Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Odd question 80's vs 60's vs 50's

I had the same idea. What we are going to do is bring a set of his 5's over here and have the 80's, 50's and 5's sitting side by side. We have agreed to demo them on my Parasound HALO. That way as we test we can never say the amplification made a change in sound etc.

I'm actually pumped about this but the wife is going to have me for lunch. I will post back when I get to doing this. I already got word from Amie that the 50's shipped so I'm thinking mid next week I will get them.

Boy! I'll really be interested to hear what you think of the three sets. Cool!

Ajax, I'm looking forward to it. I know what the 5's sound like and of course I know what the 80's sound like but to have them side by side will be fun. The Monitor's are a darn nice speaker. Not much for bass but they are one of the more detailed speakers I have heard. For some reason the Monitor's really shine when run with Parasound stuff. Not sure why but the John Curl stuff and Monitor get along really well. Anyway, when this happens I will post back.

NeverHappy,

Always fun and interesting doing speaker comparisons, but be sure and get the loudness levels exactly equal when you switch from one pair to another. The bias towards picking the ever-so-slightly louder speaker is incredibly persuasive and ever so subtle. I have to constantly check levels with the ol' Radio Shack SPL meter when I do comparisons.

And try and place the speaker pairs in exactly the same location. If you are switching with a comparator, sometimes just the slight shift in soundstage height will bias you to prefer one speaker over another.

A really ruthless test of spectral (tonal) balance is to line up a single sample of each speaker and do instant comparisons in mono with one speaker of each pair. You can zero in on tonal differences very quickly without the flattering and in some ways masking effect of stereo.

Regards,

Alan, thanks for the feedback. We are going to try them in MONO and see what shakes. We plan to take at least 4 hours to do this just to be fair to all the speakers. Each will be calibrated via a SPL and we are going to go to the point of measuring out each speaker to make sure it sits exactly the same as the one before it. I have also gone ahead and ordered a VP-100 to compare against my VP-150. This is just for fun. When I'm done the VP-100 goes to the back wall and I may go 8.1 or 9.1 from my current 7.1.

My wife is going to shoot me as I still have not told her and chances are everything will probably show-up the start of this week. Maybe I can tell her I got them for her for mothers day?..............Might work.............but I have my doubts!

At the end of all this I will still have Axiom's. The only question is what set?

Well the 50's and the 100 showed up today safe and sound. Tomorrow is test day! I have already hooked up the VP-100 beside my VP-150 for some comparisons and there isn't much to talk about. The VP-100 is a good speaker that holds up just fine versus the VP-150. Only edge I would give the VP-150 is in overall tone. Basically it's a little brighter. Not sure if that is the right word but I think most of you will get what I'm trying to say. Vocals etc sounded exactly the same to me and four other people that were sitting there with me. I even got out the old SPL and they are both outputting the same db with zero changes being needed to the channel level. I punished the VP-100 with the Eagles DTS DVD and it surprised me to say the least. Excellent bass, clear etc. In a nutshell, If I didn't already have the VP-150, I would be more then happy with the VP-100. Not the greatest review but I honestly can't think of anything else to say as they are that close.

The 50's vs the 80's comes tomorrow!

I'm not much of a picture taker but I thought I would give you an idea as to what I have going on. The Odyssey 3 channel is sitting behind the wall. The shelf I have the Stereo Stratos on (Top) will only take so much weight. The HALO is also sitting behind the wall. This picture is a few weeks old and does not show my Phillips 963SA.

http://www2.freepichosting.com/Images/421501138/0.jpg

neverhappy- well, now it looks like you finally have something to be happy about..

thats a nice set up.

bigjohn

Here is one showing the back. The M22's and QS8's are what you see. Yes I know the QS'8 are to close to the side wall (Above the tree) but it had to be that way for the wife. I tried them in a few other spots and the difference was minimal, so in the end I can live with this even though it's technically not perfect.

http://www2.freepichosting.com/Images/421501140/0.jpg

Thanks bigjohn and congrats on your new stuff! I saw the pics you posted. Very nice!