Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners m-60 vs. m80 for music?

I seem to notice a number of posters who mention music (i.e. John, classical,) seem to own m-60's. Do you prefer ,m-60's for music, or m-80's. I ask in relation to acoustical, classical ,or jazz. Help me out. Thanks.

I never heard the M60, but I would not trade my M80s for music reproduction. They are not only great at high volume, but also very neutral at low volume.

I think it has more to do with personal preferances of music than the speaker choices, which are usually decided on by money and receiver options(4Ohm load of the 80s). I prefer hard rock metal, pop but have branched out to some jazz and classical thanks to the suggestions on this forum.

The sound from M80 to M60 is very subtle and unless A/b'd most would not notice a difference. I had M60s and M80s and A/B'd them several times and the M60s are slightly more laid back than the M80s, IMO. I found the differences negligible for movies.

If your referring to JohnK, he has m22's. I've owned both 60's and 80's over the last 5 or so years. To me they are both great for Music and HT. They are designed very similar, and the 80's are just the 60's bigger brother. Axiom uses the same brand drivers in their speakers, and the techniques for the cabinets and inner design is used across the lineup.

Now, the 80's can handle more power, go a little lower in the base category, and have a bit more detail which is helpful in a huge room at louder levels.

I really don't see any pattern of m60's and music over the 80's, in those categories you mention. I listen to jazz, a little classical, blues, and rock, etc., and it sounded great with both my setups.

IMO Jakewash is correct when he says that the 60s vs 80 for movies would be negligible assuming you have a (good) subwoofer.

When I A/B tested the 80s and 60s at the Axiom plant I heard almost no difference in the high, mid and mid low range. However I did notice a larger difference in low bass (below 150 Hz). The 80’s were just more defined in that area, and it was quite apparent switching back and forth.

Since for most of my music listening I don’t want to use a sub, I chose to go with the 80’s. Quit the opposite to what you initial post suggests.

Having said that, the base response of the 60’s was also very good, and if my budget didn’t allow for the 80’s, I would have been elated to have the 60’s in my house.

There are times when I have to physically walk up to my EP500 and make sure it’s not on when listening to the 80’s. There are rare times when I wish the 80’s had a little less bass (very rare). The 60’s would give me more control over the bottom end on some tracks with the use of a subwoofer.

I think the difference here is not so much which sounds better as to more your personal choice.

I think you hit on one of my concerns with the 80's, too much base?? I am from an older generation, and do not want the thump thump that I sometimes hear in cars going by. I know that does not describe sub woofers in general but I just do not need too much base. An example is we are renting a condo for a couple of weeks and I have heard the thump of a base from the condo below. It isn't that the music was too loud, all I could really hear was the base. I do not know if I am making sense or not but that's it. Part of my problem is that I still have sixteen days until I get my Axioms.

Way too much thinking time. "Thinking will get you stinking quicker than drinking!" Thanks again for the input folks.

Heh.. that's not what you're going to hear from Axioms. From Axioms, you get good bass, not that crap.

You are not going to have to much bass with the M80s. It's not like there is a crappy sounding car sub in them. They are a well balanced speaker with what I would say have about the right amount of bass.

Blue Man, your getting all confused. The base that comes from the 80's, 60's, and even 50's is not the thump thump crap you hear in cars. Those are subwoofers with massive amps. The base in the 60's and 80's are very similar to my ears.

I can't help myself................it's bass not base.

I know Rick, I usually spell it bass, but then people think I'm going fishing or something. I sold my Lund a few years back. I like using base to irritate veteran AV guru's like yourself.

Thanks Rick!

I don't do to much base fishing, it's to much work

Also, they're usually incredibly low quality drivers put in random boxes that more fit the design of the car than the needs of good sound reproduction--they're all about volume. Which means they usually only play, oh, about one note. Ever. No matter what's fed into them. No good sound system is like that.

And let's face it the subs in the cars are playing music designed to go THUMP THUMP THUMP. The music source is also usually set up to push bass notes.

I haven't found the bass in the M80s overpowering at all, even when the music I play has been produced bass heavy, the M80s play it all very well and seemlessly.

Also, in regards to hearing the bass from the condo neighbor below you, lower frequencies are simply harder to isolate. They'll travel through where higher frequencies give up.

Harder is an understatement, impossible is more like it, especially when at normal listening levels for movies, music with good bass etc.

The bass the M80 produces is nothing like some civic booming and farting around town at 2am. I think the M80's have a satisfying amount of bass but sometimes I do find myself wanting more. Other times though I think Wow all that and I dont even have a subwoofer!

The "earthquake" scene in oceans 13 played back in our theater with the Ep600 and the same movie played back on my 2 channel system is an entirely different beast though. The 80's Dont Quite have the low freq response of that behemoth of a subwoofer

blue grass man - I think you would be very happy with the M60. I bought so far 1 M80 and I listened to Bela Fleck: The Bluegrass Sessions: Acoustic Planet #2 the other night and the Tony Rice guitar part was much more audible than I have heard before on my crap speakers. However, I also have a 300 watt M2200 monoblock powering the 4 ohm M80. (hopefully will be able to afford the other M80 in March) I am one of those people that might listen to bluegrass one night and metal the next so I wanted the slam the chest effect of the bigger speaker. I really think you would be very satisfied with the M60.

Larry, I don't know if you told us, but how the heck did you end up with one M80?

I will guess he couldn't afford 2 so went with one and it would have been cheaper to ship one back rather than 2 if he didn't like it.

I never meant to state that there was a flaw with the M80's giving too much bass. I think the balance of the speaker is perfect. There is the odd recording that has over emphasized bass and the only way to tame the M80's on these recordings is to reduce the bass on my pre amp. Again this is very rare and has way more to do with the engineering of that recording than the M80's.

I was just stating with the M60’s, I probably wouldn’t have to touch the bass control and could add a sub to make up the difference in the bottom end to match the M80’s. I however choose to listen to my music in 2.0 not 2.1. Personal choice here and there is no right or wrong answer.

Paul

I love my M60s and I'm sure I'd love M80s. Axiom regularly states the differences are minimal with a bit of the bass extension and ability to play a bit louder going to the 80s.

Something that others have said before that may or not be extremely noticeable, is that the M80s slighter higher attention to high frequency detail is less forgiving to poorly recorded music or the compression in MP3s. So if you are the type to mostly play from your Ipod or your PC, maybe M60s have a slight advantage there. Never compared myself so I'm just repeating others.

I did however certainly learn to destest MP3s on my M60s so much that I spent months re-ripping all of my CDs to uncompressed flac format so I could continue playing music from the PC with my Squeezebox and not hear the difference. Now I just hate poor music producers who compress it before you even buy it.

It's a conundrum that the better a speaker is at accurately reproducing sound exactly as it was recorded, the bigger the number of CDs in your collection you will start to notice flaws in. The good sound sooooo good though.

Wanna bet?

The M60s come very close to the same low notes and most of what we hear as bass is within the realm of the M60s as well.

There is a difference but it is more subtle than you think.

I am just piecing together my system - as I can afford something I get it. Getting close to having a complete system finally. I just need one more M80 one more Outlaw M2200 amp and one EP600. Oh and maybe some QS8s... and ... and ...

Larry, if that's what you gotta do, that's what you gotta do! I love it!! One speaker at a time.

A bit unconventional, but, you know what? Normal is boring. I'm glad your thinking outside the box.

I have a friend doing the same thing, he just bought the VP100 and next are some M3s most likely one at a time. He said he would use it as a center rear till he can afford the other one.

THANK YOU!!!!
I see people spell BASS as base all the time in many forums.
Maybe they think it refers only to the fish?

wid, SpellingBot thanks you for carrying the torch.

And it already is sounding awesome, I had The Very Best of Crowded House playing after work before judo this evening and I had it cranked up to where the laZboy was vi-ba-rating with the bass and I was very happy for a while there.

Happiness is what it's all about.