Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Tweeter materials (sorry--Very long winded)

For the past 5 months I've learned a great deal about audio equipment online. This may sound foolish but I thought if I spent countless hours researching speakers, price/ performance factors, et al., I would know what I wanted. After all that research I was settled on Axioms. It was a done deal. I was set to order them up without listening to any other speaker line for at least a counterpoint. Stupid right?

Well, before I jumped the gun I came to my senses. I went to a high end audio shop and realized my initial choice of going with the Axiom line of speakers had its pitfalls. Now let's face it, everyone has their personal preferences when it comes to home audio. That's why (it seems) audiophiles are so finnicky and divisive. Well, I guess I'm joining the audiophile fold as it were; when it comes down to it "I like what I like." Perhaps Axioms aren't it.

It wasn't until I gave a simple listen to some speakers with cds I'm familiar with that I realized I'm very biased on one issue--tweeters. After auditioning three different speaker lines consecutively I knew that I didn't like metal dome tweeters. Way too bright, overpowering, and 'tinny' (as you would expect). Of the three lines, only one had soft dome tweeters; immediately it was the standout. I loved the smooth open sound of the soft tweeter--the high frequency hits solid but still integrates well with the other frequencies. Long story short, I bought 'em. BTW, the set is comparable in price to Axioms.

Here's the only problem. This speaker set does not have proprietary dipole or bipole speakers for surrounds. First of all, I really love ambient sound in HT, so dipoles are important (as opposed to directs). After talking to the owner of the shop about this, he said timbre and voice matching can be approximated pretty well if: 1) the db sensitivity is similar between two brands of speaker , and 2) their tweeters are made of similar materials, so they don't upstage the fronts and appear seamless when sound moves around the room.

Alright here's my question (finally). I noticed that the Axiom QS surrounds have 'neodymium-titanium' tweeters. That basically means they're metal tweeters right? If so, I'm going to have to steer clear of the entire Axiom line. Either that or can someone convince me Axioms won't have a bright, tinny sounding tweeter? Should I just audition them with my new speakers for kicks? I WAS still considering the QS8 to finish off the surround setup, because the reviews are excellent, after all. Any comments on any of the above issues is always helpful. Thankyou.

BTW, here are the speakers I listened to at the shop....

Monitor Audio S2 bookshelf speakers (Blaring, bright highs, a confusing amalgam of frequency integration, terrible sound stage---these were the most expensive of the lot!!??*#!)

PSB Image and Stratus Speakers (Mids way too pronounced and highs somewhat bright...)

I bought these...
Acoustic Energy Aesprit Series (Beautiful!! Nice Frequency separation, Open, warm sound, Fantastic Highs)

Chroma, although you appear to appreciate a dulled down high frequency type speaker (perhaps you have sensitive hearing), are you sure that the mere description "metal tweeter" doesn't bring in a bias to your mind that it will automatically sound "tinny"?
I ranted about this the other day... human perception and description based on predisposition from either rumour or imagination (also known as 'bias').

In any event, you found speakers that you seem to enjoy, so that's great.

I found my M60s to be 'bright' when i first bought them and now appreciate their level of clarity in the high frequency range. I could also say the same thing about the M22s i auditioned.
However, i CANNOT say that i ever found the QS8s to have a similar level of brightness, but this is most likely because they are not the primary speaker and hence your ears do not focus on them nearly as much.

Chesseroo...actually I had NO IDEA that ANY of the speakers I was auditioning had metal dome tweeters. I just listened. I wasn't even thinking about this issue. In fact, I didn't even KNOW that this issue would come into play! I was being given a pragmatic education with my ears. There's no way I was biased.

In fact, it was the audio shop owner that had to explain to me why these speakers sounded so bright compared to the Acoustic Energies. They also mentioned that speakers that have more pronounced bass will 'mask' a brighter sounding tweeter in general. Unfortunately, I'm only in the market for bookshelves so functionally I'm thinking only a tower speaker could mask the high frequencies (such as your M60's might, I suspect) at this price range.

Essentially the only thing that I was concerned about was price/performance when I came to this shop. All I had in mind was...these speakers I listen to better impress me SO MUCH that I won't buy Axiom (because Axioms are cheap for such high quality).

I would disagree with your the phrase in your response...'you appreciate a dulled-down high frequency'...I wouldn't have even given these speakers a second thought if I thought they were dull. Trust me, I'm a musician, so I know what a dull high frequency sounds like in a mix. I would describe the treble as warm and smooth but still hitting solid on cymbal crashes and the like. If you want dull treble range just listen to Bose Acoustimass . There is nothing 'layed-back' about the high frequency here. It's just 'different' than metal domes if you catch my drift. In fact, I would say that probably most people like metal dome tweeters such as you do. If you look on the 'net more speakers have them than not!! Speaker manufacturers aren't stupid, they give the crowd what they want.

Yet and still, you seem to like the sound of your QS8's, so you'd say I should try 'em right?

I think speaker companies began using metal dome tweeters because the soft dome ones weren't able to reach the ultra high frequencie's like the harder material can. But recent improvements with soft domes show that they can go right up past 20khz without a hitch. The excellent Scan-Speak 9500's are a prime example, with ruler flat response from about 2k to 20k hz.

We can all discuss inherent properties of materials used for tweeters. But the only way for you to make sound decision (pun intended) is to audition them. Since these Qs's will not be your main speakers and you may not even use them for music (I prefer stereo for music) they may be the sound you would be looking for when it comes to HT surround applications.