Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions blown tweeter or just need breaking in?

Of course JohnK. But reveal and emphasize are two different things. The Axioms emphasize. This is why almost everyone who hears them uses words like fatigue, bright, harsh etc. I am not putting the Axioms down...they do a lot more right than any other speakers in their price range. But with a slightly softer tweeter they would become more musical. And music after all is the bottom line.

I agree 200% , the monicker fits your remarks-music should be enjoyed, not necessarily scrutinized(particularly at the "mid-fi" level).

Since the kind folks at AXIOM did suggest the ohm resistors as a remedy for the "brightness" phenomenon, it appears they aknowledge it exists. Alan@axiom stated he used them in a post... M60 EAR FATIGUE, I believe. They also replied that Ian is apposed to tuning his speakers, it'll be interesting what improvements are made to future products.

In reply to Gem, I'll post thoughts after installation of the resistors, bummer about your gear.

On the subject of sound quality, though beit on an entirely different product-any thoughts on POWER CONDITIONERS?

They acknowledge that "it exists" in that they acknowledge people have sensitive ears. Why dumb down the speaker to appeal to the lowest common denominator? Why not make the best, most responsive speaker they possibly can?
I believe they have, and that's why I bought them.

"Why dumb down the speaker to appeal to the lowest common denominator?"

I'd hesitate to make a blanket statement like that. I am neither dumb, nor the lowest common denominator, but the Axioms were a tad bright for me, and the resistors have served a purpose. I absolutely loved my Axioms before using the resistor (just ask my wife), and wouldn't trade them for anything. However, I live in a NYC one bedroom apartment, with one possible location to put the speakers, hardwood floors, obviously no opportunity to acoustically treat my walls (b/c it's our only living space), etc. I don't think I have sensitive ears, but the speakers occasionally sounded bright. Yes, I know this was usually due to a poor recording or my room set-up, but there are lots of poor recordings or less than ideal room set-ups out there. I would never presume to tell Axiom how to build their speakers. But, those of us who may find the Axioms a bit bright (which has been mentioned in professional reviews as well) are not dumb, and it certainly doesn't mean I don't love the Axioms. And the resistors are a nice, easy compromise to keep the Axiom sound, with somewhat reduced highs.

Actually i disagree a bit here.
Although making the Axiom tweeter more 'laid back' would help with hot recordings, you would lose alot of clarity for good recordings. In regards to home theatre uses, i prefer to have as much clarity as possible for minute background sounds, dialogue, etc.
I would not want a 'musical' speaker for home theatre.

I put my axioms up against an older pair of technics speakers and the difference during a boys choir solo was amazing. The technics had a laid back tweeter which kept the upper frequencies from becoming bright or forward but the Axioms allowed me to hear echoes off the walls and i swear the shuffling of feet during the solo that simply were not present while using the technics speakers.
A friend of mine recently bought some Energy speakers with a Denon receiver. I gave him some advice on what to buy awhile ago. I know that he listens to ALOT of mp3s, techo dance and radio pop music so the Axioms are not a speaker that he would prefer...and i know it.
The Energy speakers have this more laid back upper end and their bass and midrange i find are more full, less revealing but musical. This is perfect for my friend since my guess is about 80% of his cds are overdone in the oven, that is to say recorded 'hot'. If he had bought Axiom speakers, i'm sure he would not have liked that forward and clear upper frequency response. He would have been one of those people who would have considered the Axiom sound as being 'harsh".
I personally appreciate the sound as accuracy, an amazing level of clarity for the price paid.

Your right, I intended to put "quotes" above "sensitivities", which by the way, I never realized I had my whole life listening to loud rock music, till now.

I hope AXIOM has'nt laid-off thier R&D team and are sitting on their laurels thinking speaker development has reached its pinnacle.

Its a pity ENERGY, infact all companies dont have such a wonderful forum like this, where not so smart people like myself can learn about technical subjects like LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR.

Wow Duffin, thanks for that info...Just think all these years of listening to J.M Reynauds, Dynaudios, Magnapans and Harbeths I was just fooling myself. Sure I've been tapping my size 12 boots and dancing around and head banging and gettin in the groove and basicly just having one hell of a good time. But all this time I was just listening to dumb downed speakers that only appeal to the lowest common denominator. But thanks to you and this thread after 25 years of buying audio I have seen the light. I will be replacing those speakers with the Axiom M60's and no dumb downed restitors for me...no sir. I want to be sure to hear everything. I don't care how painful it gets. I don't care if my dog howls and my ears bleed and I hate the sound with every fiber of my being. Sure it won't be any fun but who cares...I will be hearing everything after all. Thanks so much for the enlightenment.

Well I can see everyone has read what I said about dumbing down speakers (or, put another way, "making them less accurrate") and interpreted it as me saying that everyone is dumb. I'm a bit baffled at that connection.

But I do see, in re-reading my own post, how "appeal to lowest common denominator" how I wrote it can easily be misinterpreted as applying to people, when I was referring to quality of recordings (which is how this thread started).

So anyway, now that you hopefully understand I'm not flaming everyone here, let me try to clarify my point:

I am simply opposing the viewpoint that their exceptional clarity (to me, which may be "emphasised brightness" to some) is a flaw that needs to be remedied. I find it their strength. I hope they do too, or else they probably wouldn't be making these speakers this way.

If it were that serious of a flaw that doesn't work for someone, well then try the resistors or an alternative speaker solution, but don't call the speakers flawed.

No problem...I took your post wrong..my fault, sorry.

Yeah, ditto on the misunderstanding Duffin. No problem. And Chesseroo, I don't disagree with you that there is a loss of detail with the resistors. When I spoke to Joe at Axiom about using the resistors, he advised against it, for the main reason that the speakers would lose detail. Like I said before, I'm still not sure if I am going to leave the resistors on or not, I just need to test them out more with and without, once I get my receiver repaired. But either way, I still love the Axioms.