Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Dual EP800 vs SVS Ultra 16

What are your main speakers Mojo? If they are anything from Axiom, I am sure that they would not sound like junk next to the T's. Axiom builds the T's and they share a lot of similarities. From what I am told, the T's and the Axioms have a very common sound, only the T's have a lot more output due to the large lower drivers. The mids and tweeters are pretty much the same from what I understand. The crossovers are different and the cabinets are different with the T's having more internal bracing and a different shape and the T's have a double thick front panel of MDF, not sure what the Axioms use as I never asked.

Since all of the main components are built by Axiom, the similarities carry over. In fact, I'd be very interested in trying out the LFR1100 mains vs. the Bryston Model T's. I would love to see how they perform in my rather diverse and broken up room with vaulted ceilings.

Slim, I have Axiom M80, 2 pairs of QS8s, a VP150 and an EP600; all v2...in 7.1. I'm replacing the 150 and 600 with a 160 and 800 thanks to Steve and Ian.

The sound quality difference in my room isn't the result of speaker design. I could put your Ts in my room and they'd sound better with Audyssey than without.

Your Ts are awesome! Fully active Ts are awesomer . The LFRs are a different beast than the Ts. And the new LFRs will make Amar Bose jealous with envy in that great audio heaven he's inhabiting now because the direct/reflecting concept he pioneered will finally be fully realized with no compromises.

Will the fully active LFRs sound better than the fully active Ts? No one can know unless they try it. What I do know however is that the fully active LFRs will at least get you very close to the active Ts for less money and less space with perhaps more convenience. And you will have the option to upgrade in the future. Ian is very generous.

You are putting 100 times more power in one T than I put in my entire 7.1...lol! Perhaps not even the new LFRs will satisfy your SPL needs and you are best off staying with the Ts. But if you are fortunate enough to have the off-board x-over, replace it with the digital x-over and of course more amplification. Otherwise, go to your Bryston dealer and ask to trade up.

No matter what you decide, enjoy what you have. You are extremely fortunate!

My buddy Adam has Model T's and a pair of Middle T's... he likes the Middle T's better for his sound room (he has 5 sound rooms in his house with amps ranging from a Parasound A31 up to Mark Levinson's and a pair of Parasound JC1's, his favorites) He's a little over the top, but good for Adam..... Me, I love my T's. Nothing on earth close; to me of course.

Adam is trying to talk me into buying twin JC1's, but I'll hold my fire on that. I love my A51. And he is trying to talk me into buying is walnut veneer T's... hmmm maybe I wonder how my room would sound with two sets of T's? I have an idea and its good. But that would mean un-biamping my T's and 'only' putting one section into each speaker. I am going to have to get input from Ian on that.

Can't wait to get in the EP 500, I suspect its going to be a value added improvement. From there, it's either going to be a single EP800 added or two more EP 500's.... we shall see

The 500 will be plenty unless you listen to the lowest notes of the pipe organ.

I like the mini-T. The Axiom M5HP is the poor man's version of the mini-T. It can't reach as low and likely not as dynamic but it sounds similarly good Something like fully active M5HPs are in my distant future.

I have 3 sound rooms. All three are contrasts in environments.

It's possible bi-amping is beneficial given your power needs.

I have run direct into each speaker and then split the sections to run bi amp... to me its a huge difference. The bi amp is better. Again that is my opinion and it might not work for others. I found that putting in 400 watts to each section worked. The T's can handle pretty much anything you wish to deliver. Then again, I suspect the Axioms can too

The LFRs are rated for 400W but I know they've been run at 700W at Axiom. I don't know if they compress above 400W though. The Ts are good to 800W based on their sensitivity and max SPL.

I was told by Bryston that you don't have to worry about power, you can put whatever you wish into it, the ratings on the speakers are just a basic guideline. I forget what Adam told me his JC-1's are putting out at 4 ohms, however I believe its on the order of 800 watts and his Middle T's take it all day long as that is his preferred main speaker and they are rated at 400 watts. The T's are 500 watts. I will say that I had Middle T's here for a couple of months on loan from someone and I was trying to buy them, but I couldn't get the deal done. Then I found the Model T's and bought them sight/heard unseen. I wanted to do A/B comparisons against the Middle T's, so I placed the Model T's next to the Middle T's and planned on swapping cables around. Since I knew the Middle's well, I started with the Model T's with some music I am very familiar with and after 3 minutes of listening, I picked up the Middle T's and moved them out to the foyer without bothering to swap cables. I knew immediately the Model T's were strapping in sound and the Middle T's were not going to compete; again this is for my room, it won't necessarily work out that well in other smaller rooms. The Model T's might overload the space.

It's some what apples and oranges.
Sure Axiom makes Bryston but it is to Mr. Tanners specs.
Our drivers have 11/2 inch coils the brystons have 2 inches.
We get 90 to 95Db the same model of Bryston has 100Db plus.
Our units need shipping the Bryston doesn't. So weight of those units is not an issue they can add more Baffling and such.
For greater SPL etc.

Have spent sometime watching the tube regarding this.
It is a fantastic partnership we are all benefitting from their combined experience in all aspects of audio is pretty cool.

Brendo has it right. We are indeed all benefiting.

BTW, you can't put whatever you want into the Brystons. There's both a thermal limit and a mechanical limit. According to the specs of 118 dB max SPL and rated sensitivity, that limit is somewhere between 500W and 800W which might as well be infinite for all practical intents. You can likely put more in but the energy will be converted to heat rather than driver motion.

I don't know how Adam and you can dump 800W into each T and not lose your hearing and mind.

That's very interesting about the middle Ts vs the Ts. It's how I felt about the M80s vs. the M60s. The M60s and M22s should have never seen the production line.