Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Which bookshelf to get?

Yes, that would be excellent for music playback.

I'm planning on setting up a dedicated two channel (no television allowed!) listening area with M80's mated with the EP 600 and Prima Luna tube amplification.

Can't wait!

I'm curious about the Prima Lunas - I've heard nothing but good things about them. Funny, but for 2 channel listening unless you have a huge room, I'd go with a pair of book shelves and a sub rather than a pair of towers. M3s image so beautifully, and with a good sub and an Antique Sound Labs MG S1 15 DT, I realized THE WALL OF SOUND. Of course I got very similar results with a pair of M22 like Michaura M55s. What I cannot understand is why I did not get the same results with a pair of M22s.

Scratch head.

Well, I got the M3's and I have them placed on top of the M22's. Can't side by side them because the wall space only supports one at a time and I only have stands for one set.

I attached the mike to a tripod and ran the auto eq for both sets of speakers. What supprised me was the 9 band eq was almost flat for the M3's but not for the M22's.

My Pioneer receiver allows me to Play the same input using the Tuner but not the BD player. So, when I listened to a CD or Movie/Music video, I had to turn off the receiver and swap bananna plugs for the speakers in the front channel. But for Tuner, I could switch eq setting, mute, switch zones, then unmute. I did this back and forth over and over again.

I'm used to the sound of the M22, so my first impression was the M22's sounded good, while the M3 sound was less bright and toned down to an unacceptable level. But, the M3's have a much nicer low level, so therefore more suitable for a system without a subwoofer like I had thought.

Once you get used to the M3's, they sound very nice, a more solid sound. But, I still prefer the sound from the M22's even without the extra bass, though. They just sound so much clearer.

Well, probably nothing here that anyone would consider new, but it does confirm what everyone has said.

You're right, nothing new but try this, add a 3 db boost via bass settings to mimic the the bass hump(actually the M3s have a depressed midrange but I digress) the M3s have, this is the best of both worlds.

The M22s are actually capable of more bass output than the M3's as the dual 5.25's have more surface area than the single 6.5" and with the bigger cabinet it can play some nice bass, it's just that the rest of the frequency is played with the same authority so the bass doesn't sound as strong.

I've tried this in the past with a Sony receiver that has the ability to boost bass by decibles, but found 2 db boost the best. With the Pioneer, I have to adjust a 9 band eq instead and I guess, I'd have to up the bottom 2 or 3 instead. I'll try that later.

Before you do that, go into the Audio Parameters, and enable Loudness (it's a per-input setting, so if you like it, you'll have to do it for each). That provides a variable bass boost depending on the volume setting. The human ear is more sensitive to treble at lower volumes, so as you turn down the main level it slowly brings up the bass (poor man's DynamicEQ).

The Loudness didn't seem to produce any audible difference. Perhaps I had the volume up too loud already. But I did find the 0-6db bass and treble boost. It was hidden. You had to change the tone function from Bypass to On. Found it in the manual . It's at bass +2 db now, but need more time to tell if I like it or not.

Indeed the Loudness setting has little effect at higher volumes (by design). I still like to have it on, as it does help keep the bass audible at lower levels.

I turned loudness back on, but reset the bass boost from +2 to +1. This kind of boost sounds artificial to me and with this particular receiver it's not really needed.

Just so I can beat this topic to death, while watching an acoustical music video at high volume (about -18db) I noticed too much artificial bass, when I switched the Loudness option back off, it went away.