Axiom Home Page Forums AxiomAir Discussion AxiomAir General Discussion Force or Freedom?

I can't figure out why everyone doesn't have one of these. WTF is wrong with people?

I used the sleep timer on the Freedom last night. I set it to shut down the unit when it expired. It worked like a charm.

Something's going on though that I need to investigate. It was playing Clapton Unplugged and it sounded as good as the Force. This time I had the Freedom plugged into AC. All other times I had it on battery. Maybe it doesn't sound as good on battery? I need to follow up on that theory today.

BTW, it was placed on a tall chest of drawers close to a corner and it didn't boom or make any other funny noises even when turned it up.

What a gorgeous morning on the deck. 7 am and it's 12 degrees. Time to wake the neighbors with some Air.

I just noticed the Freedom's industrial design is a bit different from its sibling. It has a unitized back. It looks clean. The Force has more pieces. The grill on the Force is rubberized. The Freedom is bare metal.

I stacked the Freedom on top of the Force. I've been listening from 8 feet away on-axis, at a mid-point between the two units. Both are plugged into AC.

I trained myself to hear the difference between the two. Casual listeners would never be able to tell the difference.

The differences are in the quality of the bass and highs. The bass on the Force has more texture. It's possible some may never be able to pick up on this no matter how much they were trained. The easier one to train for is the highs. No question, when listening face on, the highs on the Force are more expansive, more satisfying. I attribute this to the greater difference between tweeters but it could be something else also.

You can get more volume out of the Force but not excessively so.

If using it in place of a soundbar, go for the Force. If you don't have it at face level, it doesn't matter much which one you go with.

The Force has a 2A phone charging output, Karaoke and extra battery options.

Bottom line, they both sound very similar. Those who want to mix the Force and Freedom throughout their spaces would do very well and not miss anything.

Right now I am feeling like they are both too similar. From an acoustic perspective, there is little difference between them unless you are being very critical...like me.

I'm sitting 11 feet away from the Force on the deck. Other than the board it's sitting on, there are no other boundaries. I can hear castanettes or whatever in the tune below 7 feet to either side of the Force.

https://open.spotify.com/track/3xkoUGbf11dLvsfIdgfmIp?si=O_CO65fbQI6Yd2HqjYweMQ

Rich, this may be of interest to you.

My buddy was over with his Kickstarter Air. There is no question Axiom changed the bass for the better on the Force. It's not flabby and loose down low. Also the mid-bass has more pop.

While he can easily discern these improvements, he is not fussy enough about sound to upgrade.

I on the other hand am very pleased with these. The bass was a major reason I returned the Kickstarter Air. Now the sound is terrific.

We noticed a couple of cosmetic differences too. The top shelf trim no longer has a relief; it's completely smooth. His grill is a darker black. We both liked the darker look.

BTW, his top is the standard glossy black. We both think it looks pretty swanky.

I've really been enjoying web radio on these things. Jazzgroove.org is an excellent choice for smooth jazz.

I wonder how many out there may not be aware of the web radio feature. Already two folks I know had no clue it had web radio.

And it's not just with our products, so many people have no idea the world of webradio exists. Best of all IT'S FREE! No service contracts, nothing. Music from any genre, all over the world in pretty much any language. The quality can be hit and miss, but some of the channels are extremely good. Our Transformer at home gets used exclusively for webradio and Tidal...probably 80% of that is webradio!

I agree with the hit or miss on the quality. That jazz station is good. Many tracks on there are off of vinyl but I like the less than pristine fidelity of vinyl. I just don't like dealing with vinyl. I find that many of the old, vinyl recordings sound excellent from a sound-stage/imaging perspective.

Apparently that station can also be had in 5.1 with I believe a donation. Curiously, the announcer said you don't need a 5.1 system. I have no idea how that works.

If I had a transformer in the living room and in the basement, I'd very much consider canceling my Spotify account and do just web radio. I don't really listen to artists. Rather, I listen to genres, forms and styles.

Before canceling, I'd want to make sure that the web radio functions on the Air "work". By that I mean being able to save to favorites and having them permanently saved. I had trouble with that on the Kickstarter Air.

In general Internet radio is great! But of late, we have been experiencing drop out problems on our inexpensive Denon receiver.

With so many people staying at home the internet maybe bogging down enough to lose sync ... The Denon's buffer maybe too small or perhaps throttling is in play.

I'll be swapping the Denon soon for a transformer ... be interesting if it does better.