Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Klipsch reference series vs. Axiom M80ti system...

It's been posted before but with not much information (back in june 2003 if I check the archives)...

Anybody heard the two systems? I was looking more a comparaison of the Klipsch Reference flagship models.

Klipsch RF-7 front and surround compared to M80ti
Klipsch RC-7 center compared to VP150
Klipsch RS-7 surrounds back compared to QS8.

Mainly for home theater but I still listen to a lot of music through my system. I often listen to music (pop, dance) at loud levels (I think I never grew up) and I also listen to movies at quite a loud level.

I used to own Klipsch KLF-30 and KLF-C7 (Legend series) (well, just sold them).

Sylvain

Klipsch?

if i ever want my ears to hurt, I'll buy Klipsch. I find their speakers so harsh sounding...

The M80's are great, cheaper, and have a better company backing them, the choice is easy

if you live near Montreal you can come audtion, i have all of Axioms top line

you're right Ravi, I was in an audio store in Winnipeg a couple of weekends ago and I had the opportunity to audition 2 sets of Klipsch speakers. One of the sets was a bookshelf and one was a floorstander. All I can say is they were freaking loud and hurt my ears. The high end/vocals sounded very "nasal" - they just didn't have the clean, accurate highs of my Axioms. Now take this with a grain of salt since the comparison was not performed side-by-side and the disc I used wasn't mastered particularly well, but suffice is to say, I did not find the Klipsch to be to my liking at all.

Third guy in line here agrees. During my recent hunt, I auditioned differing models of Klipsch floor & bookshelves. I had them hook up a Yammy, a Denon and a Macintosh. I could not get out of there fast enough. The highs were simply uncomfortable. Standard caveat -not a shot at Klipsch; my ears did not like them - your's might.

I do own the Axioms, which I thought equated to the B&W 700 series, which were 2x-3x the price.

In reply to:

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I do own the Axioms, which I thought equated to the B&W 700 series, which were 2x-3x the price.

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I agree...In all my speaker shopping I felt the B&W 700 series towers came closest to sounding like my M60ti's. Great sounding, great looking speakers - but $2500? Gimme a break!

How come most people buy M60ti instead of M80ti (?) Just wondering,

Thanx,

Sylvain

Price, receivers that can only do 8 ohms instead of 4 ohms, smaller room size, adequate versus really adequate, finding out your opinion from your spouse, the desire to minimize the impact of William Shatner singing "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds". The list goes on. They are both terrific.

There is no way to minimize the impact of William Shatner's singing voice. To attempt such a feat would be as futile as bailing a swamped boat with a hair net.

resistance is futile

{Picard voice}The line must be drawn Heah! Heah and no further!{/Picard voice}

[picard]There... are... four... lights![/picard]

I must say that i'm also concerned about the resale value of both. Well, first, I will audition both and then i'll see.

Sylvain

I got the m60s because of price. I wanted to spend ~$1200, so naturally I spent ~$1600 and upgraded to the vp150 and qs8s. While I'm one of the young-uns on this board, I can honestly say that I have never been in a livingroom large enough to crank these speakers up to full blast comfortably (for any extended period.) And my reciever runs short of power with plenty of headroom left on Axiom's side of things. (My living/dining room is an odd L shape, but amounts to ~2500 cubic feet.)

My decision process ran along the lines of: the $300 price difference could go to a cd mega-changer, a pocket pc, a gps unit, airplane tickets to rome, a new leather jacket, a snowboard, ... , the list really is too long It suffices to say that you will be happy enough with either selection that you may very well find yourself not interested in selling them again at all.

I will be testing this weekend the QS8, VP150 and the Klipsch RC7 and RS7. I will let you all know what my review is and my decision.

Sylvain

In responce to your Klipsch vs. Axiom question your in luck. I happen to own both a set of RF-5's and M80ti's. They are both excellent speakers with different personalities. I've had the RF-5's for 2 years now and when I first listened to them they put a huge smile on my face compared to a set of paradigms I had before them. The extemely efficient 99db Klipsch maximizes all of your amps potential. My system was suddenly alive, and very responsive. I started hearing more little noises in both movies and music. The two 8" woofers kick out great, tight bass with little distortion. the mids are smooth and clear which makes up for the tad bit harsh treble. The horns are very sensitive and sometimes a little too bright depending on the quality of music thats being thrown at them. If you have a piss poor recording, the Klipsch will emphasize every bit of bad sound. Put in a very well recorded CD and these things will shine. Unfortunately the are too many poor recorded CD"s out there. After enjoying the RF-5's for a couple of years it was time to move on and experience something different. This is due to boredom of the same sound day in and day out and also my fascination with sound quality. I decided to purchase a set of M80ti's with out even hearing them first. How can you go wrong, under $1500 and a 30 day money back guarantee. I have to say the Axioms are all there cracked up to be. Excellent bass response, surprisingly from a 6.5". Might even be a little deeper than the Klipsch, but not sure with the RF-7's. The mids are crystal clear as well as the tweeters but not as bright as the RF-5's. They are a little easier on the ears. The choice of these two speakers comes down to the listener and the different situations when listening. If you want something loud and slammin that your going to play full tilt all the time and don't mind your ears ringing periodically, then go for the Klipsch. If you want a speaker that has a little better soundstage, a very smooth, warm sound, but won't crank quite as loud due to the sensitivity, then choose the Axioms. Both are excellent speakers and now find myself going back and forth due to the fact that I'm probably never totally satisfied. I also run a Klipsch RC-7 center, and RS-7 surrounds. Both produce excellent sound and are extemely efficient. Unfortunately, I haven't had the opportunity to try out the Axiom center or surrounds. Sorry for the novel.

Your post is excellent... For me, I tested this weekend the
Klipsch RC-7 center vs. Axiom VP150
Klipsch RS-7 as surrounds BACK vs. QS8

Both center channels were hooked up on a Denon AVR-3805 used as a preamp and both center were on a amplifier wich it was easy to switch from one to another (was able to lower the sound of the Klipsch to match the Axiom).

The surround back were hooked up directly on the Denon. We had to unplug one set to plug the other set.

1- For the center channel both are way different. For vocal, we both prefered the Klipsch. The sound seem a bit modified with the Axiom. (Tested with DTS music CD #4). In home theather, we preferred the Klipsch RC-7 but the difference is very small. If you don't have both to test them as I've done, it's impossible if you go to the store after hearing your VP150 to say "Hey, the RC-7 sounds way better". In music now, we found that when going in high SPL, the distortion of the VP150 began way before the RC-7. For all those reasons, we preferred the Klipsch RC-7 by a little margin.

Surround speaker:
Here, if we talk about sound quality, the QS8 TOTALLY blew away the Klipsch RS-7 period. The sound envelop you and the clarity of the instruments is totally not comparable. The QS8 lacks of power though and since they are 6 ohms, you cannot really hook 2 sets of them. My only complaint on the QS8 is that if you want to listen to music quite loud, they really don't perform as well as the RS-7.

Final verdict is that we prefer the Klipsch RC-7 for the center but prefer by a BIG margin the QS8 surrounds. The sound is really not comparable.

Tonight, I will be putting the QS8 and RS7 as surround instead of surround back since there is more stuff coming out from the surround then from the surround back.

If you have any questions, feel free to pm me. I think that this post is very valuable since I guess, many people are in the same situation as I am.

I haven't written a "full review" but I will do so later this week because this morning, just came in at the office and can't take too much time to write... I'll post a complete review with score for each thing that we noticed.

Sylvain