Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Axiom or Bowers-Wilkins

I would expect the B&W's to sound very similar to their regular line just as the W series is nearly identical to the regular line of Axioms. I know that the Axioms sound more like the 700 series of B&W with much less cost involved.

Best thing I could suggest would be to check the Hearing Things forum to see if anybody is nearby(I am in Calgary if that helps) for an audition to see how the Axiom sound compares to what you are looking for. If you don't find anyone nearby, send Amie a PM and maybe she could get ahold of someone for you.

Hi Mike,

The search tool may help as the B&W topic comes up often. As Jason mentioned, the Axiom In Walls were designed to have similar characteristics of their big brothers.

During my auditioning of different brands about 5 years ago, I preferred the Axiom m60's to the B&W 703's. The best option would be to audition in your area if possible by looking at the Axiom audition threads.

Let us assume that both speakers are built well and sound good. The Axiom people are very very very nice and you will have a worry free buying experience.

1/2 the price for the same sound doesn't hurt either.

B & W make outstanding speakers. You're going to have to let your budget decide whether its worth the performance for price. One thing that won't be as good is their service compared to Axiom's.

yah, after spending lots of time on here browsing i keep leaning close and close to axioms this seems like an awesome community to be a part of..

-mike-

...and I keep thinking "one more nudge and he's gonna fall". Geez!! Your leaning more than that tower in Piza!

I was almost thinking of going with something like PSB, B&W or Paradigm before I found Axiom. They're all fine speakers, from what I'd heard from them. If you get them, I don't think you'll be unhappy with the quality.

It just starts getting really hard to spend $3-4k+ on JUST the fronts when Axiom could outfit your whole room for that much. (and not really sound much different.)

I actually quite like B&W speakers, even though I don't own any of them. They are extremely well made speakers. A good friend is a B&W nut and has one pair of 801's in his 2 channel room, 802's as mains in his 5.1 channel room, and several other random pairs of 'old' B&W bookshelves from years past. I've heard them all. Yes, he's a nut.

When I was ready to make the move to M80's, I carefully considered moving to B&W's instead of Axiom. Budget-wise, that meant their 600 series. Careful listening tests at local shops revealed that the 600's are nice and have a pleasant (to some!) warmth to the midrange, but really couldn't produce the volume that I was after. The 700's sounded much better to me. Quite good, in fact. Much more Axiom-like in that the midrange wasn't so pronounced and that the overall feeling of the sound was better. Great soundstage and very dynamic. Of course, with the price tag of a pair of 703's I could buy a whole 5.1 Axiom setup.

So there it is.

There is most certainly more 'show-off' factor in buying B&W speakers over Axiom. Their speakers are, to a large degree, a work of art. The cabinets and cones are beautiful to behold, especially the kevlar ones. They are great speakers and they are priced accordingly. With Axiom, you're going to get a very similar level of sound quality but at a much more affordable price.

When I demoed my system for my buddy, he was quite impressed. He did have a few minor criticisms about their sound compared to his 801 system. Then I told him how much the M80's were and he almost didn't believe me. Considering that M80's are about 10% the cost of his 801's, and my M80's were being driven by components that were about 5% the cost of his, he admitted that they were pretty incredible.

Well, I guess this gives Axiom license to jack up their prices.

STOP! Stop talking NOW!

They can't raise prices soon, there is still stuff I need. I meant want. I mean I need it cause I want it.

Thankfully we have AV123 to help keep Axiom prices in check .

Well of course, Axiom can do whatever it wants with the prices. It's a pretty common discussion around here to compare them with other speakers costing a whole lot more. We all know and do that. It's a big reason why we love Axiom speakers so much!

But, IMHO, if Axiom suddenly trippled all of their prices to be closer in price to similar-performing speakers, they'd probably lose a lot of business. I know I would have looked elsewhere if M80's had been $3k, and M22's $1k. I suspect my system would consist of AV123 Rockets instead. Mainstream brands like Paradigm, Energy, and B&W (three other brands I like), would suddenly be much more competitive, as Axiom wouldn't have such a huge advantage in the value department any more.

Put another way, I may be in the minority here, but if an Axiom setup cost the same as an equivalent B&W 700 series setup, I'd definitely take the B&W's. The sound may be similar, but the B&W's are a bit more dramatic in terms of prestige, R&D, and materials. Not that Axioms look bad or are poorly made (because they're not), they're just not quite in the same league if they were priced similarly. Again, just my opinion.

I suspect there are others like you. I don't have 2-3k to spend on mains. I am also a real 'value for the money' guy and I think that this is who Axiom targets with their speakers.

I think pretty much everyone here likes B&W speakers, particularly the 800 line. The Axiom sound seems to be quite similar. I have not had a chance to here the 700 series B&Ws but those who have seem to find them a bit muffled by comparison.

I had a chance to hear B&W Nautilus speakers tonight -- apparently the first pair brought into Canada, a number of years ago. They were as nice as you might expect -- very open and natural. I'm going to try to haul the M60s up there one night for an A/B test, but it probably won't be for a while.

Hey John, nice to see you around again.