Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Bookshelves vs floorstanding

Hi Bill;

I had just posted on another thread here on the forum about something exactly like your comment: "Axiom owners absolutely loved their speakers" Yes, it's true!

Last year we had three major hurricanes come thru-all three times we evacuated I took my M3s with us!!!

This year I will have to take my much larger M50s as well as the M3s!!(We moved into a bigger house and the M3s are too small here-they got moved to the back as surround speakers, replaced with near sound-alike M50s up front)

"Speakers-for-Life" just can't be left in harm way!

Welcome Bill,

If you do decide to become an Axiomite, you will be a happy camper. I had never heard of Axiom's until about a year ago when hanging out on AVSforum.com and audioreview.com I spent about 3 months auditioning speakers (Paradigm, B&W, NHT, Klipsch) and receivers (Pioneer Elite, Denon, Yamaha). I was a little worried at first purchasing from the internet, but I soon found it was one of the best purchases I ever could have made. These speakers truely need to cost a lot more then they do, their that good.

Good luck on your decision making!

Randy

m60's vp150 ep350 4-Qs8's
denon 2805
sanyo z2 projector
toshiba dvd
samsung hd receiver

Actually John, I haven't. Next time I experience that feeling, I give it a try. Thanks for the suggestion.

I'll throw my hat into the ring. I have the M50s and a sub. When I got the 50s (I was upgrading from Cambridge Soundworks Ensemble 1s), I played music for awhile without the sub. Sounded great. Then, after about a week, I threw the sub back in. Sounded even better...

I started with M2s and a sub, but didn't have an A/V receiver so had to run with just the crossovers in the sub (PSB 6i at the time). I was never totally happy with the sound in the crossover region between M2s and sub despite (a) a lot of tweaking and experimenting and (b) the fact that the M2s are about as simple to integrate with a sub as anything on the market because their bass roll-off is so clean and "straight".

The other problem was that the M2s were limited in how loudly they could play. No problem with Jazz & Classical music but they couldn't really handle the dynamics of loud rock. No real distortion, they just sounded "small". Note that this was at quite loud volumes (95dB+) in a medium-large room (13x23). At normal volumes OR in a smaller room the M2s were fantastic.

I bought a pair of M60s as my primary music speakers and that solved all the problems. Playing at high volume was very clear and smooth, and the bass response in the crossover region was perfect.

Just to make things complicated, I *then* picked up an A/V receiver (HK 630) which took over the crossover duties between main and sub, which pretty much eliminated the problems with low frequency response. Now when I A/B M60 vs. M2 with sub the main difference I hear is better dynamics at higher volumes but otherwise M2+sub is really good.

Based on this I would guess that M22 + sub would be a match for M60s, but for a pure music system I would still go with M60s. If you are going to use the same system for HT it's a different story -- you have to buy a sub, it's worth spending $$ on a "big enough, good enough" sub, and after the sub money is spent you aren't going to hear as much difference between bookshelves and floor-standers.

My current HT system (M2, QS8, VP100 and an SVS PC+ sub) sounds mighty fine with music -- I can't say M2+sub is better than the M60s for music but it is getting hard to tell which is best. Again, though, if buying a pure music system and I had the room I would still go with floor-standers myself.

... plus, of course, the fact that short-barrelled handguns are prohibited in Canada and the bookshelf speakers are too small to hold legally-sized handguns... as you can see from my avatar, even the M60 is barely large enough

By the way, Bill;

I noticed on a couple of ocassions you commented on how inexpensive the M60s are, as well as stating you still have some time before purchasing.

May I introduce you to the M50s?

For $200 less you could have a great pair of floor standers that are very nearly the equal to the M60s in many respects, and arguably better in some others; all depends on your listening preferences.(What is "better" for my ears does not necessarily equate to "better sound") The only complaint I've ever heard about the M50 in comparison to the M60 is that the M50 dosen't sound like the M60!

Rumor also has it that if you don't like the M50s, you can send them back with no shipping charges as they are considered an upgrade if you decide to go with the M60s or the M80s.

You could have some fun using the extra time you have available in reviewing the large number of comparisons made in this forum between the M2 M22 M60 and M80 VS. the M3 M40 and M50 versions of the "Axiom Sound"

My M50s are my Speakers for Life, so yes, you could say I'm very fond of them. But of course they're not for everybody!

Happy hunting!!
Rich.

Good point... and if you look up some of Rich's threads he gives some good info on his experience starting with M3s and moving up to M50s when he switched to a larger room.

I can't believe nobody has asked how big your room is yet... that is usually a significant factor. Bigger room => sitting further from the speakers => more sound energy required => more air moved => more drivers or bigger drivers => floorstanding speakers...

EDIT -- my mistake, the room size question has already been asked.

First of all, I've got to say you guys are great! Thanks for all the thoughts and advice!

bridgman, after what you've said I think I will go with floor standers (for my living room, at least). I don't have a surround receiver there, and I really hadn't considered the crossover issue with bookshelves & a sub.

It's also not a room that I plan on adding multi-channel to, we have a separate TV room that I will eventually turn into a home theater. That's a long term project though, but for now 2 channel (or 2.1) music is my priority.

Cheers,

Bill

Rich,

thanks for the reply - and I have to admit that is a good idea. The room in question is pretty big, and it's complicated by the fact that we have quite a open floor plan.

The living room (where the speakers will go) is partially open to the dining room, which in turn is partially open to the kitchen. This is the main reason I was considering the M60s.

But the 50s may actually do just fine - I say that because my humble Paradigm Phantoms do a surprisingly good job of filing the living room with music, and they are fairly small floor standers.

I do also have some bookshelves mounted in the kitchen so that I can have the whole space filled with music (these are a pair of B&W DM600 S3's).

Of course, the kitchen and dining room are not spots where any "critical" listening takes place, it's just nice to have decent sounding music there, especially when preparing food & so on.

I do like the thought of saving about $200.00, especially if the M50's also have the kind of mid-range that Axiom seems to be noted for. I could put the $200.00 towards a sub, or more likely brewing ingredients (yeah, brewing is my #1 hobby)

When I get closer to making a decision, I'll probably contact the Axiom people to see if they would accept a return of the 50s towards the purchase of a pair of M60s.

Thanks again for your help!

Cheers,

Bill