Grabbed a pair of mint M80 V2s last night. Had to drive 120 miles in the rain to Lancaster CA, to get them. I bought them from the nicest guy (Eric, thank you if you read this). He also had QS8s for sale and uses M22s. He is an Axiom guy.
Eric took great care of his M80s. They are like new. I put them in an easy room (great acoustics) and my goodness, but they sound terrific!!!!
I am very happy!
Another pair of Axiom speakers. They will be neither lonely nor neglected.
Ian, you do wonderful work. What a great speaker!!!
Thank you!
2X where do you find the time to listen to all your speakers. Ive been off work for 3 weeks , haven't even clean the bathroom yet lOL . Enjoy your new toys.
Your links are not working bro. I use imgur now, photobucket is so full of adds you cant do shit there.
Thanks, checking out imgur
OK, that worked... is there only one picture twice ?
What are the tweeters ? They don't look stock...
Good job BM , and yeah he has had those tweeters on other speakers as well. I think they may be some sort of super tweeter, which I don't need cause I can hear over 14k lol. The look to be in really good condition, depending on price it looks like a great score.
I have the M80v2 and they do sound terrific. Try (even if temporarily) to move them a third of the way into your room and watch what happens. And for Pete's sake 2x4, don't connect them up to tubes...LOL!
I am smiling so hard! They sound so wonderful!
I hooked them up to an Anthem, a Canadian solid state amp so they feel right at home.
Yup those are some tweeked super tweeters, upgraded with solen caps. I passed the wrong side of 14K a long time ago, I think.
Good advice! I am putting some feet on them and then will move them further into the room.
I'm embarrassed to say how much I paid. OK, I'll overcome it, $360, Eric didn't have change for the $350 price, so, the least I could do was donate an extra $10.
They are in perfect, as new shape. They sound incredible.
Thank you Bridgman for the imaging magic
wow , I know I could not resist that price even if I didn't need any speakers. Is Eric leaving the Axiom family ?
Oh and yeah I trump your hearing loss with a serious case of tinnitus
Mine sounds like a leaking steam pipe. How about yours?
When you move them into the room, experiment with moving in close to them. Try even closer than an equilateral triangle. The effect works best if they are placed within a few feet of sidewalls. And no toe-in. It's not needed.
I will Mr. Mojo!
I have some audio obsessed friends coming over tonight to listen to these beauties!
Loving mine in a big way also Mr. SirQuack.
Shocking, really
yeah I remember when I first got mine my jaw hit the floor re listening to all my music all over again.
When I first got mine I toed them in 45 degrees and Randy was laughing at me. I laughed right back when he fried his Emotiva to a crisp.
Oh, you bad man, Mr. Mojo!
Just be careful around those puckered ports. You don't want to have an accident like Debbie and end up with her hairdo (top right corner of page).
A very picky bunch of audio nuts, our local jazz/audio group, came by tonight to listen to the Axiom M80V2s. They loved them. We go to the Newport Audio show every year. We all agreed that the M80V2s sounded better than many very pricey audiophile speakers displayed at T.H.E. Show.
They asked, why doesn't Axiom display at these shows? I suppose Ian does not want to embarrass the big-buck, big-name speaker manufacturers.
But he should. He certainly could. I hope he does.
Going to the show would mean he'd have to come out of the anechoic chamber. There's no fun in that!
wow , I know I could not resist that price even if I didn't need any speakers. Is Eric leaving the Axiom family ?
Oh and yeah I trump your hearing loss with a serious case of tinnitus
Hu? what was that sonney.. my hearing aid isn't working all that well
Mine have been toed in ever since mojo
Matt, I don't know what you do for a career but I can tell you that pulling wrench's and loud music/concerts takes a real toll on the ears. It is so gradual ,and hearing protection was not really encouraged when I got into the game. Its worse some days than others but it is never gone. I can ignore it for the most part but once you notice it , it takes a while to ignore again and it really is frustrating. I can still hear pretty good for the most part but certain frequencies are better than others and for the past 10 yrs I religiously use hearing protection. Don't take your hearing for granted.
Gents - This is the most fun "thread read" here or any other forum that I can think of over the past year.
Thank you !
I know where you are coming from. I do woodworking now and dealing with machines of all sorts of loudness each day. I too lost too much from my younger days where I took up trap shooting and didn't think that it would be that loud. Along with too many loud concerts and I have that perpetual humm in my ears.
My wife looked at me funny the last concert i went to when i pulled out a set of bright yellow foam earplugs and put them in before the concert started. I enjoyed it. I have heard that there are some specialized electronic earplugs that reduce the sound impact without effecting the frequency range that you hear.
For me, I have to watch TV & movies with the remote in hand to turn up and down the volume as some parts i can't hear what is being said, but turn down for the big explosions and over powering background music parts. I was hoping that DTS-X would fix it for me to be able to turn up the voice object, and turn down the background music object.
Most precious piece of audio equipment we have ... thanks to our Creator.
More Orange County Jazz/Audio enthusiasts most critical member coming over today to listen to the M80s.
Will report.
Most precious piece of audio equipment we have ... thanks to our Creator.
True Dat... too bad I punished my ears the way I did, wish someone had warned me . When my kids work at the shop I stay on them about ear protection. No excuse these days .
M80s well received, but we ended up mostly listening to music from the reel-to-reel in a tube system driving a pair of Michaura M66s (twin Axiom 6.5" drivers and the Axiom 0.75" titanium tweeter) and an EP500 subwoofer.
I love the sound quality of reel-to-reel. It is pure and looks extremely cool. Fiddly though.
Reel to reel...perfect for those who find linear bass, highs and extended dynamic range offensive and love to swoon to wow, flutter and hiss.
All the music I like was on tape long before it hit vinyl or became digital. I don't limit my enjoyment based on the medium it arrives on.
I wonder , is it really wow and flutter or is there just something analog can capture that digital just can not.
Mojo.. I gather you have never listened to a really good recording on a real-to-real at 15 or 30 ips. Funny how the master recordings were all done on tape like this before pressed out to vinyl or early CD.
Whats ips? Sounds like an std. Inches per second?
I have to say, having used a Nagra for a 2day student film project back in the day with 1/4" tape, they are finnicky little bastards. But sounded fine. And actual film too. Talk about finnicky.....
I was the sound guy! How appropriate.
I believe home gear in 1 7/8 inches per second which obviously is not going to have the same quality as studio gear but still decent in its own right. I have great memories of my dad copying his albums to reel to reel for playback when guests were over. That thing would play for hours on end . Kids aren't exposed to this anymore and they don't get an appreciation for music.
Of my 3 boys only one has a real appreciation for music and the equipment. He grew up watching me make mixed tapes and listening to music instead of watching tv or the internet. He often laments being born too late, since his music preference is the same as mine. The other 2 are millennials they are a lost cause, I failed. lOL
I always wanted a Teac 3340 - 4 track, 7.5 or 15 IPS. IIRC it was the gold standard for low-budget recording studios. Excellent sound... at the time I believe it was generally accepted that good tape could deliver *slightly* higher quality than the best vinyl/cartridge/turntable combinations (ie a different set of distortions and artifacts).
I remember road trips to NYC to buy what they called "first generation master tapes" but thinking about it they must have been second generation... I can't believe anyone would risk wearing out the source tapes repeating the final mix-down for each new copy.
Looking at ebay and kijiji just now they seem to have held their value really well.
I have listened to 15 ips and 30 ips courtesy of my great uncle. 15 ips sounded better than 30 ips on the low end for sure. They both exaggerated the high end and the tone control did a pretty good job of controlling that. But as I turned up the gain, upper midrange and the high end went to $h!t. Frankly I don't know why that was - it stumped me - maybe the old but wise one knows.
I too had a large Sony Reel to Reel in the 70s because I could not stomach the sound of 8-Tracks nor Cassettes (even with Dolby NR).
They were finicky with head alignment as they wore; however, it was sure cool to watch when it was operating with the softly lit VU Meters dancing to the music.
I even ordered by mail-order prerecorded Reel to Reel tapes of albums that I wanted but they were always in short supply as Cassettes had largely taken over the market.
Gave it away & put all that behind me when CD Players showed up...
TAM
Maybe there's a market for an audio player with switchable vinyl, 8-track, cassette, reel-to-reel and gramophone emulations.
I just received my new pinch roller by Flugpost, and cleaned the heads with 99.99% isopropyl alcohol, everything Hans, the cuckoo clock maker, should have done for the $300 he charged me to refurbish my TEAC reel to reel. (I don't think he did anything)
Sound quality of well recorded tapes at 7 1/2 ips is great!! I think it is better than vinyl which is saying something. I upgraded my MMF 7.1 table with the Hana low output Shibata moving coil cart and it sounds wonderful, but the tape is so pure sounding!
Returned the Moon 110LP phonostage as it was not a good match for the Hana, and just received a Musical Surroundings Phenomena 2+ a few minutes ago. I will hook it up, listen for a while and report back.
Sure am happy with the reel to reel. I am going to try the M80s with the Antique Sound Labs SET tube amp which is hooked up to the TEAC. That should be interesting.
And yup, the spinning reels and dancing illuminated VU meters are extremely cool to look at while listening to the music!!!
But, if you enjoy dancing VU meters, this is the top of the mountain
As Archie said, Those were the days.
Those were the days my friend ...
When you bought your MMF 7.1 did it come with the MOJO/grado cartridge or the Goldring.
Mojo black. Moving magnet, sounds very good.
I have the same TT and it came with the MOJO but previously the Goldring was the standard cartridge and i was surprised that it came with the MOJO. I swapped out the MOJO for another Grado wood body i had bought and when i removed the wires from the mojo one of the lugs pulled out of the cartridge and it was ruined. It was exspensive to replace but worth it, it is a really great sounding cartridge along with my project tube preamp, very quiet virtually no tics or pops. I have looked at the Ortofon 2M Black but there are so many other things i want worse.
I made amistake in my previous post. The Mojo is a Ortofon cartridge not grado. doh.
Cartridges are fiddly little things.
Project tube preamp. Tubes good!
I set up the Phenomena 2 phono stage, but am only getting one channel. I'll have to pull the preamp and see if something came loose. Fiddly things.
Loose interconnect secured, new Jefferson Airplane Surrealistic Pillow album on - sounds terrific! Smoking a cigar, not like the old days.
Always good to find the quick fix . And no smokin its bad 4 u
Hey 2X use the IMG link to insert a pic. Looks great.
Hi, I tried to use the 'enter an image' icon, chose 'insert center floating image' and ... no joy.
This system sounds stunningly good. What's the sound quality difference between M80 V2s and V4s?
Anyone experienced?
Yeah sorry 2X , i noticed later that you were using the IMG code not sure why it did not work . All i do is a simple copy and paste to insert and image and i am not an expert like many others here who seem able to fix the links.
As for the difference in versions, i suspect its pretty minor and the room they are in would have more effect than any changes to the crossover design. When i bought my V2's i bought them because i wanted the black center caps to keep continuity with the rest of my speakers. When they arrived they came with the V3 drivers and i dont know which crossover whether it is v2 or v3 but when i contacted axiom they sent out V2 drivers to replace the V3's. I have a Dayton audio test system that tests the thiele small parameters of the drivers and they test close enough to be identical so i suspect any changes are in the crossover itself. If anyone wants to share pics of the their crossover's from different versions we may be able to see exactly what values were changed. I believe that once Ian hit on the perfect family of curves from then on only minor improvements would be possible. This is just my humble opinion and there are no real facts.
My M80's sound so much better in my new house than they did in the old place and this is mainly due to the shape and size of the room and the fact the speakers are farther from the boundaries of the wall.
I would say that if you measured your system with and without the stand in the corner there would be a big difference in bass response. If i had my druthers and that was my setup i would find an alternative spot for the rack and i also prefere a bit of toe in with my M80's i would also try them out from the wall some more of use a set of port plugs given that little alcove they are in.
I'm going to get 4, 2 draw wood file cabinets, 2 for files, and 2 for equipment. I'll replace the drawers with shelves and piano hinged smoked glass doors from Home Depot. The rack will go.
I had a pair of M100s in the living room (acoustically an impossible room) At first I thought there was something wrong with the M100s. I never schlepped them into the dining room, but should have. That room (where the M80s are) is an acoustically wonderful room. The M80s sound great. I'm sure the M100s would have sounded spectacular.
