Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo M22 vs M3

I would summarily dismiss everything the dealer said as BS, except that bit about Axioms not being good for heavy metal. It seems like many of the new rock/pop CDs are indeed engineered for play on car stereos and come out hard and brittle through the Axioms. Crystal clear, but hard.
'70's metal sounds awesome though. The Axioms open up those quiet recordings beautifully. Anybody listen to Robin Trower's Bridge of Sighs CD? Freakin' great!

I know this has been through the wringer over and over again, and some how I was able to steer clear of most of the shouting, but I've got to chime in.

To "No solidstate amp will make M22's bass "tighter" or "punchier"..." I just have to disagree. When I switched from my Onkyo receiver to my Rotel gear, the only clear difference was the bass becoming exactly "tighter". No, not a HUGE difference, but it was noticable. Curtis (Mr. Ascend) brought his 340's to my place and the first words out of his mouth were the fact that his Ascends bass was "tighter" through the Rotel gear than through his HK525. (And YES we were of course listening to the speakers sans sub)

Slack - As a newbie here, I must warn you that the majority of "regulars" here don't believe in ANYTHING having an audible effect on your system other than the speakers. They'll tell you that ALL receivers sound the same, all amps sound the same, all dvd/cd players perform equally, and don't even DARE mention cables to them - yikes...that'll get them REALLY going!

I'm certainly not going to tell you that any of these things make a huge difference, but most people around here will gladly post a three page diatribe on the issue.

Sushi - forgive me...I still consider you the King of Information around here, I just have to disagree with you on this one.

The difference between the M3s and M22s is more than just the bass hump. I like to listen to the Getz/Jobim CD, there's a Getz sax solo somewhere in there that with the M3s you can hear the plosive breathiness of the sax in the lower registers which is just astonishingly realistic. The M22s I had never captured this nuance like the M3s did. Although the Michaura M55s outsparkle both the M22s and M3s in the upper registers, these beautiful speakers don't capture that piece of sax magic as well as the M3s either. I'm thinking that I should try stacking the M55s ontop of a pair of M3s or Michaura M66s (2 of the same 6.5" drivers as the M3) and using the Yamaha M80 amplifier which puts out a stable [u]+[/u]330 watts at 4 ohms. Might combine the best of both.

Craig,

I don't think we are necessarily in a fundamental disagreement. I do NOT claim that all amps sound the same (although, at least for me, detecting a convincing sonic difference between good SS amps has been fairly difficult). I have no intention, expertise, experience, or guts to make such a sweeping generalization.

Incidentally, as you may know, I used to design and build more than a few serious tube amps from scratch, and I knew each one of those sounded noticeably different. If I had started with an a priori assumption: all-amps-sound-the-same, I would not have been interested in designing and building DYI amps in the first place.

Just that in the specific context of slack's auditioning, I have to say that NO AMP will change the bass sound character nearly in the magnitude of differences he was hearing between the M22 and M3 (unless we are talking about a tube amp with a very low damping factor). In that sense, the salesperson was still BS'ing a big time. That's all I meant.

Don't you agree?

2x6,

Would you be willing to concede that the "explosive breathiness of the sax in the lower registers" is just an artifact of the M3ti's unique characteristics, namely the bass hump? It's difficult to say what is realistic or not when almost everything we hear is through speakers -- even at live events.

"plosive," not explosive. I dunno whether or not the bass hump helped, but it sounded shockingly real, more like a saxophone than a stereo. I liked it a lot!

what's plosive?

It's the breathy, plosive sound you make when you puff out a "P" sound. Not like "Pee," but "Puh."

Well, at the very least, it seems that Ian crafted that mid-bass "hump" very, very skillfully with respect to music reproduction.

I'll agree that no amp is going to make the M22's sound like the M3's. The difference will never be that big.