Well I have now had my M3's for more than a month now and have put them through their paces with nearly ever single recording I've got. Music from head-banging heavy metal, to jazz, to full blown orchestra and chorus and movies from Star Wars, to Saving Private Ryan, to Jay and Silent Bob has been played through them at volumes ranging from whisper quiet to flat out scary. What else better to do but to write a review about them?
Here's what I'm running them with:
Jensen CCS center
Sony MB105's for the rears
Velodyne CHT-10 sub
Technics SA-DX1040 receiver
Samsung DVD-611 for both DVD and CD playback
Philips VCR
Homemade analog interconnects and 14 ga 4-cond speaker wire with Monster banana plugs
My room is about 10'x12' and I like a loud, solid wall of sound. I listen to music in stereo and movies in full surround. I hate DSP's and Pro Logic on music with my receiver sucks.
My old Wharfedale S500's have been good, reliable speakers. They have their problems but they aren't major. They can produce a solid soundstage that is warm and crisp, but don't push them or they complain. I auditioned B&W's, Bostons, Monitors, Infinitys, and M&K's. I chose Axiom after much research, and reading many, many positive reviews and user comments. I never got a chance to listen to them before purchase so I put a lot of faith in those reviews. I was going for accuracy and clarity with crisp clean highs, punchy lows, with a good wide-open midrange. I must say, the B&W's certainly didn't fit this description.
The day I received them I had to set them on the counter, take a step back and admire them, with the grill off of course. The size is much smaller than my Wharfedales, about 10" shorter, and much cleaner looking. Axiom drivers are some of the prettiest I've seem. I usually don't give a crap about looks but they certainly looked good. I kinda wish I had gotten them in the Boston Cherry instead of Black Oak but no biggy. I just had to get these home and plug them in. First of all, the M3's didn't make an enormous difference in overall sound, nor did I really expect one, but they do sound far better in the areas that needed it. My Velodyne sub had a far greater effect on sound than anything since purchasing my receiver. They are more sensitive than my old speakers so I did have to adjust their balance with the rest of the system. The first things I did notice are those tweeters. The M3's produce very crisp highs giving jazz cymbals that nice "tssssst" sound and making sci-fi phaser blasts scream at you. They can be brighter than the Wharfedales but this can be attributed to the difference in tweeter material (plastic vs. titanium). On the low end, I wasn't expecting to rattle the foundation due to the fact that they're bookshelves (any idiot that expects that needs needs what is called a glassostomy, ask me sometime), but I was expecting a good punchy bass that rolls off smoothly and isn't strained at high volumes. That was what I got. Since the Wharfedales are larger they go lower even though they have nearly the same driver sizes but when pushed low and hard the extremely flimsy dust caps on the woofers distorted producing a slapping sound that was horribly distracting. I could not listen to metal or anything bassy on them loud and full range.
I first tested them on recordings that gave the S500's trouble. The Wharfedales did not like songs like Metallica's Enter Sandman even when set at small on my receiver. With the hard kicked bass drum and the thick guitars they shot out massive distortion, not from the guitars, and sounded terminally ill. My first thought was amplifier clipping but through the M3's I could hear nothing near what the Wharfedales spit out, even at louder volumes and even full range. Boy did I have a smile. :-D When playing classical tunes like Carnival of Animals on Fantasia 2000, 1812 Overture, and Mozart's Symphony #40 the M3's really sing. Each instrument is clearly audible and distinguishable form the rest of the orchestra. Duel of the Fates from Star Wars Episode I and Bach's No 1. Chorus (don't ask me to type out the actual title) can be trouble. Their powerful chorus lines will push my Wharfedales and sound strained even in the M3's. I think that most speakers will have trouble with hard chorus lines at higher but usually manageable volumes so this to me is not surprising.
Stereo imaging is better than the Wharfedales but nothing worth writing home about. A note however, my room is quite messy, but organized, and the acoustics and placement are probably less than ideal. If I had the room to space them about 1-2 feet farther apart imaging would probably improve and a larger room giving me more placement options would improve soundstage. I toe in the right speaker a bit as the speakers aren't centered in the room, there's more space to the right than to the left. This helps a lot. Also, imaging and soundstage is highly dependent on the recording. Some are very poor and everything sounds like it's coming from everywhere, while others are clearly defined, sounding like you can almost reach out and touch the guitar or violin.
I have noticed very little difference other than some highs when watching movies. Since I haven't gotten a new center yet I also didn't expect a large difference. I plan to get the VP100 soon to get a better match with the fronts. The Battle of Britain scene in Pearl Harbor is one of my favorites and the sounds of those Merlin V12's on the M3's is better than any music track. Lightsabers fights on Star Wars don't sound as solid as they were with the Wharfedales but marginally so.
Compared to the other brands I tested they faired very, very well. The B&W 303's and 603's left much to be desired; upper midrange sucked bigtime. The Boston CR series sounded very good, slightly better than the S500's, but have a cheap look and build quality compared to the Axioms. The Monitors I listened to (forget which model) sounded very nice with similar bass extension and great highs but are about $100 more.
I have had problems with them though. A week after receiving them a buzz started in the woofers of bother units. The buzz occurred around 150-200 Hz and was very annoying. After much troubleshooting I narrowed it down to the magnet which had come loose from its mounting. A quick call to Joe at Axiom and I had two new drivers a week or so later with no problems since. Also while troubleshooting this problem I noticed that the box was stuffed with a handful of polyester fill, like my pillow's stuffing , very cheap. I would like to replace this with some nice thick acoustic foam. Sounds dumb but this kind of thing bugs me. Any other fault with the M3's are not enough to change the mind of any rational and objective reviewer. I wish I had room for a pair of M60's but the M3's are a fantastic compromise. Customer service is better than any other I've dealt with. Axioms in my opinion are a great deal and I plan to get a VP100 and a pair of QS4's, I can't wait.
May accurate clean sound be with you
Daniel
