Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Brief comparison: Axiom Audio M5HP vs. Kanto Yumi

(This is my second try, I seem to have a knack for discovering ways of breaking the underlying forum software, this time with Vietnamese fonts)

I took delivery of the M5HP in May, but I only just got around to comparing it my previous main stereo, the Kanto Yumi. These speakers themselves were the equal of a pair of Nuance 330’s that defeated the M22ti outright, and is in a thread I posted years ago.

I also purchased an inexpensive Onkyo AVR (TX-SR393), though I might have picked another brand if I had known they were teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. It’s blissful to only have to connect components with HDMI. I’m still learning how to tweak it, it seems to make questionable auto room correction adjustments.

The Yumi was Kanto’s flagship until around 2016, when it replaced by the YU6 and later the TUK. The Yumi’s are 6 Ohm powered speakers with 30W/ch (which means they’re really 20W/ch into 8 Ohm), Class A/B, 1” silk and 5” kevlar drivers, and have 2 x TOSLINK, 3.5mm phono, RCA, and Bluetooth 4.0 inputs. It comes with an IR remote control with basic bass and treble controls, source selection, volume, and muting. I usually listened to them with a -1 cut of treble and the Mirage PS12/90 subwoofer at 80 Hz.

Testing parameters
- I was able to A/B using the same source material, matching volume by ear, and using their respective mute buttons to switch back and forth
- I disabled the subwoofer, internal crossovers, and switched the Onkyo to 2.0 mode
- The same source devices (Apple TV) were feeding the AVR through HDMI, and the Yumi was fed by TOSLINK
- Direct mode bypasses any EQ circuitry in the AVR
- Music tracks (128-256 kbps lossy): Alien (Lee Suhyun), Heartbeat Memories (Amanda Lee), Bua Yeu (Bích Phuong), Tell You This Love (Hook), Didn’t Know (Diachi Miura)

Test 1: Yumi (flat mode) vs M5 + Onkyo (direct mode)
- Neither loudspeakers suck. Both are great in the midrange and tonally similar
- Yumi has very hot treble, and needs a cut of -3 (out of a range of -3 to +3) to be at a similar level as the M5 (a -2.5 would be an ideal match)
- M5 goes at least half an octave deeper in bass
- The Yumi’s are unlistenable compared to the M5 once it exposes the elevated treble. M5HP wins this round.

Test 2: Yumi (-3 treble/+1 bass) vs M5 + Onkyo (direct mode)
- very close tonally, it was hard to distinguish which speaker was which, they sounded virtually identical. Tie.

Test 3: Yumi (-3 treble/+1 bass) vs M5 + Onkyo (stereo + Music Optimizer mode)
- Stereo mode on the Onkyo enables any EQ modes
- “Music Optimizer” is the mode I prefer to listen to. Onkyo implies that Music Optimizer is some sort of bit rate restorer, but to my ears, it’s a loudness switch that applies a loudness contour to everything. It’s a very pleasing effect, and adds some fullness to both male or female vocals.
- The M5 in this mode usually won, but it’s overbearingly adenoidal in bass-heavy songs, in which case it sounds better with it off.

Conclusion: No one’s surprised that a giant bookshelf speaker designed to win double blind listening tests won. Having lived with the Yumi’s for 6 years, I was surprised at just how bright the Yumi’s were, as if they were tuned by Klipsch. Kanto seems like they know what they’re doing, they just choose not to do it. But with a few tone adjustments, the Yumi pretty much sounds identical to the M5HP at normal listening volumes. Overall, I’m pleased that the M5HP has joined the household. Now about that Onkyo…

Interesting post. The Yumi is a twin driver vs triple for the M5. The similarity in the midrange is therefore unexpected.

I am curious if you compared the soundstage and imaging.

I mainly focused on tonality and any frequency response colorations. Both are neutral in the bass and midrange regions. My setup requires close placement with the floor, but as long as they are on stands tilted up 15º and appropriately separated, the Yumi's have excellent soundstage and imaging. The tweeter waveguide helps, and there's no sign of midrange beaming to affect dispersion.

The TUK apparently isn't a neutral loudspeaker either. I'm thinking that Kanto, Klipsch, Paradigm, and PSB are all goosing the treble to dazzle showroom tire kickers, even though it's fatiguing for long term listening.

I'm struggling with the Onkyo and wondering why it doesn't sound as good as my past Denon integrated amp or even my old Sherwood receiver. It's seemingly random, but distortion seems to come early at low volumes with anything connected to HDMI. I've since discovered that Bluetooth always sounds gloriously uncompressed and clean. Weird. I'm still fine tuning the settings, but I suspect that the Onkyo's onboard DAC or preamp is receiving too high of an audio signal through HDMI, causing distortion. I might do a post when I get to the bottom of it.

I wonder if you got a bad Onk.

This is really driver dependent along with room qualities of course (reflective surfaces). I had found our Axioms to be bright when i first got them compared to other speakers i had. Since then, i've owned (and still do) some Angstrom Legatos and they have a clarity that is yet to be surpassed (very quality Vifa tweeter). They can be fatiguing but the detail from that speaker never ceases to amaze me.

The older Axioms were bright. And the tweeters broke up during dynamics. That all changed with v4. Very linear now.

I'll take back my comment on lack of mid-range beaming. I spent another 30 minutes listening on and off axis, and the Yumi's do beam, with a notable and negative change in tonality off-axis. I don't know enough about crossover design to speculate, but I can see why speaker companies might want to do a 3 way design if space allows.

I made some changes to my original gallery posting, moving the AVR to the bottom shelf for better ventilation and the center speaker sideways and at the same horizontal level as the main speakers. I didn't do so before because I needed to do some drilling to accommodate the new shelving position.

Beaming is largely a function of driver diameter. Hence the improvement with a dedicated mid-woofer.