Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater M80ti's small room.

I was responding to the quality of your analogy, Michael. It's obvious from your response, the satisfaction you derive from your muscle car is unrelated to how fast you drive it since by your admission, the roads suck, implying you can't open it up to exercise its full potential. I can only surmise therefore it satisfies you in a different way.

Similarly, I've met people who have extremely capable speakers in rooms that don't permit that capability to be exploited. In fact, in those rooms, the auditory presentation would tremendously benefit from smaller and less expensive speakers. The larger speakers look majestic however and the price reflects their exclusivity. When I broach the subject of better quality sound, it becomes very apparent sound is of secondary importance to these people. Status comes first .

Chaos asked if the M80s are too big for his room. This implies he wants to know about the quality of the sound. I circle back therefore to the quality of your analogy and my subsequent rebuttal.

Also note Michael, he's in a 12 foot by 11 foot room and not 12x16 like yours. Out of curiosity, are your M80s placed along your 16 foot wall or 12 foot wall?

BTW, Chaos is a smart man. He read the various arguments and decided to test out his M80s against KEF100s. I am very interested in his opinion.

That doesnt read very nice at all.

Oh I get what you are saying Mojo, and am not trying to argue. When I read his initial question, I made the assumption that he already owned the M80's, and was asking if they were too big. I just don't see a compelling reason to not use them for a rationale that they won't work, or would not sound great. I know from my own experience they will work wonderfully. They may not be the "best" choice, but they'll do fine.

In my HT, I have the front sound stage on the 12' wall. I sit roughly 12' from the front wall. I've had several iterations of Axiom's in this room. Started with M22's, then M60's, and now M80's. I prefer the M80's over the rest by far. I also have a VP160 center, QS8's for heights / surrounds and backs. I have two EP500's as well. They are all V4's and I have two, 5x200 wpc amps driving everything. I enjoy the sound system so much, I have no desire to do anything with it. I did try adding width speakers, but the room simply is not wide enough. They were very distracting.

I did have a set of M80ti's in my great room that's 28x32. They rocked that room, so again.... I totally get your point. They like big areas.

I just wouldn't discount them from smaller areas without giving them a whirl. Especially when watching movies with intense swings and peaks.

With respect to my vette, no, I cannot hit top speed with any degree of safety. I can however beat the hell out of it and have a heck of a good time just getting after it or pushing it around some pretty scarry corners and over a mountain pass not too far away from home. It's not just about top speed, but having fun getting there, feeling the torque through all the spots in between a dead stop and what the road conditions and traffic will allow.

Which part?

Michael if you remember, I'd be curious to know what you didn't like about the M22s in that room.

Have you ever tried placing the M80s along the long wall?

I do not poses an audiphile's vocabulary skills to articulate in a meaningfully way that would describe what I found lacking in the M22's..... In my woefully inadaquate words.....they lacked mid range punch. Even with moderate dynamic scenes, they always left me feeling as if I were missing something. Hope that makes sense. The M60's were better, but I still found them lacking as well. When I dropped the M80's in the room, I found my happy place. And that was even before running through the calibration process.

No, I have not ever tried placing the M22's on the adjacent wall. My screen is mounted on the 12' wall (it's a 8' wide 2.35 screen with an anamorphic CIH set up). However, I do have the M22's in my loft study/reading area that is 10' x 14'. I sit about 8' from them, and use them with a two channel Rotel amp/pre amp set up. No sub, just mellow relaxing music, usually classical to help me concentrate on my post grad studies that can be painfully boring. I have no complaints and find them quite pleasurable in that capacity. I like them more than my M3's in the same application.

I can understand the lack of mid-range and slam in the M22s compared to the M80s. This is where large, well-designed speakers excel. It is this quality about large speakers that charms listeners and convinces them they must be right for any room.

What about the soundstage? Did the M22s image better than the M80s in that set-up? Was the stage wider? Could you hear stuff away from the speaker boundaries? Did it have more depth? Did the M22s "disappear"? Could you place instruments along the stage rather than just localized to the centre and right and left speakers? Where was the centre image relative to the plane of the front of the speakers? Was that image in front of the plane, at the same plane or behind the plane?

Likely you never listened for any of these qualities or if you did, you have forgotten. Next time you listen to your M80s and M22s Michael, listen for these details. It will be a great distraction from your post-graduate studies.

And BTW, if you place the backs of those M22s 2 feet away from the front wall, space them 8 feet apart and sit 10 feet away, you may hear the music in a completely different way.

No idea. I was too charmed to care.

What makes you think I have not tried multiple placement positions with my M22s??? Or the M80's?

You clearly believe this guy needs to blow some cash, even without giving what he has a try. I do not share your opinion.

He has the M80's. Try them. Buy something else if they are not scratching the itch.

You say he can buy something else if the M80s don't scratch the itch. He may never have an itch because if he just puts the M80s in there, he'll like them because he won't have a basis for comparison. He's decided to contrast his M80s against a pair of KEFq100 which makes good sense.

I didn't think you tried multiple placement positions because if you had, you'd have noticed the qualities I described and would have made a different recommendation for Chaos.

By the way, I have 11-year old M80v2. I love them in my 4,200 cubic foot space where they are placed 9 feet apart, 6 feet away from side walls and 14 feet away from my MLP. I've tried other speakers in that room and none can do what the M80v2 does. I also have a 10x10x8 room with 2.1. In that room, a much lesser pair of bookshelves do what my M80s can't.

I'm so glad that I am able to just listen to & enjoy the music/movie without unnecessarily analyzing every nuance of what is being produce by my equipment.

Much more enjoyable that way...

TAM