HTS was giving away a pair of axiom m100s as a contest if you met some basic requirements. The winner was announced and I'm kinda bummed it wasnt me.... What a brat I am.

I am one of those people who play the lottery maybe once a year and get so excited at the prospect of winning a prize. Maybe the joy is in the wishing more than the winning.

Who did win? I haven't signed in for quite a while.

Some guy named Andre from Edmonton. I guess, he is replacing M22s...

ti's....
Good excuse to log in.
Glad axiom is getting positive (and well deserved) attention on their site.

I use their stellar reviews whenever dated, juvenile & misguided BS appears from time to time - not often now.

The BS generally stops right there because when 3 HTS testers all agree on the same findings, it is pretty hard to refute...

TAM

I never really understood the speaker reviews system. It is inherently flawed as you are just getting a subjective opinion to something with far too many variables.

You start off with the reviewers taste. If they prefer a bass heavy sound they are going to subjectively give a better review to a speaker that gives that sort of sound. As a purchaser, if you don't have the same tastes as them, you are not going to get the same experience.

Then you get into the equipment and room that they listened in. Yes they do list the additional hardware, but quite obviously the sound is effected by every component along the channel and unless you have what they have, how could you expect to get the same sound? Even if you do buy what they have, then your room will also effect the sound. We have posts upon posts of forum members here who can attest to changing the room, speaker location and sitting position has effected what they heard.

From a standpoint of a badly designed speaker will have a hard time sounding good, then having some form of review system to weed out someone just putting speaker components inside a box of some form and shape and calling themselves an expert, I fail to see the point.

I wonder honestly if Axiom has ever taken their competitors speaker into their own Anechoic Chamber to see how their family of curves stack up to their own? I often wonder if their is a sound profile for specific brands of speakers.. like B&W has a flavour of sound inherent to their brand line that is different from Axiom.

I just happen to really like the sound I am getting from my speakers and that is the part of the equation that makes these speakers worth it to me. Not what any reviewer says.

Just curious however.

Completely agree. When auditioning speakers I heard the same speakers in different HiFi rooms. Sounded slightly different, but you could tell they were the same sounding. Ie. b&w sounds like itself , just varying degrees of goodness in better or worse rooms. Yes speaker brands do voice their sound a certain way that separates them from others.

In my own experience, there are huge biases in sound according to setup and room acoustics. But, in the same room, speakers can be judged with others with worthwhile results.

On my crappy phone. Hope this reads OK.

I agree that articles that are penned by just 'one' reviewer do not carry the same weight with me as one that has multiple reviewers at the same place at the same time.

Just to refresh memories, below is what I consider to be the best type of review. Note that it is not a juvenile 'shootout' type where everything is a competition to the death where there has to be a 'winner'. With wide subjective listening tastes, there can be no winner IMO.

Therefore, I find this to be very informative & credible:

http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/h...tion-event.html

This exercise, along with others at HTS, has done wonders to regain Axiom's fine reputation that had been childishly & unreasonably bashed over the past several years...

TAM

My brother owns the tannoys in that group test. Freaking special is how I would describe them with my own professional review. Beautiful speakers as well.

What really interested me most with the giveaway was being able to audition them in my own room on my own gear and music. To be honest I probably would have given them away anyhow, as I wouldnt redesign my HT system around them (money tied up in other things) and being black and massive they wouldn't pass the WAF test in my listening room.

I tend to like exactly what the pro reviewers don't like. With movies, automobiles, wine, food... screw em. They all have agendas as far as I'm concerned.

Especially when they get to keep or purchase at a discount with a favorable review.... Ala Stereophile.... But they arent the only culprits. Sound and Vision and at least one reviewer at HTS has also played the "spin and win" game. But the products they liked and got were universally praised everywhere anyhow. I would probably share a like for a discount too.