Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Practical benefit of going LFR1100 over M100

Hello,

I'm currently torn between purchasing a B&W CM10s2 setup I've been able to hear vs taking a leap of faith and going with Axiom.

Can anyone who has heard both the Axiom LFR1100 and the M100 comment on how their sound actually differs for movies, gaming, and music?

Also, are Axioms generally considered audiophile quality good enough for music, or typically thought of as strictly HT speakers?

Thank you!

We have both M100's and LFR-1100's in the house, and have also one extensive listening to B&W 803 Diamonds in a high end store, Legacy Audio Signature SE's which are in the house, and Klipsch LaScala II's which are in the house.

The M100's are not "identical" to the B&W's nor the Legacy's. Both the Legacy's and B&W's have a similar sound. They are slightly forward in the mids, and slightly recessed in the bass. Many audiophiles prefer this sound in expensive speakers.

The M100's are more linear across the 32-20,000 Hz range than the Legacies or the B&W's ... and I have done over 100 hours of blind listening between the Legacies and the M100's. The Legacy Signatures, if you are not familiar, are hand built in Illinois by a 31 year old company, and sell for $7000 per pair. At $7000 per pair, they compared favorably in reviews against the $24.000 B&W 800D ... not that they were "better", but that they gave "90% of the performance for 30 % of the price"

The M100's, when listening blind, were more natural sounding than even the Legacy speakers. Soundstage was deep, wide and instruments sound natural. Nothing "jumps" out at you, they are just so musical that when I want to hear music, they are .. well ... WERE ... my go to speaker.

THEN I got the LFR-1100's. The LFR-1100's, with their Omnidirectional design and DSP, take everything from the M100's and elevate the performance. Within the next month, I will be finishing a formal review on the Legacy, M100 and LFR-1100's ... but I absolutely LOVE the LFR-1100's.

They are the best music speakers I have heard, and my bias was actually against them when I agreed to try a pair. Having owned Def Tech Bi-Polar speakers in the past, I have never found the design to work. This is where the DSP comes in.

If you look at the response curve here:

http://axiomaudio.com/gallery_disp.html?image=LFR1100_freq.gif&title=LFR1100

You will see the "red curve" is the on axis, while the Blue Curve is the "sound power curve". This sound power curve is the average of 48 horizontal and 48 vertical measurements taken in a "global" pattern around the speaker.

Picture the speaker inside a globe, with a microphone being moved 7.5 degrees at a time, and a measurement taken. Note how the curves match, with the blue curve being slightly "below" the red curve.

This demonstrates a linear response from all directions - if you compared it to even the M100, you will see the LFR-1100 is a closer match.

This type of measurement is the result of years of science from the likes of Floyd E. Toole at Harman International's facilities in California. He has written extensively about this, and one can find an "oral white paper" on You Tube.

In order to design a speaker using this philosophy, one needs an anechoic chamber for testing purposes.

So ... to answer your question ... if you want a natural sounding speaker with a combination of excellent detail, deep soundstage, terrific dynamics and relatively affordable, the LFR-1100 is worth consideration.

Craigs the man for your first question.

I can answer your second question without ever owning or hearing either the M100s or LFRs. In short, yes.

If you are looking for a neutral, detailed, dynamic and engaging experience, Axiom products will deliver. They are designed to be tools for recreating content as authored. Any well designed speaker with relatively flat on axis response into 40hz territory and smooth off axis rolloff is capable of an audiophile experience. The Axioms happen to be optimised for these criteria.

Your locations/setup and room acoustics will determine the vast majority of your perceptions during listening. Don't fall into the trap of buying "this" automatically equalls excellence. Audio setup is complicated. A truly excellent and profound experience involves attention to system symmetry, room decay, room size, listening position, lateral reflection control and most importantly speaker positioning.

You can create a marvellous system without Axioms. But you are already leaps and bounds ahead when you choose a product tailored to avoid pitfalls in the reproduction of authored intent -like Axioms.

Hope this helps.

Lol, beat me to it Craig.