Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Which Power Source for M60ti? Newbie.

The M5 and M100v4 give me good low end wow factor even at lower volumes. The actives are miles ahead in that regard.

M2s with a sub may actually be better in that small space than larger speakers. Bass control is much easier with an M2/sub set-up. I'll hopefully be getting my M2s soon and can give you better guidance.

Great look forward to hearing your review. Awesome. I showed him m22 from b stock or refurb with sub ep 350 or 500? combo would be sweet in there I think.

Trying to get my brother onto the axioms too. He’s got room for some m60s / m80s or m5hps. 10 foot ceilings with a long room. 10 feet wide by 35 feet long. Speakers would have to be at 6 -8 feet apart and listening position equal distance back. So back wall would be very far away. Hmmmmmm.

Oh yeah I was going to say I’d love to hear some m3 beside my m60s. Very interesting. I did look at m50s way back years ago but never pulled the trigger. Been looking at axiom for awhile.

M5s with a sub for your brother. Active M5s would be much better.

It is interesting the idea of progression to be able to give you a standing point as to what is good. I also find it very interesting as to how speaker design has very much changed over the years and I think that was very much driven by the work at NRC with Ian (and Axiom) being part and parcel with that.

When I think back to my first "real" home stereo, not something that was bought at consumers distributing and was little more than a speaker thrown in a box. The understanding of what was going on was very much above most people. I will even say that some of that holds true to this day in some manufacturers I don't think understood the concept of reflection that really makes up the Axiom term 'family of curves'. The approach before was more of a trial by error and throw into the design to try and reduce the effects you don't want without the understanding of why they were there in the first place.

I take a look at my first set of speakers a Celestian DL6. Compared to anything else that I had heard at the time, it was the best sounding speaker that I could afford. Looking back at the process of buying these, I might as well closed my eyes and pointed because I was buying without any basis.

I went to BayBloor Radio that at the time was really well advertised as being a higher-end store..compared to the other big chain stores at the time. I went into a big room that was much wider than deep that had a row of speakers all setup in a row. Not like a listening room you'd get now, but individual pairs of speakers with its own stereo connected, one after another. So there was ZERO consideration for acoustics. The two units at either end sounded worse than the ones in the middle. It clearly was buying on what looked nice and didn't cost more than I could afford.

It wasn't until many years later that I had the same speakers in my own room that my father wanted to get some speakers for himself. He found a set of Celestian SL3 speakers used that were at a good price advertised on craigslist. The owner drove the speakers over to our house and we hooked them up to my stereo (the Nakamichi that just died) that I actually heard a remarkable improvement over what I owned. So he bought them and I was left with knowing my speakers sucked. The power of A/B done far better than what was common at the time.

One would think you'd learn, but when I got married and a better job, I bought a new set of Energy C3 speakers, not based on sound but rather many magazine reviews and they were getting cleared out on sale so the price was right. My logic was that if you can get a really good reviewed speaker for 60% off then your getting a deal. A/B side by side comparison to the Celestian showed they were far better. At around the same time the understanding of sound in speaker design started to come into the light. I listened to many speakers at different dealerships and audio shows. The sound capability was awesome, but the price was beyond my reach. Again, it can be also that exposure to sound is limited to what you can remember, driven by feelings at the time. Without a true blind A/B or at least a controlled A/B in your own environment, how can you say what is better than what?

Great thoughts Matt.
We used to have a couple guys in a van, with a bikini girl painted on both sides and front hood. They worked with one of our speaker companies here in the west. They independently went and made their own Fiberglass enclosures covered in gray almost carpeting. with 15 inch drivers and tweets. More car audio style. Also before 5.1.

They used to sell them for 150 each. We all had them hooked to old vintage receivers. even today most are still around {Built like tanks}. Before I moved in with my wife one of my roommates still had a pair. Once and a while find them and reminisce of the old van. They lived a couple blocks away from one of my childhood homes. Would make for a great A/B with current technologies.

Back in our university years it was common to hear about the 'white van' speakers.
Cheap rip off artists selling slapped together drivers in a cheap wood box for $300 out of the back of white rented vans. Probably cost them $40 a pair or less.
A former roomate bought a pair but only through haggling when he told them he could only withdraw a max of $100 from his bank account per day because of his student account.
I think he still has the speakers.

Chess, I'm not sure if Advance Audio/Video is still on Portage and Valour. They were a logistics warehouse for white van guys.

I don't know that much has changed, as the "higher end" stores still have these types of rooms. Some have more focused rooms, and will accommodate making changes...if you look serious about purchasing.

An interestingly different approach has been Linn. They pride themselves on having a single set of speakers in any room that is actively demonstrating speakers. Their rationale is that any other speakers in the room will colour the demonstration.

The Linn approach will also make it impossible to do an A/B with other speakers.

In the meantime, here is a partial list of other sound coloring objects:

1. Walls
2. Floor
3. Ceiling
4. Carpet
5. Windows
6. Furniture
7. Turntable
8. Electronics
9. People
10. Curtains
11. Pillows
12. Knick knacks
13. Ducts

The concept that another pair of speakers will "color" sound is nothing more than a mantra to allow the salesperson to control the narrative.

"Notice the detail ... look how deep and wide the soundstage is ... bass you can almost feel ..."

The list is endless.