Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Which on wall speakers should I get for my space?

What are the dimensions of your M2/EP500 room rrlev?

As I've always said, the early bass drop-off of the M2 can be a great advantage compared to the extended bass range of the M3 and M5. The M3 and M5 may go boom in smaller rooms. Now of course if you plan on using room correction, bass boom will likely not be a problem.


Do you see the light green horizontal line that Axiom included in the graph below? That line is at ~ 6.3 Ohms. Axiom chose to call the M5 an 8 Ohm nominal speaker but it is really 6.3 Ohms nominal. Why did Axiom place the line at 6.3 Ohms? Because the IEC method of specifying nominal loudspeaker impedance calls for the minimum impedance to not fall below 80% of nominal. 80% of the nominal 6.3 Ohms is the approximately 5 Ohms which occurs in the valley between 150 Hz and 300 Hz.

https://www.axiomaudio.com/pub/media/catalog/product/m/5/m5hp-impedance.png

I didn't even come close to seeing that line at 6.3! And all the rest was very interesting - thanks.
I guess if someone were to use a smaller amp the M5 would not be ideal, but I still think any "standard" amps from the major manufacturers would not flinch.

And I even looked first too. Well, my wife does say I can't find my nose.

But wow. I would never have even considered M2s for that size room.
That's roughly 2500 sq; I have M80s in a 2000 primary (LR), 3500 total area (+DR+kitchen); albeit just stereo, no sub. Maybe I've been over-compensating.

So when would you use M5s, what's the cut-over? (Room size, use, something else?)

I would have used M5's but my wife wanted something small. I could have, and probably should have, gone with M5ow's as we really only use the system for TV/Movies. At the time I was thinking that I wanted something I could place (toe-in) for 2 channel. Ian recommended the M5's but also felt the the M2 would be fine in the room ... he was right. The M2/VP150 are plenty loud as the EP500 does the heavy lifting below 80hz or so ... The system blends perfectly.

My biggest problem with the M2's is that my family keeps moving the left speaker as my wife tells me it's in the way when she works out and the kids tell me it's in the way for ping-pong ... So, we might move to M5ow's in the future.

the M5's can play louder than the M2 but I think the real reason to go with the M5 would be to crossover to the sub at a lower frequency. I haven't noticed a problem but there probably is some low-end directional info being lost with the M2's

With bass management in play, do you think a pair of m5hp with twin ep500 (2.2) could be integrated better than a single pair of towers? ( all other things being equal otherwise?) Say compared to a set of m60/m80/m100v4? Seperate out the bass?

Im just making stuff up here, but there must be some logic there? Maybe?

The M2 plays cleanly to ~100dBC @1m without a sub. The M5 does the same to ~103dBC.

With a sub crossed at 80Hz, the M2 can be pushed to 103dBC cleanly. The M5 can be pushed to 107dBC.

I've used both, in bookshelf form on stands, in my 4400 cu ft room as fronts at a 14 foot MLP. Both acoustically disappear very well with the advantage going to the M2 in that department.

I much preferred the M2 or M5/800 combo over M100/800 in my main room. The M100 had the larger images but I could not render them acoustically invisible. Acoustic invisibility is paramount to me.