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

I'm not used to seeing "bass response" and "M2's" in the same sentence... do you have a subwoofer in the mix as well ?

I have always thought of M2's as astoundingly good speakers from 70 Hz up, but below that they don't really bother. Maybe things have changed over the years ?

I should probably go back and see if it's still true (maybe with more wattage) but other than very high volumes a pair of M2's and a big SVS sub gave the best home theater sound I have ever experienced.

John, the M2s in my 4200 cu.ft. room are useless without my subs. The 1900 cu. ft. living room is a completely different story. I enjoy them in there without a sub fed off my Pioneer A9 for music only. Of course the experience is better with a sub because as you say, the response drops like a cliff below 70Hz. That drop however works very well in smaller rooms. When I'm grazing on the main floor, I turn them way up and find I have to cut the bass by 6dB.

Do you have M2v4?

Small rooms... interesting. Don't think I ever tried them in small rooms... might have to try the bathrooms.

I have M2ti's.

M2ti is not the same as M2v4. I sound like a broken record.

Edit: I missed it in your signature.

I've managed to make the actives acoustically disappear in my room. As you can see in the photo, I had to toe them in very extremely to make that happen. Both DSPs are at a NEAR2 setting. This gives me pin-point imaging across the soundstage. Mono pink noise is dead centre. As you might be able to see, they are only inches away from the back wall. Unfortunately this results in almost no soundstage depth. But the bass continues to be sublime and this is the only Axiom ported speaker I've heard with this capability.

I spent two weeks experimenting with them up to 3 feet into the room. I got depth across their width but they refused to acoustically disappear like the M2 and M5. There are technical reasons for this which have to do with the size of the speakers vs. the size of my room. More drivers and active DSPs can certainly fix this but the algorithm to integrate all those drivers with boundary feedback into the DSPs is likely very elusive.

As I increase the gain to the rear drivers, the images get wider. Some material sounds better with this more diffuse imaging but as the rear gain is increased, the speakers start to become acoustically visible. So far I prefer tight, well-defined images with no speakers "showing".

Performance across the entire frequency range is exemplary at all listening volumes. The entire bass range is the absolute best I've ever heard but as I've posted elsewhere, how can I possibly know it's the best it can be with the equipment I have?

All the above is for music. As for movies, feel free to place them anywhere. These are the first Axioms where I can claim they make a big difference for movies particularly with dual subs fed off the DSPs. The bass is more dimensional. Everything is more visceral.

Bottom line is I have everything except soundstage depth and I don't know if my bass is the best it can be.

P.S. I took two of Trevor's panels off the front. The two that remain help with imaging and ringing.

What are "Trevor's panels"?

Trevor is From_the_Deep a.k.a. Serenity_Then, a.k.a. Serenity_Now a.k.a. AAAA.

The two brown panels you see on my wall were his. I also have one more brown panel and two smaller black ones. The other brown one adorns my living room. The smaller black ones are standing by. He built them. A little bit of Trevor is here with me, always. All my friends and family know of him. A small tear is seeping from the corner of my eye as I gently touch one of his black panels.

Trevor is the owner of Wavefront Acoustics. When I had an 800 ft^3 room set up with my Dreamcatchers, it was he who suggested I set up my MLP on the room diagonal. It was he who changed my life in that room. The dream ended so suddenly when a Dreamcatcher woofer coil evaporated as it tried to pound out a Bobby Bland bluesy bass burp.

Are they like Stillpoint Apertures?

No. Trevor built them before he was Dr. Wavefront. They are a simple recipe of insulation bordered by a pine frame and lovingly wrapped with burlap-like cloth.

In other news, the three-dimensional, growling, aetherial and articulate bass in my main room is something to behold. I've come to realize the Yammie and Sony subs just can't complement the sublime sound of my M2OW in the living room. I've been spying that B-stock aged walnut espresso 500. Two of those would surely remedy my ills. Alas, there is only one.

AKA out of Business.

Didn't take long to figure out normal people aren't interested and audiophiles are far too fickle (and cheap!) Lol.

The only meaningful work we did was for commercial clients. We averaged 15$ an hour once we did the accounting. Incredible rooms though. A promotion in my full time gig pretty much ended my desire for that side hustle. There is zero money in AV installs at the residential level unless you buy bulk lots for installs and mark up to retail.

The internet keeps everyone honest with pricing these days and everyone's a "pro" who sells sound bars. Not worth the headache. I just do work for friends now and pretty much ceased forum activity. Just read now.