Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Axiom M60 vs Focal 714 vs PSB Image T5 vs BW 684

Excellent first post! Welcome! Wait until you hear how much the sound improves with an EP500 or EP600 added to your M60s.

I couldn't think of a more thorough method of determining one's decision on your choice of speaker choices than what you did in these assessments. I wish all would do it in this manner so one doesn't go in with any preconceived ideas before the final buying decision is made. The vast majority decide on what someone else tells them, by reviews, or by the convincing of a sales person in the retail outlet in which they are looking.(present company excluded, of course).

Not only did you compare different speaker brands but also those manufactured in other countries such as Focal and B&W. It is important also to note Focal(JM Lab)manufactures models up in to the range of tens of thousands of dollars as well.

It has been discussed on another thread that maybe Axiom should bring out a "premium" speaker line. Perhaps the existing line now IS already "premium".

Be that as it may, you have done your research well.

QFT.

For the older crew here ( that includes me):

http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/forumsandlists/f/whatisQFT.htm
Answer: This peculiar QFT acronym expression stands for "Quoted For Truth". It has two particular meanings when used in a discussion forum.

1) QFT is an expression of agreement and support, where the user stands behind you and one of your statements. This commonly occurs in controversial topics where opinions are very heated, and people will choose sides in an argument. If someone "quotes you for truth", they are paying you a compliment, and siding with you in the discussion.

Oh! I thought it meant "Quest For Tires". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.C.%27s_Quest_for_Tires

I got Quantum Field Theory on Google.

Maybe we could get Ken to write complete words in the future so we don't have to look up his acronyms?

I enjoyed your post very much Lobo (is it alright to call you Lobo? Or do you prefer Sir Lobo?), FINALLY someone who can stick to a budget!!!

As for the preium Axiom product. Although I realize that up there at Axiom they feel the M80 is the ultimate in design theory, I too would be very interested in a special edition M80 with higher grade drivers, and perhaps a premium crossover as well... just for shits & giggles. Not to say that the hardware installed in our M80's aren't any good. I enjoy mine daily, no complaints here. But someone mentined in another thread that SVS's tweeters cost $180 bucks each, or something like that, and that got me to thinking what Axiom could do with some ultra-premium components in their towers.

That's not to say that a $180 dollar tweeter necessarily sounds better than a $90 dollar tweeter, but we all know the old saying, "it doesn't matter how big, or how fast you are... there's always someone out there who's bigger and/or faster". Therefore while the drivers Axiom uses in their speakers definately do a great job, at a fantastic price-point, I for one would be super interested in seeing what they could do with even better components. Call them "Super M80's", or "M80 Ultra's" or something like that. Charge two or three times their normal price. But other than the innards, don't change anything else, keep the same design theory and everything. A few extra custom finishes would be alright, but that isn't really what I'm concerned about.

What really peaks my curiousity is finding out how much further Axiom can take a great sounding, yet affordable speaker. If the current M80's can compete with speakers costing two to three times as much, could a set of M80's with truely top-shelf components compete with speakers in the $10,000 to $15,000 dollar range? Or do the compenents they now use match up with the cabinet design so perfectly that another arrangement simply would not work? I guess what I'm asking is are the M80's truely the very best speakers Axiom knows how to build? Or are they the very best speakers they can build while retaining an obtainable price tag by a large portion of the consumer base?

I understand Ian's philosophy has always been build the best speakers the customer can afford to buy. I'd just like to know what he's capable of building without that restriction.

I got as far as Quit Farting...

A pair of B&W 800Ds? Though I'm sure some would prefer double Ds...

If Axiom were in fact to make a premium speaker, they should imo do it with music in mind, unless they plan on making accompanying centres and surrounds to go with it, which would be a huge undertaking and quite risky. It may add confusion to the mix if these "premium" speakers use different drivers ect, thereby sounding different, and people want to use them in an HT. "Where's the matching surrounds, centre channel..."

I thought of suggesting a slightly larger woofer, perhaps 7" or 7 1/2" to extend the bass a little more on the towers, but then what about people who may want to add more channels to a previous HT. Another thing I'd look at, is possibly developing a ring-rad tweeter like SB Acoustics or Vifa's XT which are very detailed and clean on the upper freq's. There are some extremely good ones on the market for $40-50 and if Axiom could come up with one in that price target....There's a lot of things to consider, and having too much to offer could dilute the brand. There's no doubt Axiom could put some $400 Scanspeak tweets and $500 drivers or develop their own at great cost, it's just whether it's going to be good business sense to do so. There are many good quality alternatives to expensive drivers and tweets out there to companies like Scanspeak, such as Vifa, Peerless and SB Acoustics to name a couple.

I'm all for experimenting, as a side project, making an upscale bookshelf as a marketing test, then depending on where that goes, for the moment it's best not to mess too much with what works.