Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners So Many Different Make Speakers

Thanks so much. I believe that I would prefer more detailed sound and I have some hearing loss in my right ear (from loud drummers in bands)

Adrian. That comparison is on audioholics and Bob dug it up. You know, you are close enough to Axiom that its worth it to take a nice weekend drive up to Dwight and demo all of Axioms offerings. I really enjoyed doing this as it is pretty much the only way to do proper A/B comparisons.

Bob. I did pretty much what Grunt is suggesting. I loved the sound of the Paradigm Studios. Once I established that I picked some reference material I was familiar with and verified the quality of the recordings here and went off to Axiom to audition.

Bob, as Grunt mentioned, take some reviews with a grain of salt. I've been on audio review's website numerous times reading about a number of speakers including Axiom, Monitor Audio, PSB ect. When you see an overall rating of say 4.8 out of 5 and there are 30-50 reviews, I find that revealing. What I also find revealing is when you get 1 or 2 people slamming the same speaker that the vast majority likes, including the "pro" reviewers. You have to wonder why someone would give a '1 star rating' to a speaker, whether Axiom or another brand, when so many professional reviewers and novices alike think they are incredible. I tend to discount any review which is over the top, good or bad and base most of my research on 'pro' reviews as well as my own ears. There are definetly fanboys out there as well as people trying to promote certain products. I, too, have seen a few people claim that Axiom's, as well as Paradigm, B&W and Mon A's are "bright", some even want you to think they might even sound harsh. Everyones entitled to their own opinion, of course, but I don't really believe anyone could review any speaker in the $1000+ price range and give it a '1 star' rating...at worst maybe a 3 unless the product was actually defective. Many people, as noted earlier, have opinions on speakers they've never actually heard before, or possibly were using poor equipment or the speakers revealed all the flaws in a poor recording.

This is why I go to measurements. A lot of work has been done to correlate different measurements to the sounds that speakers can produce.

Starting from the fact that in blind testing we like a slightly rolled off high end, take a look at any of the speakers you mentioned and you will see that they are flat within +-2 or 3 db across the audible spectrum: no roll off. That is why you see some reviewers that really like the M80s mention that they can sound slightly bright. Its a subtle thing if noticed.

Harsh in the high end is usually a sign of driver breakup. Again, if you look at the frequency response, there is no hint of such an event in the measurements. The response remains flat and constant. Now, all metal dome tweeters break up at some point in the 20-30KHz region, but it is beyond the range of reproduced music and that of 99.9999999% of the population's hearing. Even B&Ws diamond tweeters breakup... at 45Khz. Now, if a person were to have unusual hearing, say up into the high 20s, then they might find the M80, or any other metal dome tweeter, harsh. IF.

Recessed = a depressed midrange Alan, in his comparison of an Energy speaker and the M80 pointed out that 2db difference is noticable, but quite subtle.

Warm = an elevated midrange.

Sibilance can be traced to issues in a certain frequency range (can't remember what it is)

The list goes on (my memory dosn't).

The point is, if you can hear it, it shows up somehow in measurements.

I agree with you on disregarding over the top comments. Generally, things that are measureble and show up in subtle ways.

This is partially how I found Axiom. Paradigms were the best sounding speaker I could find to listen to, locally, and searches on the web gave me many positive comparisons of the two.

I listened to B&W 703's ($$$$$) and then Axioms, the rest was history for a lot lower price.