Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater New M22's arrived - first impressions

Being that I ordered factory seconds to cut the cost, I immediately went looking for appearance flaws. One has a small scratch on the right side near the top, but as promised, you can't see it from 5' away. The other has a small circular impression on the left side, like if you took a small nail head and barely pushed into a small mound of putty, then let the putty dry. Odd, but again you can't see it at 5'. Again, this is near the top.

Visual defects won't be a problem as I put them right next to my glass door equipment towers with the problem areas next to the tower, so you can't see them anyway. Nice.

They really are quite tall, more like mini towers than conventional bookshelf models. Nice feel, solid even weight distribution.

On to initial listening. I turned my sub off, and set the amp to output only stereo and not 5.1 so as to hear only those speakers.

Even in the worst seating position, and concentrating on work not listening (had to at the time), I could tell that the treble was so much clearer, as were vocals (mid-range) of both male and female voices.

Bass is anemic, but that's bound to be my receiver as that cheapo model that only offers a minimum 100Hz crossover (later inspection revealed that it's been set at 200Hz for who knows how long...). I should set the speaker type to "large" to eliminate the crossover altogether. A test for another time.

The specs say that they handle down to 50Hz, so they should do much better.

I went back to 5.1 and did a quick calibration with the receiver's test tone. Big difference in sensitivity with the M22's so resetting levels was necessary. I'll dig out the RS SPL meter and do it right over the weekend.

When my "real" work was done I threw in the Eagles Hell Freezes Over DVD concert. I've swear I've watched this from beginning to end about ten times, so I know it pretty well.

Even at moderate/low levels (with one of my kids sleeping right above me) you can tell the soundstage is SO much wider. I put these speaker in exactly the same location as the old ones - about 9 feet apart.

The guitar, piano, strings (there's a small orchestra involved) sounds are so accurate. It's like I took my old speakers out of burlap bags.

Over the next days I'll dig out the DVD-Audio discs and SACD's I have (analog connections to Pioneer player), and others (regular CDs) to see how they do.

They do look quite nice without the grills, but the drivers would be visual magnets to little eyes with little fingers around my house - so the grills will stay on.

That's it for now. So far, money well spent.

Further observations and pics to come.

Nice! I can't wait for your further comments and pics :).

I eventually hope to be able to get some M22s for my wife's stereo.

Welcome to the club! It will be nice to hear after you complete your adjustments.

Thanks for the write up and glad to hear your enjoying them.

Yes the speakers are are much better with bass when set to large and the crossover eliminated. I am sitting here listening to my M22s on an old Sony strde915 no crossovers or anything, except the old 'loud' button that emphasizes the bass at lower volumes, and the bass I am feeling is quite nice, actually feeling it across 20' of floor up through the chair.

I concur on the grilles must stay on. One of mine has a tiny little dent in the woofer cone as my oldest couldn't resist it when he was not quite 2, I forgot to put the grill back on. Luckily no SQ issues.

Awaiting pics.

Thanks for your review. I have M22s an use to have them a foot or so away from the back wall. In that location (in my room) the bass was pretty anemic. When I wall mounted them recently, and consequently located them much closer to the back wall -- the rear ports are about 3" from the back wall -- the bass is now much fuller. I hardly ever listen to them without the EP500 in the mix, so it's not a big issue for me. Mid-bass did receive a nice oomph, though.

Krunch, welcome to the owners' club for the Axiom flagship, the M22. I've had mine over five years now and I'm not a bit less impressed now than I was when I first got them. You may have set your receiver incorrectly for bass management although you weren't using a sub at the time, since the M22s definitely don't have "anemic bass" when properly set up and taking room reinforcement into account. My listening and measurements(without a sub)showed good bass down to about 50Hz and significantly weaker but still usable response as low as 40Hz. This is adequate for most music, excluding items such as classical compositions featuring the organ. I now always use the EP500 with them for that that lowest octave or two, and this totally removes any weak points that might have existed.

John,

Have you ever heard M80s? I highly recommend them for all of the classical you listen to.

The grass is always greener...

...for those that have M80s.

When i first received the M22s, i also thought they sounded thin. I would absolutely run them with a sub.
After receiving the M60s, my impressions were that the larger floorstanding unit provided a more full sound, a room filling sound in comparison and i was sold.
The M22s are excellent speakers, but still thin w/o a sub IMO.

I love my M22's, but having recently upgraded to M60's, I must say I agree with chesseroo. The M22's are great, and I still use them in a second system, but I always felt I was missing a little something with fullness, even pairing them with an SVS sub. The M60's fit the bill perfectly, and I love the slightly warmer sound the M60's offer, with a fuller sound, but still with the signature Axiom sonics. Best of all worlds for me, but the M22's are still great speakers.

I agree with chess and gem. Also, I heard the M3s and M22s today. Even though the M22s have greater resolution/more detail/higher efficiency, my wife and I both preferred the M3s. We found them easier to listen to. I find that M22s make you listen surgically/critically but M3s/M60s allow you to relax. Anyone who has experienced what I'm describing most probably knows what I'm talking about.

Well, the M60s are recent additions to my collection, but I've owned the M22s and M3s for years. In all honesty, while one on one I would also generally prefer the M3s, I did use the M22s in my main system over the M3s for about 5 years.

The attributes of the M22s, when paired with a good sub, do a heck of a job as a main speaker. The attributes of the M3s allow them to be used on their own, without a sub, in say a bedroom or something like that (not to mean they can't be used in a main system either). If Axiom wanted to keep the clarity of the M22s, but make them a little fuller sounding with better bass on their own, they'd have one crazy-good bookshelf speaker out there. But maybe they want something to distinguish the M60s from the M22s. And that's fair enough, and I am now very happy to have the M60s in my system.

Mojo, your grouping of the M3s and M60s together make me wonder if there were more significant changes to the M60s than previously thought. Everything I've read before this year had the M22s/M60s grouped together pretty tightly, along with the M60s and M80s.

Alright, I had a couple of hours alone in the house and took advantage.

Let's jump right to it: my previous "anemic" bass comment.

While I did mention that I was working on something else at the time, I didn't mention that the volume was very low, and therefore the first problem that needed a Tim Taylor solution: more power!!

Turn up the volume a bit more and the M22's come alive, I simply wasn't supplying enough juice.

Second problem: 200Hz crossover, speakers set to small. I could be wrong, and someone please correct me if this is the case, but since I'm running analog connects from DVD player for DVD-A (optical for DTS/DD), the receiver crossover shouldn't come into play. Should it?

Therein lies the final problem: my DVD player allows you to configure speaker size. This was also set to "small".

So, change the DVD player to large fronts and crank up the receiver, and boom: full sound. I'm talking about the WOW, THIS IS OUTSTANDING kind of full sound.

I played Steely Dan's Everything Must Go, followed by Donald Fagen's Morph the Cat, and closed with Porcupine Tree's Deadwing.

Now it may well be that the M3 are more relaxing, and I don't doubt that full towers like the M60 will have a more lush sound, but as a number Kruncher, I'm a detail guy.

Shine on, you crazy diamond M22's. Shine on.

On to the pics.



Showing distance from the wall.


Notice the slight scratch:


and a little bump:


Here's the left rear with the sub


Right rear


View of front


The left rear


and in conclusion:

M22s grouped with 60s? No way. Axiom has said publicly that they are forever experimenting and tweaking with currently released speakers. I don't know how often these tweaks are introduced into production but we'd never know it. The sound is constantly being refined.

That looks like a nice room, Kruncher. Well damped.

It would be interesting to try sticking a thin cardboard tube into each of those ports to extend them almost to the rear wall. I'd be curious to hear from you if the bass becomes even more satisfying.

Krunch, yes you're correct: if you use the analog outputs of a player to play DVD-As, most receivers aren't able to apply bass management to that and it therefore has to be applied in the player instead. As you discovered when you set the M22s(when without a sub)"large" in the player, it was the 200Hz crossover being applied which caused the "anemic bass", rather than any deficiency in the M22s. Of course, when you use a digital connection into your receiver, it will apply any bass management, rather than the player. Enjoy the superb sound through your Axioms.