Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Athena FS2

Your Athenas at $250 seem like a pretty good deal. If I remember right, the frequency response graphs showed their bass response to be pretty deep and flat. But even if they're not the be-all-end-all you can certainly use them for a good while before sending them off to garage duty, eh? OTOH, if you don't like them then it doesn't matter what price was paid.

And for the original poster: Axioms and the Athenas are quite different. The Athenas are typical warm and pleasant sounding speakers that are probably pretty easy to live with, but won't blow you away. Axioms will occasionally blow you away, but also cause you to never listen to some crappy sounding CDs.

Guys thanks for the responses. I'm still hoping to hear from someone in or around Chicago, and really want to give the Axiom's a listen -- I've heard so much about them, and so many people have recommended them. As you can probably tell, I'm not entirely happy with the Athena -- a good deal, but like the other poster said, if they're not for you, then they're not for you. So, I guess I'm still in the hunt for the right sound. I'm going to go audition PSB and Paradigm tomorrow -- which models should I be looking at, and what are the differences I should consider between these brands and the Axioms?

(note, I've never heard these myself)

Alan has compared the M22s to the Paradigm Studio 20s, and I've heard of the M60s being compared to both the Studio 60 and the Studio 100. The most common comparison is the M60s to the B&W 703s. The M60s are often considered to be very similar to the M22s, with a lot more bass, of course.

Mind you, this is all third hand. I've heard many speakers, but they've all sounded fairly different to me... M50s, M22s, Paradigm Studio 100s, Paradigm Monitor 7s and 9s, Magnepans of various flavors...

The Hales Revelation 2s, the Magnepans, and the Axioms were my favorites. Unfortunately, the Hales are all gone, now.

Whoop, there I go rambling again. Sorry 'bout that!

As to which models to listen to from PSB and Paradigm....

Some gave advice as to "The M60 will sound similar to the Paradigm Studio 60" or "The M60's are very similar to the B&W 700's" etc. That is fine as it gives you an idea of what the M60's may sound similar to.

However, I suggest you first audition according to value. If you are considering the M60's for example, than go to your local dealer and ask to audition the PSB and Paradigm floorstanders around the 1k mark. That, to me, is a more practical audition. You will come away knowing what 1k will get you from PSB or Paradigm.

I believe this is a sound method because it narrows down your search and you won't waste time auditioning speakers you can't afford or speaker types that you really don't want (i.e. auditioning bookshelfs when you really want a floorstander).

I used this approach and thought it was very effective. I started with the M60's in mind and then auditioned one or two floorstanders from every manufacturer I could find in this area who offered something within my budget. I auditioned Paradigm Monitor's, PSB Image series, Wharfedale Evo's, Kef's, Boston Acoustic's, Def Tech's, B&W, etc etc. It still takes time, but after months of doing this, I found my personal choice out of what was available locally. Then, I began to focus on head to head comparisons. For me, it came down to the Wharfedale Evo's and the Axiom's. I decided to take the 30 day trial and ordered the Axioms with the intention of AB'ing them against the EVo's (local dealer had no problem with me bringing in my Axioms). I am doing the AB comparison this upcoming Saturday morning and will of course post my impressions.

As a final sidenote, I suggest you audition the Wharfedale Evo's if any of your local shops carry them. They do everything well and you don't have to break the bank to get into some. If they are around, give them a listen.

Yes, I purposely avoided comparing the M60 and the Athena's.

I only wanted to give this person my honest thoughts regarding the Athena's without bringing the M60's into the picture.

If I had brought the M60's into the fold, I probably would have said something simple like 'The M60's are significantly better than the Athena's regarding attack, decay, detail, clarity, accuracy, soundstage, depth, and imaging'. Did I miss anything?

(oops..I need to go to bed)

Nice methodology, Mike. I'll really look forward to reading your comparison between the M60's and the Wharfedales!