Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Energy RC-10

I have a link to old speaker auditions that I did a few years back including some Energy speakers.

I have to add that my impressions of the monitor audio speakers have changed slightly since that point since I have had the chance to A\B them with axioms and my big Tannoys.

Do tell.

Yeah, Chess, spill the beans already. As a former Monitor Audio owner (actually, I still own them) I'm interested to hear your opinion.

Just in case it's any help at all...here are my thoughts back in July of '03 after some extensive listening between some Energy Veritas and Axiom M60's.

I also posted some thoughts between the Energy C-3 and Axiom M-22 prior to my earliest Axiom purchase...just a quick note...

"After some exhaustive research, I recently purchased a pair of your M22ti speakers - and love them! I even went so far as to also purchase a pair of Energy Connoisseur C-3's and brought them home for a A/B comparison with the M22's before making my final choice! The M22's were much clearer and cleaner sounding than the Energy's. The Energy's had the edge on low-end, but with the added sub to fill in the lows, the M22's blew the Energy's out of the water."

Hi spiffnme,

Great to read your excellent reviews and comparisons back in '03, and your listening judgements are dead-accurate (they correlate very closely with my double-blind comparisons of various speakers including Axioms).

I took note of this comment especially:

"Soundstage - Another win for the M60's. I think this is where having the Radio Shack switcher helped a lot. Upon immediately switching you could hear the sound just "open up". The Veritas sounded compressed and "closed in" in comparision."

To reflect on FredK's question on the 3-dB or more depression in the Veritas 2.4's frequency response, this sense of "opening up" is exactly what I heard comparing the Axiom M80s or M22s to the Veritas 2.4. Those differences are quite noticeable--even dramatically so--when you do instantaneous comparisons as you did, and I wish more enthusiasts would rush out and buy the Radio Shack switcher to do careful comparisons.

However, to answer Fredk, a 3-dB difference is subjectively "somewhat louder" or "slightly softer". If you hear the Veritas speakers by themselves, in isolation, they sound quite lovely because the gentle midrange dip is that--gradual. No nasty spikes or resonances. But put a pair of M80s, M60s or M22s into the mix and switch immediately and suddenly the Veritas 2.4s sound somewhat dull or "closed in" (as you said) compared to the Axiom M80s or M22s (or M60s).

Regards,

Alan

Thanks for those additional comments Alan.

I suspect that is why some of my observations deviate from others here. I had a chance to listen to the various Axiom speakers in an a/b switched environment. I do not think that the differences between the M60 and M80 would have been so noticable if the comparison had been done by switching cables.

When I auditioned at several dealers, I was dissapointed that none of them had such a simple setup for doing comparisons.

When Mojo and I did our M22/M60/M80 comparo, the M80s and M60s were A/B switched through the Denon, a very slight delay, and the detail/tone of the 2 was easily noticeable when changed. We were both able to pick out which was playing. I suspect a golden eared person might be able to do the same even with cable swap, which is how Mojo and I did the Paradigm Monitor 11 to M80 comparison, again the differences were easily picked out, once you could identify a point of reference, such as the string reverb on the M80 and lack there of on the monitor 11. It just takes some very careful listening to pinpoint the differences, had the M80s not been there, I most likely would not have noticed that bit of detailed difference.

Okay so I recently bought the RC-10 just to answer my own question. Well they are still in the break-in stage and so I won't do a critical comparison with the M3Ti yet. However, from initial listening they sound smoother than the M3Ti. The treble is really amazing. It never sounds harsh or have any glare when playing a bright recording. The mid range is pretty sweet sounding and neutral. The sound is a bit on the laid back side. Sound stage is adequately wide in a smaller room, and imaging is decent though not very crisp. The most impressive aspect besides the smoothness of the top end, is that these RC-10s are great at low volume. There's impact and musicality that shines forth even when playing softly. These speakers would be great for playing background music in the evening. Finally the cabinets and binding posts are top notch quality. I'd definitely say it's a step up from the standard M3Ti vinyl finish.

Thanks for the update, you make the sound like a very easy to listen to speaker, great for all around playback.