Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater how do owners of m80s enjoy their speakers?

Hello,

I was just wondering how everyone is enjoying their speakers? I am really curious what everyone owned before they finally settled.

I just bought new speakers but i still want a full set of axioms.

I'm probably not a good one to comment here, because the only other speakers I've had any experience is some Bose 901's back in the 70's and a HTIB before buying Axioms. Also, I don't have the M80's but I have 2 sets of M22's that I use; click on link in my signature line.

Watching movies at home is much more enjoyable that watching them in a theater, IMO, even though my current screen is only a 37 inch tv. I am in the process of converting a lower floor at home into a small theater with a 100 inch projection screen that will have 3 M80's behind it.

Been enjoying them for nearly 7 years. Before that it was a pair of Def Tech Pro Tower 400s and before that was a set of Bose 901s.

I love mine, same as my friends that come over and are interested in audio. The only problem that I have is that I can't enjoy them as much as I would love to I have a small child that goes to bed early so most of the time I have to listen to them at very low volume.

I've owned most of the lineup, except m40's and m50s, love all of them, but the M80's are awesome.

Before my M80's I owned (and still do) Large Advents and Infinity Kappa 8's.

I enjoy mine with a cold beer when possible.

With fava beans and a nice chianti.

Haha, I would take enjoy my axioms with some Bud Light and some Mikes Hard Lemonade if I had them.

Naw, I love 'em. Most of the time, like Bruno, it's at low volume, where they still sound great. But when you can crank 'em, they sound amazing. Before the 80s, I owned M50s, and before that Cambridge Soundworks Ensemble 1s. We shall not speak of what was before that.

Cat,

That is a sick array of speakers you got all on your front sound stage!

Thanks. I just changed it, again. It may look rather odd, but it sure sounds good.

It's hard for me to describe in words how much I enjoy my M80s.

15 years ago I had a very good pair of Dali floor-standers. I really liked them, but they never evoked the kind of emotional "Woah..." response that the M80s do.

My first impression was the sheer sense of power that the M80s convey (there was a thread here where someone called them "Towers Of Power"). They produce extremely strong, tight bass and they are clear and accurate across all frequencies. In my room they present a huge sound stage, both wide and deep.

I had some Polk bookshelf speakers before my M80s. They were okay, but I just thought there should be more of something in the sound. When I first got my M80s, I wasn't wowed. At first I thought it was just that my receiver was underpowered, which may have contributed, but it wasn't until I spent some real time listening to them that I loved them. There's a lot more presence, especially with movies and music with a high dynamic range. They feel... big. The major events in movies now feel like major events. To be fair, some of this is handled by my EP800s now, as well as my ButtKicker, but even without them running, the M80s do quite well on their own.

I look forward to when Axiom has a new flagship speaker that I can put through its paces. Of course, I may become impatient at some point, simply upgrading from my v2s to v3s so I can give these to my dad and have him pass his Polks on to a friend of mine. We'll see!

Damn, Henry..... you need to buy me a beer or something!

He just needs to start plastering speakers all over the wall.

I'm not really enjoying the sound of my M80's...might be cause they are still sitting on the floors at Axiom and haven't been shipped yet... ;-)

Mine will be here tomorrow.

I will be enjoying mine in the following manner: Bushmill's Black Bush, a velvet smoking jacket and Red Wing sheepskin slippers.

How about the bunnies?

Here is the list of speaker i have own these last 3 years.

Wharfedale Diamond 9.2
Focal 705s
Paradigm Mini Monitor V5
Tannoy R2
Wharfedale Evolution 40
Quad 22L
Monitor Audio RS6
Quad 22L2
Monitor Audio RX6
Focal 826V
Axiom M3

And then Axiom M80... and i own them for about 6months now and i wont change them for nothing. For the price you wont find anything better than M60/80. They deliver incredeble sound for the price and they look georgous too. The only speaker who were actually "better" were the Focal 826V, but it's a 3500$ range.

Thats exactly what i was looking for.

Then i am sure you will like your M80. But every speaker need the right equipment.

Aside from my Energy RC speakers, I have a decent pre/pro and amp setup with the Yamaha 667 and an Emotiva UPA-5. Also running dual eD A2-300s.

I just bought all my gear before I got orders to TDY for about 6 months. I have not even been able to set up my speakers and tried out all my gear yet and I still want a full set of Axiom M80s, VP180 and QS8s. I do like my RC-50s a whole bunch, though. I just cannot get away from all the enthusiasm of the Axiom brand.

What did you think about the Quad 22L?

Really nice speaker. The equipement i had were the Arcam A85 and CD72 from the diva series. Very open, dynamic, deliver just the right bass. Actually i liked them more than the 22l2 who were flat compare to the 22L.

I've had my M80's for about 6 months now. I bought them because I generally listen at a low volume and wanted full range speakers that would reproduce the full spectrum at a comfortable level for me. After a period of time I've concluded that for me these speakers require a little more volume than I desire to do the job...but they do it very well and so I've resigned myself to listen a notch higher than I prefer. But when the volume is raised these speakers are remarkable. I am a dedicated critical classical music listener and with this kind of music, in its various genres, the dynamic range(s) required does not lend itself to low volumes for many pieces (chamber music and instrumental music are better suited to lower volumes). I did listen to some "pop" initially and they sounded wonderful. In any case I really don't think I could have done better given the great price, aesthetic appeal of the speakers and overall quality of sound. They're driven by an 80's vintage 55 watt Denon stereo receiver designed for 4 to 8 Ohm speakers.

Previously I had a very good satellite speaker system from Speakerlab, which was especially designed for digital reproduction in 1979. It was a kit and I still use the sub today...but the sub too needs replacement as the technology has advanced so much since then. I probably could spend a few to several hundred dollars and get a better sub reaching well down below 25Hz which are the specs for my sub.

I did enjoy the very open sound stage of my Speakerlab's and miss it to some degree...but they the mid-range was not as full or, in my opinion, as "complete" coming from the M80's...and mid-range reproduction is essential for my listening. As an aside, I initially purchased M60's and was not happy...so I upgraded to the M80's before the 30 day home trial was over. That was a great decision for me and that made all the difference.

I had some Bose 201's to start(I was young and naive), went to M22's, then tried the M60's for about 2 weeks before moving to M80s, no regrets with any of the Axiom's, no better bang for the buck, IMO.

I've been enjoying my M80 system since November. I did alot of research and auditioned many speakers at local shops. After reading all the reviews here and on AVSForum I thought I'd give them a try. The M80's were the best sounding speaker within my budget. When I first hooked them up I couldn't believe what I heard.

Nice list of speakers you've auditioned! The Focal 700's & 800's are my short list of speakers to audtion...which also will include the Studo 60/100's, Psb Imagine T, KEF Q's and XQ's and maybe some Totems. If none of these speakers really WOW me...I could likely consider some 80's.

I have had my M80's and VP180 for about 9 months now and have enjoyed them from day one .

Recently i purchased an Amthem MRX500 and now the 80's sound even better .

Nice to hear that the anthem has made an improvement on the M80s. I am currently looking into Anthem's MRX line and leaning towards the 300. It has the feautures I want and the price I am willing to pay. I hear a lot of great things about ARC.

I have auditioned many speakers, Focal Profile series 318's(?), Paradigm Studio 100, Monitor Audio Silver series R8's(?) and the M80's are still my favorite price point/SQ speaker.

Some people i know on another forum have purchased the 300 and love it , esp for under a grand .

Arc is amazing and also can be bad because it can show faults with your room .

Are you talking about AVS? Did you buy the 500 locally or online?

No Bluray.com and i bought mine locally from a tore in Brampton where i got the best deal .

First, I've had homemade junk boxes using RS full range 8" drivers (you know, with the little cone in the middle acting as a tweeter!);
next came the Energy 22 Ref which i loved, but at some point they could not cope with movie sound or some cd's i own, like:
Roots!! African Drums (a 1984 Denon digital recording) or:
Orff - Carmina Burana - Robert Shaw - Atlanta Symphony Orchestra & Chorus (Telarc).

about 1985-1990 i was looking at ways to get better low end and i found 2 articles in Audio magazine about home built subs.
those used JBL 15 in. pro drivers in big boxes tuned to 20Hz;
box sizes were 12 and 23 cu. ft.
one of the articles had as a title: "Certified Bass For The Certifiable"; my guess is that there are far more "certified" people today than in 1985-1990.
that turned out way too big for my living room size and i could not find anything else that would satisfy me so i made do with what i had, including a "Hafler Hookup" with an inline potentiometer to set volume on the back speakers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hafler).
last year i finally got a subwoofer (SVSound PC12-Plus) and then bought the M80's for the front L/R and sent the Energy's to the back for surround duty.

Oh yea, almost forgot: for a very long time i used RS Minimus-7W speakers for the surround channels.

today, i could rate them (from 1 to 10) as going from a 2 for my first speakers to an 8 for the Energy's and now a 9.755555555 (out of a possible perfect score of 10) for the M80's.

The M80's are the first speakers i own that virtually disappear from the sound stage, and the imaging is superb.

I have had most all of Axiom's speakers over the years but about a year ago I defected and bought some Swans. Still don't understand why, but that doesn't matter now.

Recently I was able to unload the Swans and bought some M60s. About a week ago, I found a great deal on some M80s so I bought them and just got them hooked up. WOW, they sound so sweet. They have the v3 drivers but the v2 dust caps and grills. They are definately a WOW!!!

Finally I am done and back home again....

Welcome back to the dark side Mr Golf!

Yeah, welcome back. We all have a weird and wonderfully strange hobby. I've owned a lot of speakers too.

I give them away to make people happy.

Johnny Appleseed of audio.

I'll take your Michaura's if you are giving speakers away

Hey Jason!

Funny thing is that I've given away Wharfedales, loads of Axioms, but never Michauras. Can't get them anymore!

Although they use the Axiom 3/4" titanium tweeter instead of the 1" unit and although the cabinets are smaller than the corresponding Axiom speakers, I think because of their unique hexagonal shape they have a wonderful sound quality. I picked most of my M22 like M55s up for $19 a piece plus a huge Ubid shipping cost, I don't remember what I paid for the M50 like M66s and I think I paid ~$150 each for the M60 like M665s, but no one should think less of these speakers because of the blow-out prices they were offered at.

If you make it down to California, I'll give you the audio tour and grill some steaks for you. I'm sure we can find you a beer as well.

Sounds good. I am actually a Californian, born in Santa Paula and my sister lives near San Fran so a gtg may happen sooner than you think