I'm planning to order some Axioms and could really use some advice. I have two listening rooms:
1) A living room: 14' x24' and open to a 12' x 12' kitchen. The speakers would be on or next to an entertainment center on one of the long walls (with the opening to the other room and another opening to a stairwell on either side of the entertainment center). The listening area is about 12' from the entertainment center, which is 56" tall and 56" wide. The current speakers are Cambridge SoundWorks Ensemble II sub-sats, which I never loved. The applications would be 2-channel music and TV sound (no surround sound and I don't care about heavy bass movie special effects). In this room I have a Harman Kardon AVR-20 II receiver rated at 60 watts in stereo at 8 ohms.
2) A small office: 8' x 11', with the speakers to be hung on a short wall and heard from a desk chair 4'–6' from the wall. The current speakers are old Mirages (OM-1's, I believe). These have been very nice, but the surround on one of the woofers has rotted away, so I think their service is over. The application is again stereo music and TV. I spend a lot of time in here so good quality is important. Here I have a Creek CAS 4140 amp rated at 30 watts in stereo at 8 ohms.
For the living room, I am considering several options. M3ti's could be placed (upside down perhaps) on the entertainment center. They'd be somewhat high and close, but safe and out of the way. M22ti's could be placed on stands next to the entertainment center, but they'd be in danger from two raging greyhounds and an ataxic cat recovering from a stroke. Or M40ti's could go on the floor on either side of the entertainment center. I imagine this would provide good height and separation at the cost of some space and still some chance of a greyhound vs. speaker incident (they reach almost 40 mph on the racetrack and seemingly nearly that in the house).
In the little office, the Ensemble II's could replace the Mirages. The advantage would be that the very small sats could be wall-hung in the proper positions. I gather that wall-hanging isn't the best idea for good speakers, so I'm thinking this room might not merit an upgrade to M3ti's. But I'd consider that if I liked them enough and if wall-hanging wouldn't hobble them too much.
I'm not clear on how bad it would be to place M3ti's relatively high and close together on the entertainment center in the living room. If that would give good results it'd be the simplest solution. If not, I'd probably consider the M40ti's. If wall-hung M3ti's would be OK in the office, I might splurge for those, too—but I'm not clear on how much better they'd sound than the Ensemble II's. If I do retire the Ensemble II's, I wonder if the Ensemble subwoofer could be a worthwhile addition to the Axioms in one of the rooms.
Any advice or ideas would be appreciated! The Axioms sound like superb speakers. Now I just have to pick the right ones...
