Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Axiom/Paradigm Comparison

Yesterday I auditioned the Paradigm Monitor 11, CC370 and ADP370 surrounds. I was impressed by the sound. I found the speakers very crisp and detailed. They were also easy to listen to, compared to the Klipsch, which kind of blew me away! I would like to have a speaker that produces good detail without sounding too bright. The speakers will be in a dedicated home theater, with approximate dimensions of 22'x14'x7.5'.

I would be interested to know how the M60ti, VP150 and QS8 surrounds compare to the Paradigm speakers listed above. If any Axiom owners/employees have compared these two speakers, I would appreciate your comments.

Thanks,
Gerry

Paradigm is no match to Axiom in all the categories you have mentioned. Paradigm Reference does, but is far more expensive.

Klipsch speakers are generally quite bad, in my opinion. I never liked their sound.

The M60's, QS8's, and VP150 are the best Axiom has to offer. If I was building a dream system from Axiom, those are the ones I'd buy, along with two subs (either two EP175's or two EP350's). People tend to say they like the EP175 best, but I adore the loud, deep, clean bass of my EP350.

If you're buying a sub, you could also consider SVS. They jsut came out with a cubic sub, much better looking than their water heater looking cylinders.

If you live in Montreal, or want to drive here, I can audition my Axioms for you. I have the M22's, M3's, QS8's, VP150, and EP350. Make me a good offer and I'll even sell you them!

I agree with Ravi. I was impressed with Paradigm's reference series when I listened to them. I also considered Monitor series but only the system 7 and up are the ones that impressed me. The lower models do not sound good enough for me. But when I compared them with Axiom speakers, I believe I would get better speakers at better prices. I bought the Epic 80 and I was right. On top of that, the customer service from Axiom is excellent. with Paradigm, they will refer you back to the dealer. Some dealers are good but there would be some who might not be responsive to your needs.

Klipsch speakers did not impress me at all. They are not for the kind of music and sound I am looking for.

I recently comapred a number of speakers in the $800 or so Canadian price range. I auditioned B&W 602.5, Energy C5 Paridigm Monitor 7s. I ended up purcahsing the monitor 7s for their combination of price and sound. They were probably the 2nd best sound but hundreds cheaper than the B&W. Well what about AXIOM you ask. Well I tried to audition some but my long story is below. I will add to this by saying the dealer I went to Had M40 and 60s and 80s. He said he had no 50s and thought they were the WORST sounding of AXIOM (maybe because he had none). The 40s did not impress me AT ALL. The 80s were very nice but nearly 2 x my budget. The 60s were offered to me for $999 "best price" More than 200 more than I paid for my Monitor 7s. Maybe AXIOM got a bad shake because of my experience but from what I did hear to my ear both Brand have their strenghts and weaknesses so get what your ears tell you. Here is my tale:

visited 4 different dealers. One I listened to JM Labs and Paradigm, another B&W and energy, a third Kef and PSB and finally Axiom and Wharfdale at dealer #4.

The first 2 dealers were fantastic. Both had nice HT listening rooms with the setup I wanted to hear and allowed me to listen to the same movie chapter. Then it was on to the audio listening room where I could a and b the brands and different modles in the lines. I listened to the same 3 tracks on each speaker with and without sub. Probaly spent close to 2 hours at each place. These guys had one theory tell us your needs and price range and then let your ears decide. Both gave me a reasonable discount off list to start and said to come back when I had listened to more.
The third was nearly as good actually favorably comared his brands to others "if you like x it sounds kinda like y that we sell. He did not have as good a listening setup but he did his best.
I felt BAD that I could not buy from both dealer 1 and 2 as they did an excellent job and put in the time. I'd feel good about buying from either.

Dealer 4 is the focus of my story:

He had no separate listening room just a couch in the middle of the store with speakers in front of it.

I tols him my budget and asked to listen to speaks comperable and on an AMP that was close to mine in power.

The guy starts out by telling me that his Axioms will blow away anything I have heard and they are award winning. No way anything can sound as good. Things were starting out bad.

Then he pops my CD into a cd player hooked to a reciver that costs over 2x as much as mine with about 50 % more power. Then he starts screwing around with the treble and bass. It took me 5 minutes to convince him to put it on direct so I could hear the real sound. I was pretty impressed for such a bad room grat sound real solid bass. I said amzing sound for only $700! The guy says OH no these are the $1500 80s (almost double my budget!

So he puts on something closer to my budget. Still not bad but I couldn't manage to listen to a whole song. I amde a comment like better bass than the energy but not as detailed as the B&W. He said these will sound better than B&W I'll put them up against any B&W these are award winning. This is about where I decided that even if I thought these speakers were the greatest thing ever I would not buy from this guy. NEVER tell me what I should like or shouldn't. How the heck can you go inside my head and know what my ears hear. If somehting sounds crappy to me I don't care if it is a $10,000 speaker I don't like it.

I'll never go there again. I am a bit sad because I'd like to give Axiom half a chance but not go through that junk. I guess I'll never know.

Glad your happy with your purchase, Monitor 7's are very nice speakers. I have friends who prefer the more laid back sound of the monitor 7's and PSB 6T's over my axiom M50's. My auditioning was fairly close as well, but I had the added benefit of having both the M50's and Monitor 7's in my room at the same time. So same electronics, same room acoustics. The most interesting comparison for me, was when I had a monitor 7 as one front and an M50 as the other. Put the reciever into direct by pass mode, and listened for differnces by shuttling between the two. Then fliped the speakers, and listened some more. To me I just felt the vocals and imaging superior in the 50's to the 7's (but in the end thats probally personal preference as well.

Too bad the dealer turned your sour on axiom, but I think all of us here can recount audio dealer horror stories of type or another.

In the end, all we can do is buy what to each of us sounds the best within our price ranges. I have guys at work who consider themselves audiophiles, and who swear by their Bose and Nuance speakers. To each is own.

Cheers.

Great to see such a large group of people who truly understand that the listening experience really is an individual preference and that there is no right or wrong.

Jams,
that is an unfortunate story indeed, but alas, the almighty dollar or even the self-professed audiophile title some salespeople give themselves, often pushes the sales pitch too far and greatly interferes with one's decisions to buy a product solely based on the store-customer relationship instead of focusing on the product.

I find some of the big box stores, in particular Future Shop (i think Best Buy owns them), to have an overly aggressive training program for their salesmen that constantly push way too hard.
I usually just tell them to go away, but when you do not have a choice but to deal with a salesman in a small business one-on-one, you can be left leaving the store unsatisfied that you never had a good opportunity to really see or experience what you wanted.

Just a couple of weeks ago i was in a store to listen to some Totem speakers and the salesman was asking me questions like 'what did i have at home', 'what was my budget', 'what type of cables i was using', and that last question was beyond annoying. Needless to say he did not enjoy my brief opinion of cable theory and insulted me with a statement that went something like "i feel sorry for you". I called his manager the next day and the manager was less than impressed. He offered to have me back in the store the following Tuesday so that he could help me out personally and he had made his feelings about the situation clear when he stated the salesman "should have kept his mouth shut and his opinions to hiimself".
I was really liking this manager. Now that's my kind of salesman. Give the customer what they want and help them until they find it, but only if they want the help. Pure and simple. Sell them what they are comfortable in buying and i can guarantee you will see return business.
Since i bought my Axioms, i've been thrilled and amazed at the customer attention so they got my return business and i bought my whole 5.1 setup from them. I'm even considering a pair of M2s right now for my computer desk (although ebay has some lovely vintage models out there right now that are tempting).

At least you bought speakers that you are happy with. Perhaps in the future you will have another opportunity to hear Axioms in your own, preferred way...in your own home, standing next to your Paradigms.

Future shop has nothing on Soundsaround in Calgary....man those youngs punks are pushy. They are bad enough but the in store "Nuance rep" takes pushiness to a whole new level.......if you've never experienced it, its worth going for that alone........lol.

just as bad in the states,i went to a b&m store on erie blvd in syracuse for a amp. the guy wanted 100$ over list for a discontinued model, and wouldnt budge.
i've found that there are some great online companies-so i went online and got a pair of odyssey mono blocks, i talked to klaus and it was a deal.
companies like axiom, odyssey, are the reason b&m are doomed-you can interact with the big dogs who run the show and get honest answers without a goofball standing infront of you yammering while you try to listen- best of all you dont pay extra so he can have a job.

I agree that in this era of the instantly available online information, there are good reasons why B&M shops become endangered species, unless they are willing to make very special efforts so that they can provide customers with different types of value that are unavailable elsewhere.

For one, I myself tend to purchase things online, after seeing, touching and playing around with the target products to my heart's content at local retail dealers (while pretending to listen cordially to the salesperson's opinions/recommendations) -- probably making an axis-of-evil customer for them. LOL

In reply to:

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I was really liking this manager. Now that's my kind of salesman.

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So, I would like to hear more about positive experiences at a local dealer -- perhaps a rare story in which you guys felt that building a good relationship with a salesperson indeed paid off, either money-wise or another way; experience in which you felt you received a truly value-added service, etc... Does anybody have such a story to share?

Cheers!