Aware this is an old thread but wanted to post my thoughts.
The Axiom M3ti was the first good speaker that I ever owned. Remember that glowing review out there about the original M3ti? In college I bought that version in very good condition (pair were rears in a home theatre). And looking back, I wish I had never sold that pair. At the time I took them into a quality local hifi shop that sold Totems, Paradigm, McIntosh and the likes and listened to them with the sales guy. He said for $500 they are a steal. I agreed. Across a wide spectrum of music genres they performed very well. A little finicky on placement as monitors can be, and they had a "unique" sound somewhere in the midrange (not bad just different) but overall, whether Axiom accidentally stumbled upon it or not, it was a solid all around performer. A fun speaker with punch, and sensitive and easy to drive. They effectively conveyed upline equipment changes and produced a great sound, fairly musical.
So what did I do? Several years down the road I acquired another pair. Bought an M3v2. However, highs were harsh. It was an entirely different speaker. Upon removing the driver of this pair, I discovered the cabinet on this pair was constructed from particle board. No joke. Not HDF as my original pair. So if you hear reviews about the harsh highs, it could be because people are listening to a pair where Axiom abandoned HDF and went for particle board....
Fast forward, I still wanted to acquire a version of the quality speaker that I had enjoyed in college. So I bought a M3v3 in great condition. Would it sound the same? Drumroll.. cabinet was back to HDF like the originals! Great. Sound? Different... congested through the mids and lacking on the lower end. It did not have the nice rolled off low end extension of the original speaker. The driver seemed to be tuned differently.. tight.. and it did not need additional break in as it was not a new pair.
People may say yes well you bought a V2 or a V3. True. But ideally aren't subsequent versions supposed to improve over time? If Axiom were able to replicate what they did with the original speaker, it would sell. My issue is 1) the quality control 2) lack of further experimentation and development rather than repackaging of the apparently "same" stuff (but from my experience, actually quite different.) 3) Axiom largely seems to be milking their cash cow, increasing prices, and tweaking the original recipe in the wrong ways. Wish I could get a quality version that sounded like the original..
I have mixed feelings on the brand. A friend of mine put M3 in wall version in his home and they sound great, albeit significantly more expensive now than they used to be. Personally I'm hesitant to buy any of their stuff because frankly I'm not confident in what exactly I would be getting and my respect for the brand is diminished.
Axiom Audio has been around for many years, but when I make a post about my amp flaking out many people see the Axioms and say hey "Those are white van speakers". What does that mean exactly. Then someone says look at the readings, those speakers suck. I have a few pairs of Axiom and I like them. I have many others, Elac, KEF, B&W, and more. They all sound pretty good. The Axiom M100's are some of the best i've heard.
I''m a chef, so i'll put this in something I understand... I can't look at a piece of paper with an entire recipe and know if tastes good. I've tried, i've been surprised so many times. Whats the difference?
