Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners M80's vs Energy RC-70's

All us noobs will probably end up doing the same thing...driving all over town, auditioning, spending late nights on AV forums then after all is said and done....pick up the phone..." Hi! I want to place an order for a pair of M80s, pair of QS8's......" LOL. Saw that excellent comparison between the M80s and the Veritas 2.4. Veritas are Energy's flagship and are an excellent speaker in their own right but certainly much more expensive than m80s. It's unlikely the RC70s, then, being DOWN from the Veritas would compare as favourably to the M80s.

Hearing them with your own hears is a great start but you won’t truly know what they will sound like (timbre, soundstage, imaging etc…) until you listen to them in your own room. Room acoustics and speakers and listener placement will profoundly effect how speakers sound which is often a reason different people report such differences when reviewing speakers.

Your mind is going to play tricks on you when you now when you listen to some speakers because of what you’ve been reading about them. If you bring home the Energys above you may likely hear (if you’re sensitive to it) an exaggerated timbre mismatch with the center because now your going to really be listening for it. And since no two speakers even identical ones in two different locations (side vs center placement) will ever timbre match perfectly there will be a mismatch to hear.

You’ve done a great job researching your purchase but in the end the only way you will get the speakers you want (not what someone else wants you to have) is to start listening to them yourself, preferably in your room over an extended period of time with the variety of material and media (movies, music, games) you plan to use.

I’m not sure what’s available in your area but one high end audio shop I found brought speakers and equipment out to my place and demoed them for me. Not sure if anything like that is available in your area but it might be worth asking around.

I'm within 1/2 hr of Toronto, so pretty much all audio products are available. I'm not sure how many retailers here would let me do the home audition thing...obviously that's the best way to go if possible. And yes, I totally agree with you about the fact when someone puts that idea in your head (timbre matching, brightness, muddiness ect) you actually start auditioning with preconceived ideas about that speaker which affects your judgement. Most people think that the more expensive speaker MUST sound better, that is why it is more expensive, blind tests are very revealing however.