Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater axiom vs polk vs athena vs other?

Hi gang, I'm currently a proud owner of the old Axiom line-up (Axiom 1.5 bookshelf). Got four of them I and just sold 2.

I have a yamaha rx-650 7.1 receiver. At the moment, I dont expect to use the full 7.1 setup. I think I will stick with 5.1 and buy another pair next year.

right now I have the axiom (the cheap one) center, + 4x AX1.5 + 1 PSB 12" subwoofer (which is excellent)

The most logical choice (I believe) would be to replace my front speakers. I've narrowed my choice to a pair of Athenay full tower speakers and a pair of polk audio RTi6 speakers. The Athena speakers had a lot of more base compared to the RTi6 but when I turned on a subwoofer at the store, the RTi6 really shined. The Athena sounds was vague and not really exciting. The Athena only shined when the sub was off (but I already have a sub at home). Both were priced 499$ (CDN).

Knowing that I wanted to invest between 500-650, I noticed that the M22ti could also be a good candidate and had positive reviews.

Did someone had the chance to compare the two speakers?

I love the extra punch of full tower speakers but since I have a good subwoofer I don't have any problems going with the bookshelf set. I'm open at any suggestions, it's just that the electronic shops nearby doesnt have a vast choice of speakers to listen too.

I was forgetting that I also listened to Paradigm monitor 7 series, it seemed excellent but the tech guy at the store only had an Enya audio cd, I dont really know if the speaker can reproduce drum correctly! :-)

Here is a picture of my current setup..
http://www.spidaware.com/condo/salon4.jpg
you can see that I already have a nice spot for bookshelf speakers, but I could also place towers beside my 42" TV.

My system is used 50% for HT and 50% for music.
please guide me to the light and say the truth!

PS: english is my second language, please don't be frustrated for any errors I may write.

I own Polk RTi8s and Axiom M22s. I have not listened to the RTi6's. The RTi8 is a better speaker than the M22. It is also a tower speaker and a little more than twice the price if you pay retail ($840). However, at the Polk website some of the reviewers of the speakers talk about getting them for under $400 a pair on clearance. The bottom line is that Polk and Axiom both make great speakers and give you about as much as you can get for your money today. If I were you and I could find some RTi8s on clearance somewhere I would do it - unless space is an issue and you really want bookshelf speakers. RTi6s and M22s are both great options.
P.S. What is your first language? You do fine in English.

I've also heard the RTi8 yesterday, they were amazing but they are 999$cdn. For that price I think I would have choosed the Paradigm monitor 7 series. It's really hard for me to get a good opinion. The paradigm was at another store. I have 2 electronics store, one with Bose/polk/athena/Jbl and the other store with Mirage/Quest/Paradigm/Yamaha/Mission.

PS: french!

I keep hearing about these Athena speakers and for the most part it's all good. I have never really spent any time with them. Can some one give me a quick thought on them? Do they sound like another brand? Are they mid heavy?

Haven't heard them but I've been meaning to check out their outdoor speakers.

Not sure if any of this is news to you but BestBuy is carrying them. Athena is another Canadian speaker company; they're owned by Audio Products Intl, which also owns Energy.

I had a listen to the Polk Lsi 25's($2500 US) the other day.I personally didn't care that much for them.The sound they had were as if there was a veil over them.The highs seemed to be to soft for my likeing.The mid range to me also seemed to be soft.The bass was pretty go though as it should be with built in subs.The Polks made it seem as if you were way to far back from the music,with the M80's it seems to me like you are sitting more up front.The mids on the 80's are definitly more pronounced and the bass seems almost as good without the use of built in subs.The highs are,well,alot more pronouned compared to the Polks,which I like.Over all I prefer the Axiom sound.I will say this both speakers Axiom and Polk put out one heck of a soundstage.This is just my OPINION.

I also had a listen to some Martin Logans and all I can say is O'man those babies sound sweeeeeeeeeet.They were also$4900.00 US,but damn they sure are nice.

I think I will buy the m22ti, but what I really wanted to know is : are they the best value for the price or there are other speakers with better sound in that price range 500-650$ cdn.

:-)

I have never heard the 22's but based on what I have compared to my 80's Axiom gives you a far better speaker at a certain price point than most.

I just ordered the M22ti

You will LOVE the 22s. Promise!!

Congrats on your M22's you will indeed love them.

I loved my Axiom Ax1.5 and I will probably love the m22ti. I will still use a pair of ax1.5 as rear speakers. As soon as the budget allow, I will order a pair of QS4 for the rear surround and use the Ax1.5 behind my couch (to complete my 7.1 setup). It will probably blend nicely all together.

"I keep hearing about these Athena speakers and for the most part it's all good. I have never really spent any time with them. Can some one give me a quick thought on them? Do they sound like another brand? Are they mid heavy?"

I don't know exactly how to describe them, but when I was shopping for my home theatre system I listened to them at Best Buy and was unimpressed - so much so that I forgot that I had heard them there until someone mentioned it on this thread and jogged my memory. Best Buy carries the bottom-of-the-line Klipsch stuff and it sounded much better in my (and my wife's - a music major with a great ear) opinion.

Luc, as for your question about getting the most speaker you can for your price range, it would be hard to beat the M22s. That's why I bought mine - after owning the Polks and learning a lot more about what is available outside of the 4 main audio stores near my house, I decided they were the best option for the money. For $550 US I got a secondary system with M22s and a Velodyne CHT 8 subwoofer.

I cant wait to receive mine. I didnt order them from the FO since there is a potential 6 weeks delay. I'm trying to imagine how my system will sound with my new speakers. I listened to Pearl Harbour yesterday and even with my four AX1.5 the movie rocked (also thanks to my 12" PSB sub).

I just hope that my new m22ti wont be too high.
I already have shelves in place.

http://www.spidaware.com/condo/salon4.jpg

Nice pic. Just like it will say in the package when you get the speakers, place them at the front edge of the stands (maybe hanging over by 1 inch/2.5 centimeters) so they will project well and you have room for the rear port. Whether or not it would be worthwhile to move the shelves lower to get the speakers at ear level is entirely up to you, but it would likely improve things a little.

P.S. There seems to be something wrong with your TV. The letters are scrambled or something. I can't read any of it, although the resolution seems OK. :-)

Anything you demo at BB must be taken with a grain of salt. The setups there are so terrible it is not even funny. The Athena's were configured so that you needed a subwoofer to get any bass out of them which I thought was ironic because I've read that AThena's have excellent bass. My local hi-end audio shop (which carries NAD, PSB, Thiel, Naim, Rega, Harman Technology, etc) used to carry the Athena line until BB started carrying them and the owner told me that he took pride in having an inventory that you can't get at the "big 4" in his area (BB,CC, Tweeter, and Ultimate) but always liked the Athena's for the audio enthusiast on the tightest of budgets. I would venture to guess that Athena's are good speakers that are worth every penny, but don't produce that nth detail of clarity that you will get with M22's.

What the..

The Klipsch SF-1 is the worst of the higher end(not boombox/satelite) speakers I've ever heard. Tinny, no bass, and colored more than a Picasso painting. The Athena AS-F2 and Klipsch SF-3 sounded very similar, except the Athenas were half the price, without the horrible exaggeration of the highs. Compared to the rest in that store, the Athenas are nice. Compared to real speakers, well, there's some competetion..

Although it is very hard to tell what anything sounds like with the horrible setup there.

Player 8 and Thasp, I can't dispute any of your comments. The Athenas may have been set up to fail in every way. I have been biased in favor of Klipsh for many years after living with a roommate that had a pair - at a time in my life when I had never heard a good set of speakers. Add that to the poor conditions/hookups at Best Buy and they likely didn't stand a chance. All I can add is that my wife doesn't care for the Klipsch sound in general but she thought it was the best option at Best Buy - so much so that we almost went for a Yamaha Receiver/Klipsch combo that they had for a pretty good price...fortunately we decided to be patient and look around a little more.

>P.S. There seems to be something wrong with your TV. The >letters are scrambled or something. I can't read any of >it, although the resolution seems OK. :-)

I warned you guys, english is not my native language! :-)

On the switch thing, they had Athenas and Sonys.

I think I was mistaken. Sony's speaks were owned by the horrible Klipsch SF-1 anyday. Those things, next to the Athenas, sounded so horrible words cannot describe it.

I would go in front of the speaker I was using so it would be more of an equal comparison.

If I had to choose a mass market speaker, it'd be the Infinity Alpha 50. Compared to the rest in CC and BB, it compares very well. 'Real' companies should put their stuff in those stores IMO, so that the general public could audition them.

Thasp, I agree that it would be nice to have a better selection of good stuff at the local stores. It was tough to decide between crap (that sounded relatively good when there was nothing better around) at one store, Klipsch vs. Athena vs. Bose vs. JBL at a 2nd store, Def Tech vs. better Klipsch and others at a 3rd store, Polk vs Infinity vs. Bose at a 4th store, and limitless options via the internet.

As for your comment about the Infinity Alpha 50, we listened to several Infinity models that cost more than the Polk RTi8s but none of them sounded nearly as good. I'm not sure which exact Infinity models they were though.

The RTi8 sound was good in the store compared to the athena asf1 but there was something wrong with it. I cannot
explain it because my knowledge is the audio field is limited. I just hope my m22ti will a bit better.