Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion What's New At Axiom AxiomAir

This thread is a very good example as to why I just can't jump on board with the AxiomAir. I love the idea. I love the look of it. But beyond that, there's too many unknowns. And this is not some cheap speaker. Even at the kickstarter costs it's over $600 CDN!! And after that they say $300 more? Holy @#$%

Now I get it. This isn't some Logitech, Bose or Philips fidelio nonsense. With no reviews to go by, no specifics on the gui, no real battery tests, and no idea what this is actually going to sound like.....you get where I'm going with this.

I would love to try it, but something tells me to not try the 1st gen. I know I'm paranoid. Axiom makes great stuff, so there's that to consider but this is also Axiom's first attempt at such a thing as well.

I understand your feeling, and trust me, I am feeling them too. But I did make the commitment. I guess there is that hope it will sound good, but reality is there isn't something to benchmark it against.

You are correct that $600+ is quite a hefty price tag for a remote speaker. I know we all love to put on the audiophile hat, but at some point we make compromises. Like have you replaced the audio system inside your car and upgraded the soundproofing and put in acoustic treatments to make it the best is possibly can? Or do you just live with the car sounding like a car because it makes little sense to try and change it?

I don't know if I really need a $600 portable speaker for carrying around outside. I just hope that I do get some great enjoyment out of the investment.

It's unfortunate, but I won't be able to gather the funds before the campaign is over. I know what you're all saying about 1st gen. I'll catch them in the next round.

I heard a fully mocked up prototype and I heard one of their "in progress" testbed (blind A/B test) and it does sound very nice, and connectivity was really slick. That was back in February when I was at Axiom. I just remember how much emphasis was going into the testing,electronically, acoustically, and using human ears with one goal in mind... to get it right the first time.

Hi,

The AxiomAir does not come with a battery, it is optional and can be added for a discounted $68 if you back our Kickstarter. We did it this way because many people will never make use of the battery, so we are passing on the savings to that crowd. One thing that everyone should keep in mind is that the battery is expensive for a reason. With a true 150 watt amplifier inside, we need an extremely large capacity battery pack. We are using the latest LiFePO4 battery technology for less weight and longer life. This is not your typical $15 pack for powering a 10 watt amplifier!

Thanks,

Andrew

Hi Nathan,

For pushing audio to the AxiomAir you can use either AirPlay or uPnP/DLNA. If you have higher than CD resolution files uPnP/DLNA is the preferred method as the AirPlay standard does not really support highrez. You can group multiple AxiomAirs in any way you wish by using our web interface. Our system for sync is a proprietary protocol.

The hotspot is really only for use when you do not have access to your home WiFi network. When using the hotspot you can stream music files from a connected device, or from a USB drive. If your phone supports it, you can stream from the cloud using cellular data while connected to the WiFi hotspot. Ethernet is automatically given priority and the system will fall back to the WiFi connection when your LAN is disconnected.

Thanks,

Andrew

Hi newf,

I happy to answer any questions that you might have that we have not covered. I believe that our reputation speaks for itself in terms of our ability to engineer great sounding amplifiers and loudspeakers. The performance of the AxiomAir is on par with a pair of our M3 bookshelf speakers driven with a powerful amplifier. Our DAC technology has been outlined and we have been open about the software we are developing. I'm not sure what part of the UI is an unknown...we have a full video on our Kickstarter page showing the operation of the UI in detail, and yes, we have performed numerous tests on various battery pack samples. We have fully operational prototype systems and reviews will be in the works once we have production representative samples. Please let me know if there is something that we have not made clear and I'll be happy to answer!

Thanks,

Andrew

And? Blue LED lights?

At least one Mark!

My buddies and I purchased the AxiomAir purely on faith. Once I watched the video on Kickstarter and had a chance to wrap my head around what was being engineered, as an audiophile, I not only supported it, I evangelized it. I saw what Ian and Andrew were trying to do and I bought into that vision.

As for the cost, there's only one thing that can drive it down and that's volume. It's a shame actually that Axiom doesn't do a better job of exposing to the world the emotion and experience its products are capable of delivering. Why is it that after 5 or 6 years on the market, the EP800 is still one of Axiom's best-kept secrets?