Let me just start by saying thanks to everyone who posted their thoughts, experiences and reviews of their Axioms as well as other speakers on the boards. Those along with professional reviews allowed me to take a leap of faith that I have not regretted.
I hooked these babies up in my bedroom just to get an idea of what they sounded like (even though they were only sitting about 3ft apart). At first I was thinking they were thin, but the alleged brightness didn’t come into my mind. I allowed them to play for about a week throwing various albums at them and the entire time I didn’t really give them much of a listen. Well today I had some spare time to match them up against my dad’s PSB Image 2b’s for a comparison and my first comprehensive experience with the Axioms.
I placed the Axioms and PSB’s side by side about 9ft apart (tweeter to tweeter) and the listening position was about 10ft back. I turned off my STF-2 and set the mains to large in an A/B configuration as well as putting the tone defeat button on. For the source I used the DAC’s in my dad’s Denon 1604. When I switched between the Axioms and PSB’s I had to turn the volume up on the Axioms two clicks (which is 1db I believe) to get equivalent volume, The PSB’s are on 24 inch stands and the M22’s were placed on the boxes they came in which placed them about 1 inch below the height of the 2b’s.
Now to the listening. I played Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, Joss Stone, Norah Jones, Diana Krall, Michael Jackson, Donavan Frankenreiter, Mason Jennings, Pepper, Michael Buble, Maroon 5, and Modest Mouse. We started off with Jack Johnson’s On and On. Let me just say that comparing speakers is not as easy as professional reviewers make it out to be. It takes a very critical ear which I think I have been developing over the past few months. After some warming up to several tracks to get in music mode the critical listening began. On the rodeo clowns intro with the bongo drums in the left, the cowbell in the middle right, and the guitar on the far right both speakers had no problems placing the images with pinpoint accuracy, but the Axioms reproduced these sounds with a tad bit more kick and pizazz. The guitar plucking sounded gritty like it was supposed to(at least the way I remember from my guitar playing days) and the hands pounding the drums seemed to have a more realistic palpableness to them. My dad was in denial to my Axioms sounding a bit better than his PSB’s but he sat backwards and had me play several tracks back and forth, over and over and not tell him which speaker I was playing. He also noticed the increased clarity that the Axioms had over the PSB’s.
The bass was equally tight on both speakers although the PSB’s won by a bigger margin in the bass department than the Axioms did in clarity. On Michael Jackson’s billie jean, the intro beat was more heart-pounding and musical than the Axioms. This wasn’t a big nuisance to me because I knew the M22’s weren’t a lower octave speaker to begin with and my STF-2 will take care of the low frequencies for me.
Overall, through the discs that we played the M22’s have a more realistic sound to them, a more “this is the way the album is supposed to sound” feel to them. Now, the M22’s aren’t without their downside. While the 2B’s are an accurate speaker as well, they are more forgiving to poorly recorded material. I popped in some Offspring (Smash) just to see how bad it would sound and it sounded like crap on both speakers but with the M22’s it was almost unbearable. So I’m not sure if its a downside but it is definitely something to consider when purchasing speakers. My mix of CD’s is about even between well recorded tracks and mainstream pop recorded albums, but my tastes are shifting towards the more better recorded albums.
In conclusion, I am more than happy with the M22’s and their $400 price tag. These are definitely one of the more smartest investments I’ve made. Now to those of you who are considering entering the budget high end, I would definitely give the 2B’s a listen as they are wonderful speakers and only got outperformed marginally by the M22’s (in my opinion). My dad does not regret his decision because most of his collection of albums is 70’s and 80’s rock and the 2b’s were more to his liking. If I had purchased the 2B’s and had not heard Axioms as my new reference I would be more than happy, but my new babies aren’t going anywhere.
I forgot one thing, I didn’t feel any harshness or brightness with the M22’s. I like the description I heard a while back and it was something to the effect when good material is sent their way, they sparkle. I had Joe send the resistors along but I haven’t had one itch to install them. I’m not saying that the M22’s can’t be heard as harsh to some but I think I transitioned myself from the Bose 301’s to the PSB’s (which destroy the Bose’s in every imaginable facet) to the axioms. So I think I had an idea of what a good speaker should already sound like. I realize that this was just a short to the point comparison so if any of you have any questions about other opinions I had during the comparison please send them my way.
