I'm moving to floorstanders for my media room and was listening to some B&W CM9s the other day. Haven't ever owned any and have never heard them until the other day. I've owned M60s, M22s, M2s, M3s, both centers and both surrounds from Axiom but never owned the M80s.

I'm curious to the similarities and / or differences between the 2 pairs of speakers-M80s & CM9s. Any comments or anyone who has heard them both??

Not familiar with CM9s, but back when I was looking for speakers I compared M60's to 703's and I preferred the M60's overall, especially for the price.

i have a pair of CM1's and the CM center ( the small one). These speakers are in my bedroom. In the living room i have M60's and V 150. To be honest, in my bedroom the CM's sound wonderful.

I have listened to the CM9's as well. If I was in your position, leaving money out of the scenario, i would get the CM9's, the finish on my CM1's is much better than the axioms, the components that go into the construction of the B&W's are of a higher quality than the axioms in my opinion. My favorite thing about the CM's is the fact that the grills use magnets to attach to the cabinet, so if you have the grills off, there aren't the typical Grill holes.....


I hope this helps you out.

Dak, the point is that money can't be left out of the scenario. A nicer finish or the use of "quality", i.e., more expensive, components has no necessary correlation with sound quality. Axiom illustrates that it isn't necessary to pay "high end" prices to get high quality sound.

I think that the Axioms are a better bang for the buck. I like the sound of B&W's more. However, when i bought my HT setup in the living room, i didn't have 10k$ to spend on speakers, so I got axioms. That is why i made the statement i did. Cgolf is comparing the M80's at 1300$ a pair to the CM9's which are 1500$ each..

To say that the CM9s have a nicer finish and sound good so buy them makes no sense to me if you haven't heard M80s as the OP was specifically looking for M80 comparisons. For the extra little money cgolf could upgrade the finish to a custom vinyl which I would bet looks as good or better than the CM9s, HG Cherry anyone?

The original question is still there, are the CM9's worth the extra $200 over M80s(paraphrased)? I can't answer that. I can say that the M80s sound a little different than the M60s and IMO are worth the extra money over the cost of M60s. I have no idea what CM9s sound like but I can certainly say the M80s are crisper/cleaner and reach a little deeper than M60s.

Jay, were your M60's V2's and are your M80's V2's? You may have told me before, or mentioned it before, but I do not recall.

I've never heard the CM's. I have heard 703's, 704's, a couple of the 600 series and the 800 series. None of them made me want to knock the dust off my wallet. I prefer Paradigm over B/W, which is probably why I like Axioms.

They were both v2's as I had purchased the M60s and A/B'd with mojo's M80s which are v2's, I also did my own testing when my own M80's arrived, with the same results. I will say the difference is less noticeable at higher volume levels, ~80db and up, but for low volumes the differences were easily noticed, especially when A/B'd.

Mike, I still think you might prefer M60s over your M80s since you run them with resistors on the tweeters, unfortunately I have never heard M80s with the resistors to know how it sounds in relation to M60s.

Listened to the B&W's while still debating Axiom. I like the B&W's better. Twice A$ good? Ahh, not to me. Do I love Sonus Faber's @ $12G a pair---every little thing about them, but I need to keep my car.

There are freight trains worth of speakers that are better in every way than Axioms. But I found nothing that made me really want them more until I cracked into 3G a pair territory. And I could have spent 4,000 bucks and still ended up with vinyl.

Or how about carbon fiber Hansens @ $240k. Bet they sound nicer than they look.

Thanks Jay.

Glad to help.

BTW Mike, thanks for mentioning Incra miter gauges in the Got Wood? thread, I bought the 1000HD and what a difference it has made to my cuts, an amazingly acurrate piece of equipment.

Thanks everyone. Lots of good info and feedback. I have had every speaker that Axiom makes (except the M80s & their subs) and have liked them all. I now have a media room and need some good floorstanders.

Personally, I love the look of the B&Ws but my main interest is sound, not looks. $1300 to an internet company like Axiom should be equal to about $2500 + or - to a brick and mortar dealer like B&W. Any extra would go towards the cabinet. I want $1300 worth of sound, not $500 worth of sound and $2500 worth of cabinet (or whatever the #s are).

Although I liked the sound of the B&Ws, I can listen to the M80s for 30 days before making a decision. If I'm not happy, I'll go listen to the Paradigms and then find a good used set of B&Ws or Paradigms on Audiogon or elsewhere....

Golf, It seems to be that the only logical decision is for you to complete the axiom collection with a pair of m80's.

If you ever want to hear the EP600, just give me a shout.

I have some pics ...really good pics of HG Cherry on M60's but cannot seem to attach them, however if you search on my username and check the forum "Good quality Pics of all finishes" I think on the second page are some awesome pics of the M60 's in HG Cherry. I dare to compare they are as nice as the B&W's finish or at least the B&W's are not $1500 better

Oh an M&K is back in Business maybe the s150 would be good middle of the park if looks are not everything

Once I get the 80s set up I may do that...

I went ahead and bought the black from the factory outlet. The room is dark 95% of the time so I'll save the money and use it somewhere else...

Congrats on the new purchase

I don't see any reason that you would not like the M80's. You are already use to the sound of the Axioms. The Axioms i would say are a better over all value. I don't think anyone would argue that point.

black? would you elaborate a bit? Piano black or the standard black?

Standard black. I did talk to Axiom and they would swap the black out for a custom veneer or even custom wood if I wanted for an additional fee of course.

I'm sure I'll be fine with these and never look back.

I'm sure someone mentioned it above, but don't forget that the B&W and M80 must be compared in the same (or close) room. This simplistic advice applies more as the price goes up. At $200, you get the idea and move on. At $5000, I'm going to be real unhappy when I get those B&Ws home and find a similar peak and the same hole I had with my PSBs, problems that the demo room did not have.

I love B&W and pine for their 700 series. But I'd haul my PSBs to the showroom for a deep comparison before I bought them. Just my two cents.