Advice on where to go with partially complete Axiom setup?

[Zer0beaT]

I've been putting together my first home theater system the past few months. I don't have alot of money and so I've been putting together a system piece by piece (p.s. this forum has been really informative for me )

Anyway, so far what I have is a Yamaha RX757, VP100 center, M3ti for surrounds.

I'm using old 70s Dynaco A25's for mains at the moment (no they don't match well with the Axioms, but they are only temporary, great sounding speakers with stereo music though ).

What are my options as far as Axiom speakers that will work with the M3?

The room is about 13' wide by 15' long, shag carpet, lots of sofa, with wood panelling. The system is 50/50 for movies and music, music is more important though.

I've been thinking about both the M50 or another set of M3 but I'm not sure if the M50 would really provide much more than M3's for twice the price.

One problem I have with my current setup is that the M3's don't seem to do that well on low volumes, which is how I watch most movies late at night, I have to crank up the levels for the surrounds on the Yamaha to get good effect with them.

Would the M2ti be louder at lower volumes? If they were I would have no problems putting the M3's up front for mains and the M2 in surround, even if they don't match perfectly. The VP100 has absolutely no problem on lower volumes btw, so perhaps the 5 1/4" woofers on the M2 would be similar?

Anyway, looking for ANY suggestions here. I don't want to make a mistake (even though I could send back whatever I add).

I'll also be adding a subwoofer soon, suggestions welcome here aswell. I'm leaning towards the HSU 8", how would this do in my room with the Axiom mix?

Thanks alot for any help!

 

[jaxvon]

Firstly, have you called up Axiom directly? They're always willing to accept phone calls and help you with system questions.

Secondly, seeing how all Axiom speakers use the same tweeter and different derivations (size wise) of the same driver, they should all timbre match well. That said, what kind of budget are you looking at? And does it matter to go floorstanding or bookshelf?

 

[Zer0beaT]

Firstly, have you called up Axiom directly? They're always willing to accept phone calls and help you with system questions.

Secondly, seeing how all Axiom speakers use the same tweeter and different derivations (size wise) of the same driver, they should all timbre match well. That said, what kind of budget are you looking at? And does it matter to go floorstanding or bookshelf?

Maybe I'll shoot Axiom an email and see what they think.

I guess my problem is that I'm not happy with the M3's in the back, I think maybe the 6.5" woofers need more volume to sound full in the surround position and that doesn't suit me for late night movie watching. I put them up front just to see how they would do, and they sounded great, matched well with the VP100, and required very little volume to sound full. On multichannel SACD playback, the M3's are pretty full sounding at the back on low volumes.

So I guess I'm looking at ordering a pair of M2's to put in the back, and put the M3's up front and add a sub,the thing I'm wondering is if the M2's will excel on lower volumes better than the M3? The VP100 does fine on low volumes, so I'm assuming the M2's will too but this is where I could be wrong.

I guess I might aswell just order the M2's and see what happens, but yeah I'll shoot Axiom an email first.

Thanks!

 

[ptalar]

I am curious what Axiom tells you. I have M3ti's as back surrounds and M2i's as presence speakers and they sound fine. Of course, I use an SVS PB12-Plus/2 sub and all my speakers are set for small. So I am not concerned about bass coming out of my surrounds.

Please post what Axiom tells you. I am curious.

Phil

 

[jaxvon]

Call up Axiom on the phone. Their lines are open late (11PM EST most nights!), so you can still call (as of this post). No one better to ask than the source.

 

[Zer0beaT]

Update:

Ok, so I went to the Axiom forums and did some research, and came to the conclusion that the M3's "recessed" mids is not the type of thing I should be after, since I listen to mostly classic rock/folk/country. It's completely my mistake and I don't know how I missed that important detail before going with the M3's, reading comprehension problems I guess

It feels like I've had these M3's for quite some time, and I was starting to get a bit down about my dissatisfaction with them,but just out of curiousity I checked my emails, turns out the M3's were shipped to me on July 6th, meaning they still fell under the "Satisfaction Garauntee"

Tonight I called up Axiom and explained I wanted to return the M3's, and that I didn't realize the M3's were made to have less mids than normal (the site says "softer mids", I'm new to this whole audio thing so I'm a bit of an idiot to not realize soft means lack-of )

I don't know how it happend, but now I'm moving up to the M22's (how do they do it?) which should suit me better, but these will be going up front permanently in place of the Dynaco's. The Dynaco's will be relegated to the surrounds temporarily, and I suppose I'll be putting either M2's (most economically likely) or (yikes!) another set of M22's in the back should they really blow me away, which would be sweet with multichannel/all channel stereo music listening I'm assuming.

So I really haven't learned anything and didn't press the Axiom guy for much advice, instead I decided to just upgrade But I think the M22's mid range will suit me more and possibly produce a fuller sound to my ear. I'm pleased with the tone of the VP100 Center with the 5 1/4" woofers, so I should just go all 5 1/4", especially after reading how much the Axiom fans love the M22 in particular.

So apparently they are sending me labels to return the speakers (I live about 3 hours from the factory) and, I may be mistaken here as this happened at the end of the conversation, but I think the guy on the phone already credited the M3 return and recharged my credit card for the M22's, I'm not sure if those are coming right away along with the labels or when I physically return the M3's to Axiom, but if they're already on their way that's pretty impressive customer service.

Anyway, that's the way I decided to go. I'll post again once I've had some time with the M22's and compare them to the M3's as best I can.

 

[Zer0beaT]

Yesterday I recieved the pair of M22's, since then I've given them a pretty thorough testing on different source material.

All I can say is.....the improvement (for me personally) between the M3 to the M22 is huge. I think this is the WOW factor people here talk about, which I never felt with the M3's!

These speakers just sound so much warmer, bigger and the details I'm hearing are pretty surprising.

Playing Idiot Wind off Bob Dylan's Blood On The Tracks SACD, I swear I'm hearing a stand up bass line throughout the whole song. Which is weird because I've owned this album in some form or another for at least a decade, and I've never heard it before. Pretty impressive to me.

These speakers really suit the music I like, but even with movies I find they just simply sound better than the M3's. Also, they blend, as far as I can tell, seamlessly with the VP100. Playing Multichannel music it's amazing to me how going from 2 channel stereo, then adding in the center, just makes the sound that much better, they really work together perfectly.

The only genre of music I played that I would possibly give the edge to the M3's is classical. I played solo piano Chopin on both speakers, and I think this is where the M3 shines.

As far as delivering satisfying tones and fullness on low volumes, these speakers have NO problem whatsoever. This was my biggest issue with the M3's, they just didn't come close to sounding good on low volumes for me. So I'm pretty happy with these M22's.

So now I've put Dynaco's in surround, and actually I really like them there, even though temporary.

Anyway, could not be happier with the M22. To me, the difference in sound quality between these and the M3 is night and day.

Also gotta give a big thumbs up to Axiom's customer service for shipping the M22's along with labels to return the M3's, making sure I didn't have to go a single day without either. I think most companies would expect to physically recieve their return before crediting the customer (and that's if they even allow returns for no reason!)