For me it was David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust cd. Started with five years and couldnt turn it off, even though its old it is a recording gem, it's always the first thing I listen to when I get something new and I have never heard it sound as good as it did with the M50's.