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

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.