Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler a lifetime of audio

I just found this account's information after a long hiatus.

I started getting excited about high end audio from reading the hydrogenaudio forums, then many other boards when I was an early teenager. I signed up here when I was 14. I can't believe it's been 18 years. More time has passed from my signing up to now than from my birth to the day I started pining for hifi audio!

I saved up for my first set of M22 when I was 16, working at a low end retail job. I bought them with a harman kardon 3380 or 3480 stereo receiver and a used HSU STF-2. I got a set of thiel cs 3.6 for $1500 on audiogon years later and gave the axioms to my dad and he's loved them ever since. I now have a set of vandersteen 3a signatures, and a set of M60 for my office which I absolutely love.

I am looking at the prospect of buying a house soon. It's insane how the hobby evolves - I am at the point in my life to buy a home and a big part of me is browsing based on which one has the best living room for audio, imagining the positioning of owens corning 703 panels/bass traps, etc. I don't want more bedrooms, bigger dining room/kitchen - the rest of the house can be outside for all I care. Give me a big ol' listening room and enough space to no bother the neighbors when I crank it and I'm a happy man.

This forum, and hydrogenaudio, were the two most important ones to ensure I didn't fall for BS - magic cables, $10,000 DACs having audible differences, always use an ABX test or the results are irrelevant, etc. And for just learning the science of high end audio. I remember the regulars like 2x6, pmbuko, alan, etc and their helpful posts.

How many of you started in this hobby as teenagers aspiring for your first job that'd allow you to buy a set and grew up, all under the same account? Those M22s my dad has from 2005 will always hold a special place in my heart. I don't know how much you guys can measure return on investment on people like Alan who posted here regularly, but he definitely got at the very least the sale of the M60 & M22 out of me.

I started when I was 17 heading to 18. Hung out a lot at a high-end store where one of the owners had a doctorate in history so lots of great afternoon chatting. Used to hangout (when tgey had customers) to a little lunch counter operated by one of the brother in laws of... Céline Dion. He used to do the lighting in her shows when she was younger. Anyhow, i met and talked to her about two dozens times (we're the same age so she was only qell known locally). She did her own makeup then and it was awful. But fairly smart.

After almost a year of shopping, i got a great deal on what i really wanted, i ended with a Luxman 90, their first non-lamp amp, and a pair if DBX-1000, providing 180 stereo, a feat i only heard again in the LFR1100 that i got to experience when Axiom came to the big audio show in Montreal... some years ago.

In 2007 those speakers started to fall apart read and i decided to start looking for the next big move. Read TONS of stuff, talked with people who had high-end equipment (like Paradigm and stuff). Finally, i kept falling on reviews of an internet-only company named Axiom who had 1 or 2 years before replaced their TI line with v2s. Anyhow, looked at the specs, looked at the price. Knowing how much the prices are getting crazy with distributors and retailers, i calculated that it COULD be possible to produce great speakers at that ridiculous price (at that time, M80s were under 1000$).

So i replaced the weakling in my system (cheap center) with a VP-150. It quickly proved to be the best speaker in the system (it was really starting to be dated). For those who know the VP150, that difference was not flattering for my nearly 22 years old mains. Then i replaced the surrounds by QS8s... wow... it was getting embarrassing. I then went for M80s and eventually added a EP-500. The first thing i listened to on the M80s was Bach's first solo violin sonata and I actually shed tears of bliss. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard.

So i kind of stuck with Axiom. I now have so many Axiom speakers that it's impossible to cross my entire home without tripping on one.

My next dream is to be in a place where i can have a dedicated music room with LFR1100 active main and possibly M100 as surrounds.

That's a great story Thasp, and welcome back after so many years!
Some of us are still here, though less presence than in past years.
House first, sure.
Spouse next, possibly.
Kids after, maybe.
If so, expect no sleep, no personal time and another 18 year longing to get back to really investing in the hobby and having more time to enjoy it!

You had me at Celine Dion.

Another good story of personal history. Surprised it took so long to get to some Axiom main speakers. Starting with the centre and then surrounds seems somewhat backwards no?

Thasp, I know what you mean, I bought my first decent stereo with my paper route money (I had more disposable cash at 15 that pretty much ever since). Is was a Pioneer receiver; I forget the speakers. But I was both proud and happy; they sounded good!

My first Axioms were the M22v2s, so I know you mean there too. They got me through the kid years; so I +1 to chesseroo's point. I refuse to part ways with the M22s until they fall apart, so they're mounted on my deck now and still sound fantastic.

Cheesero, the speakers were bought within a span of 3 months so it was not really a long time before I completed the M80/VP150/QS8 set. Budget!

I got into audio not because I wanted to listen to anything but because I had a desire to understand how things worked. I bought my first receiver because it was cool, it was cheap, and I was a geek who was fascinated by anything tech, the more buttons and knobs the better.

In the early 70's I was at Lafayette Radio Electronics. It was their Headquarters (in Syosset, NY) where they had a huge room of demo'ed, returned, missing parts, and often just plain broken stuff. All marked down and if it was there in a week, marked down again. I didn't get there often but when I did I'd pursue the isles of stuff just looking for something to take home. It was there I found it ... a quadriphonic receiver in perfect working condition sans box and accessories. It was dirt cheap. Took it home and attached two woofers (and I mean just the drivers without a cabinet) and I was in heaven. At the time I knew nothing about music but the thrill of just having sound in my bedroom was fantastic. A little later I was given a non-working, 50's vintage, real to real (just the mechanism without case) which after a bit of fooling ended up working perfectly. So, I recorded stuff off the radio and made my own tapes ... then something funny happened .... I actually started listening to it for the music

Not sure exactly when I started building speakers but best guess from the music I was listening to at the time is somewhere around 1972, or ~14 years old. I think Electro Sonic was downtown at the time, and somehow I ran across a Philips DeForest speaker building guide.

My parents must have really humored me, since every so often we would make a pilgrimage down to one of the US electronics stores like Lafayette. Tent trailer and huge stress crossing the border so we didn't get arrested by the food police, eg drinking 2 quarts of milk between the 4 of us because we weren't supposed to take it across the border. In practice nobody asked or cared and we all felt sick for the rest of the trip.

I had a big financial advantage because the only audio electronics I had access to at the time were monophonic - a big shiny wood "stereo" with a turntable, AM receiver and a 12" full range speaker. That meant I only had to build one speaker rather than a pair.

First speaker was a 2-way with 5-1/2" woofer and 1" tweeter in a fairly small sealed cabinet. Still sounded better than the 12" full range, which was an eye opener for me.

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I ended up using a pair of 3-way Philips DeForest boxes and SWTPC electronics for about 25 years, until I was convinced to dump the whole kit off at Goodwill to make the living room more "open". A few years after that I found I was missing good sound, ordered a pair of M2ti's, and that was the start of the slippery slope.