Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Out with the new and in with the newer

Indeed but it's surprising how good it sounds already. I'm not saying I'd take it as it sounds but I'm gonna experiment on neophytes and see how they like it.

M32.

1 x 1" titanium tweeter, 1 x 5.25" driver, 1 x 6.5" woofer.
Use an M60 cabinet and load the bottom with amps and DSP, so we'd have active speakers without external amps/DSP.

Where does the DSP cross over from woofers to midrange ? I was thinking probably the same ~250 Hz as the passives, which means you would be losing a fair amount of bass relative to M22's.

But it's probably a good indication of what M2s would sound like though

(I can say that because I own and enjoy M2's)

The crossover is at 250. The mids are 20 dB down at 40Hz. It's not a brick wall filter.

"Shut-down is not a problem with the active 1100. At 10 feet away, I can push the actives to 116dBC which is the absolute limit of my pre-amp and more than 10dBC above my ears giving out.

This brings up the matter of how close to the limit is the single channel that feeds a trio of HP woofers at that tremendous bass peak. I can say now that the 1000 still has a few volts it can go before it shuts down."

Regarding the above, I took more measurements today and did some listening to just the woofers and just the mids (independently). Yes, you can push these actives to 116dBC with a 1000-8 and 1000-2 (woofers) but don't expect it to be clean.

I took voltage measurements at the woofer channel outputs with and without the left and right woofers connected. At 0 on my pre-amp, I measured 27V open circuit and 25V with the woofer load. That means the 1000-2 is sagging under that load. That's not surprising given the power dumped into those woofers is in excess of the per channel spec. Now is that the only contributor to the distortion in the HP triplet? I don't know but the triplet doesn't look very physically distressed to me. When I get the 1500 on it, I will know better.

The mid-woofer is another interesting case. That doesn't sound too good either at the maximum gain of my pre-amp. I measure 29Vrms on the front mid and 45V on the rear. I have BGC set to FAR2; that's why the rear is so much higher than the front. If the mids are 6 Ohms, that's 280W into the front and 675W into the rear. I believe the first number but not the second so that brings into question the impedance magnitude of the mid.

As for the tweeter, I don't dare listen at 0. However, on open circuit, I measure 5V on the front and 13V on the rear. If the tweeter array is 4 Ohms, that's 12.5W on the front and 85W on the rear.

I need to put the above into context. On the actives, at 10 feet away in my 1800 cu.ft. living room which is open to the rest of the house, I listen at -33 and sometimes even less than that depending on the tune. That is very satisfying across the entire range including the bass which just pops! At that level, we are talking 1 Volt into the HP triplet. Compare that 1 Volt to the 27 Volts at full gain. The headroom is therefore huge.

Keep in mind my instruments are about as primitive as those used to operate on the Joker. LOL!

Guess you’ll have to upgrade now ...

I listen anywhere from -33 to -40 with the actives. I need low power, low noise, high accuracy!

It's been some time since I listened to M5s. I'm at my friend's, listening to them through my almost 20 year-old Denon 2105. It sounds to me like the highs on the M5 are more clear, airy and have a longer sustain than the actives. They sound more satisfying. I think I'll have to do a careful compare at my place.

I've managed to achieve M5 holosonic projection and pristine bass in my friend's living room. The holosonic projection is equivalent to what I was able to achieve with the M5s in my basement. It sounds like the M5s are projecting images in the interstitial space that exists between their backs and the front wall 4 feet behind them.

The M5s are almost a third of the way into the room and so is her couch. When she came into the room, she let out a big "What the cluck did you do to my living room?" So I says in my soothing man-voice, "I welcome you to listen before passing judgment." When she finished listening, I said I'd put it all back and she gave me a dirty look. No way! Once you hear it, you can't go back!

I'm back home now comparing the M5s with my actives. No question the highs from the M5 are awesome but I hear details missing compared to the actives. They also appear at a slightly different point in space but that could be due to speaker positioning. The detail and image placement throughout the entire audible band is far better with the actives. Then there's that bass where there's absolutely no comparison with the M5 or M100.

Nevertheless, I am so absolutely happy for her. The M5s shine with the proper positioning in her room.