Wasn't that spose to happen in Nov??

We made it into a subwoofer listening session instead. No one wanted to participate in the speaker test.

So if no speaker test can you now give us your thoughts on the M80s ?

You have inspired me. I spent some time listening to them in our basement theater - They will be going back there tonight for a much more detailed listening test.

You’ve got to be kidding us?????

All this waiting to here some blind reviews of all the speakers you bought and all the volunteers pulled together??? No way. Ain’t got me fooled there buddy. Good thing you’re into finance and not sales.

The best way to put this ... There were several people on a certain forum who were quite convinced that a few other speakers (ie. Paradigm 100 V.3 and Energy 2.4i) would TOTALLY out perform the M80's.

As it got closer to November, those same guys just disappeared. Apparently, a blind test was rather intimidating, you know, imagine if they picked the M80's over their own speakers.

I will be happy to do a blind test between the Energy 2.4i's and the M80's, if anyone is interested.

It's warming to the soul to know that I own a pair of *intimidating* speakers. I like that.

The subwoofer GTG ended up being what the speaker GTG was supposed to be: A group of speaker owners deciding to allow themselves to be subjected to a blind test.

In that test, we had a panel of 6. Three owned SVS subwoofers. One owned SVS and Axiom. Jack, who had a Rocket UFW-10 and BossoBass, who has a Quad Tumult, 6000 watt, custom built rig.

The speaker GTG had 2 Paradigm and 2 Energy owners who said they were coming. They literally disappeared. I cannot even remember the last post they had.

It seemed like such a nice idea to have a panel of listeners, too.

Anyway ... I now have a speaker selector which allows for level matching and remote switching. Doing a blind test never got any easier. If there is a level of interest, we could do one in shootout format and publish the results on Audioholics.

Boy that sounds like fun. Pity I live in CA and only have Axioms..

In reply to:

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I will be happy to do a blind test between the Energy 2.4i's and the M80's, if anyone is interested.

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Of course I'm interested

Count me in, I'm interested too.



Sutter

Well, guys - as there is some interest, both sets of speakers are in position and tonight I played around with Roger Water's "In The Flesh" SACD. Both are very good loudspeakers - throwing a larger soundstage than do the ACI Sapphire XL's.

For the purpose of this test, all listening will be 2 channel, full range, no subwoofers allowed.

You may look for a complete write up by late next week.

Cool! Looking forward to it.

Ditto that.

Awesome, thanks Craig!



Sutter

I’m disappointed. I was really looking forward to hearing the results of a blind test between the M80’s, Paradigm 100’s, Rocket 850’s and ref III’s. Not to hear which speaker is the best, per say, but more details to their individual strengths and weaknesses.

Damn……too bad this didn’t happen. I for one would have loved to participate, but flying from Alaska would be quite expensive, figuring in lost vacation time and all the other expenses associated with travel. But I’m sure it wouldn’t take much to get a few Axiom and Rocket owners around your neck of the woods to participate.

The Audioholics thread is started ... Energy 2.4i's vs. M80Ti's

Will be reading with intrest.

Ditto!

Anyone else keeping up with Craig’s findings? Looks like the M80s are holding their own pretty good

Nary a peep! I think Craig's paying a bit more attention to family for the holidays (just my guess).

Nice review Craig. You got me dreaming about owning a pair of those M80s now. With the new wood veneers soon to be available, the M80s will move closer in price to the Energies. Sounds like they will still be leaders in price/performance category, but with a bit more competiion. I'm just speculating, of course, don't know the actual cost of the wood veneers. I'm guessing the exotic woods will run about $1000 extra.

I was thinking the wood finish to be in the $600 range. I guess we will have wait and see.

The full review is up over at audioholics now. The M80s did REALLY well: better than I expected. It's worth reading.

I hope you are right for the less "exotic" woods. A while back I was getting some info on wood veneer finishes and the Koa came up about $500 dollars a sheet--two sheets needed for a pair of floorstanders.

It will be interesting to see how Axiom will incorporate these new finishes into their website. I'm pretty excited about all this.

I have been keeping up with Craig’s findings. To tell you the truth I knew the M80s were an exceptional speaker for the money but they did a whole lot better against the Energies than I expected. Very good reading imo.