I'm looking for a pair of floorstanding speakers that will be great for regular SD TV viewing, which means that they should be forgiving to average sound quality. I don't watch movies much, but when I do, they're international and not mastered as well as hollywood ones. Would you reccomend Axioms in this case? Does SPL value tells how forgiving the speaker is?

My receiver will be either Onkyo or Marantz stereo receiver.

Thanks for any suggestions.

No and no. If you're only interested in amplifying the over the air std TV audio signal (and aren't real particular about perfection), you can accomplish that with speakers at a much lower price than Axioms. Again, the Onkyo HTIB #4770 ? seems like a logical choice - loud, warm, wooly, forgiving and cheap.
Good luck.

Despite possibly negating an order for Axiom, BigWill is completely right. Axioms are very detailed and revealing speakers. They would take the substandard signal that most TV stations provide and reproduce it in all its grainy glory.

The good news is that you can save yourself some money by going with less expensive speakers.

On the other hand, if you bought Axioms, you would probably use them for much more than just TV. You do listen to music, don't you?

Oh, and the SPL rating of a speaker just tells you how sensitive it is. To create the rating, a speaker is supplied with 1 Watt of power and the loudness is measured by a microphone placed exactly 1 meter away from the face of the speaker. The more sensitive/efficient the speaker, the louder 1 watt will sound.

I'd recommend Athena ASB1's or some Infinity Primus speakers. I've never personally heard the Infinity's but I hear good things about them. This is all of course if it is for almost always TV listening.

BigWill:

Alright, good to know.

The fact that my SD source is Dishnetwork "Digital-Home" is still not good enough, right?
The Onkyo HTIB fronts are not floorstanding, and I only interested in a pair (stereo). Can you suggest any other ones?

Thanks!

pmbuko:

Thanks for the clarification! For some reason I thought that sensitivity relates to forgiveness

This setup will mainly be used for TV viewing and sometimes for DVD. I will definetely consider Axioms in my seperate HiFi setup for music.

For DVD, there are lots of Axiom speakers that would sound simply awesome, but I agree with the guys above on the subpar TV signals. Also, if you listen to CD's, Axioms will make them sound better than you've ever heard them before, unless they were originally a poor recording.

good luck

I completely disagree with you guys. I ALWAYS watch TV with the Axioms (DTS Neo:6, natch), and it sounds either not so great (same as with TV speakers), decent, or pretty good, depending on the program. I have standard, basic, analog cable. CSI:New York sounds pretty good, with lots of surround and all, South Park sounds like doodoo. There we are!

OK, but would you have spent the money on the Axioms knowing that that you'd be using them almost exclusively for TV? Seems a little overkill, don't it?

Yeah, probably not. No music at all?

I do watch music videos & concerts, but all from Dish SD TV.

My Axioms are used mainly for listening to TV broadcasts. I think they sound wonderful in doing so. I live with individuals who have conflicting opinions regarding musical styles and even one individual who proclaims that she doesn't like music at all. So, if I listen to music, I wait until I'm alone.

I did run conventional (SD, cable) TV through my Axioms and found there was a big improvement in sound quality, although I agree I might not have purchased them if I was ONLY listening to TV (rather than DVD).

I guess the questions for the group are :

1. Is there enough LF content in regular TV programming to justify floorstanding speakers over bookshelf speakers ? I don't remember but believe the answer is "yes".

2. Assuming floorstanding speakers are the way to go (from #1) are there any significantly cheaper speakers worth considering ? My experience is that you can find inexpensive bookshelf speakers with some careful shopping but inexpensive decent floorstanding speakers are few & far between. Think of the alternatives... (shudder)

3. Is there anything in the sound quality of regular TV programming that would make Axiom-class speakers a bad choice, or are we just saying "hey you could probably spend less if you're only going to have TV audio inputs" ?

4. Given what we know about TV audio, would M2/22/60 or M3/40/50 family be more appropriate ?

I'm guessing something from the M3/M40/M50 family rather than 2/22/60 would be best. I would be thinking about a pair of M40s :

http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/axiom_millenniam40ti.htm

EDIT -- just noticed you mentioned "sometimes DVD". The sound quality on DVDs can be awesome through good speakers (you probably know this); given that you are going to include some DVD listening, speakers like the Axioms *would* be a good investment. We just need to make sure you don't end up unhappy with the sound you get from SD TV.

My recollection was that the SD TV did not take advantage of what the speakers could do (duh) but I do not ever remember thinking anything like "gee, those speakers really bring out the worst in this TV audio".

OK, the Dish music broadcasts have to be at LEAST as good as FM radio. And we've had the FM radio discussion before. I say go for the Axioms.

gevorg, perhaps I was too quick to recommend some cheapo speakers for you (and I also failed to notice your desire for floorstanders). Some int'l films have great sound - "Monsoon Wedding" comes to mind. Digital music channels are pretty clean through the Axioms, no problem there. But when you said TV I thought news, Judge Judy, etc...
If you're considering Axioms still, M50s seem like the best choice for you, IMO.
Good luck.
Edit: Your receiver can take 2 channel TV audio and process it into various surround formats - something you may find enjoyable for lots of programming (car racing, beer commercials, etc...)