Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Axiom M80's vs Revel F36 or Focal 826's?

Hi: Ok almost ready to buy new speakers(recovering from house expense). Trying to decide between these 3 brands.....right now the is a big sale on the focals ....but having owned the Axiom's V3(almost bought the V4) still might just get the M80's but with the big price jump there are other options to consider.Has anyone here listened to either the Focals or the Revel's what are your thought compared to the Axiom's?I have heard the Revel F36's compared to my M80's(which r ver.3)the revels mid & upper end was more open & detailed without harshness of any kind,however the M80's seem to go deeper?Thanks for any feedback will take my time.Again thanks for the help!!

It depends on what you're looking for in your next loudspeaker. I don't see anything deficient in your existing equipment, and maybe you might want to add extra surround speakers and Atmos speakers to complement that Yamaha. Or add a second sub if you have issues with balancing bass levels across multiple seating positions.

From other discussions on this forum, I have a hunch that the F36 and M80v4 are going to be similarly good. The F36 has an Olive score of 5.7, and the M80 appears to be at least 6.5. The Olive score has a lot of issues, but it's a decent tool for predicting which loudspeaker will win a double blind listening test. The scores are so close that you might prefer one or the other depending on the music track.

Focal has superior industrial design, but every time they've been measured, they don't follow the NRC recommendations of a flat listening window and a straight sloping directivity index. There's only two models that score above a 5.0. I would be second guessing my purchase and whether I would have preferred a more neutral speaker. YMMV.

https://pierreaubert.github.io/spinorama/

As a sidenote, on Pierre's spinorama website, each speaker measurement has a link that says "data". I'd argue that any tonality score over a 7.0 with a "perfect subwoofer" can be considered an endgame purchase. You might still need to tweak the room or go bigger to fill a bigger room, but you can be confident that it's dangerously close to being the best that can be done.

Bruce, walnut espresso M80s. Remember those?

I'd also do QS10s. Trade your M80 and QS8 in and work Axiom over for a great deal.

The listening window and sound power should be downward-tilting at about 3dB/decade. This prevents overly bright highs in a room. V4 are like that. Interestingly enough, for the Brystons, the listening window is flat.

Yes Mojo I do remember those picks...not say I will not go that route but wanting to be sure!!

At the new prices Mojo...Axiom has put their product in another league IMO so should do my research!!

Yes, of course. But remember you can upgrade by trading in your stuff, get your loyalty discount and work them over for the best possible deal.

So far it is a toss up borrowing the Revel's this weekend.....so far leaning the Revel's way(again based on my Version 3's) has anyone compared the new M80's to the version 3 one's??Is the treble & mids a large improvement over the version 3's??. The Revel's win the look's contest going away...but sound is most important to me!!!Axiom's are not ugly at all would go with black oak or ebony in a semi gloss finish.Thanks Mojo it is going to be a close call for me!!

I have not heard v3. I had M80v2. The v4 M2, M3, M50, M5, M100 and active LFRs all beat my M80v2 in soundstage and imaging. The M5 is far more emotionally involving than my M80v2. In all aspects, I found the M5 to be better than the M80v2. The M100 and ALFR are of course on a different level.

I have the M50 in vinyl ebony. I love it. I hear very good things about the real oak.

V3 should have never been introduced!

Stereo guy, here’s my 2 cents, or 5cents now with inflation….

I have m60ti which I love dearly. However, and while not a direct comparison my m3 and m2 v4 are worlds better in imaging and treble is very different than version ti ( ti is version 1 I think ? I’ve actually figured that out officially. )

The treble in v4 is does not have “ that slight edge” that the ti has. It’s what I would call smooth. The m3 v4 images great. It’s really really good. ( when setup with patience it’s excellent ) m2 is possibly even better somehow but I’m splitting hairs.

So none of those things I commented on are direct conpsrisons to m80v2 but it’s what I can offer from my experience.

I’d say utilize the axiom trial period and if you don t enjoy them send them back.

I have the black oak m2 v4 ( I bought a bstock black oak would not been my first choice if buying non bstock ) but super nice!! To my surprise I really like it. I’m a Boston cherry fan. ( my m60ti are Boston cherry vinyl and m3 are Boston cherry real wood and are very nice ). Black oak gets my vote for sure. I also like the axiom style. Some don’t. But it’s clean , we’ll done and low key in a good way. It’s like the axiom sound, neutral and honest.

Hope that helps. Cheers.