Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Dead Site

I have both wood and vinyl Axiom and to be honest the vinyl is excellent and easily looks like real wood. But there is a nuance of the real wood that is tangible but I have to admit it is subtle. I’ve only compared the Boston cherry vinyl to wood. I have the wood ebony m2s. Can’t compare them but they are really nice. I normally wouldn’t pick ebony but the b stock deal a few years ago was too good too pass up and it turns out I really like the black. I’ve had other brands of black vinyl “wood” “ wrap and it looked fake.

I’d say wood for the win but a quality vinyl wrap that brings the prices down would also be welcome given how good it is. But then again real wood has a certain elegance and quality to it.

How’s that for sitting on the fence? ( a wooden one at that too).

My next car will probably be a new Prius to replace my current 2011 Prius. The car is going strong but we want the newer safety features.

I have 2 Mirage subs from my early1990’s HT. Those too are still going strong … one was repurposed to the electronic drum set; the other is waiting for me to do something with it. My only maintenance on them, in the last 30 years, has been to clean the level pots. Here’s hoping that my Axiom subs do as well!

The pots are the components giving me problems too. I can't really call it a design defect, who'd imagine that a sub would last this long. Even the foam surround is in pristine condition.

I'm currently researching what makes for a musical subwoofer. I'll post my findings to the forum, but it's difficult to find scientific papers on the subject (particularly why 1.5x is the threshold for group delay audibility at bass frequencies), just lots of pragmatic ones from DIY assemblers and bloggers. It might be the one case where things sound better when you throw a lot of money at it.

Speaking of Bluetooth, I satisfied my own curiosity and decided to try a Bluetooth FM transmitter to see if I could pipe tunes from my phone to the car. I picked up a $40 Scosche BTFM5 over the weekend. All it had to do was reach the low bar of FM-quality sound to be a keeper.

Nope. Not only does it NOT reach AM mono sound quality, but it doesn't play loud enough on the car stereo to beat the iPhone in an SPL contest. I'll be returning the transmitter tonight.

(I had a 3.5mm to cassette adapter in the 90's to play CD's from my Discman to car stereo; that didn't work either, it just kicked on the autoreverse in a continuous loop).

I remember a few heated conversations on this site. I think I was involved with most of them..... Still here though, despite my obvious, opposing point of view on things non-A/V related with the majority that used to, or probably still do, visit this place. I'll just keep those to myself.

My father was ever so right when he told me to avoid talking politics and religion with strangers, and only with family you don't mind losing. That was fifty'ish years ago. There really is no room for polite disagreement these days. No point in going there.

There is a woodworking forum I participate in. They have a hard line - no politics or religious talk, period. Seems to work. The mods do not allow it, and for the most part, the conversations are friendly and helpful.

It is kinda sad to see the state of this place though. There were some enjoyable conversations too.

Sorry, on the comment about taking a break, I think many of us have done this for various reasons.

There was an element that staunchly defended everything Axiom. Any discussion that strayed from their perceived framework was beaten down. I have been an Axiom owner since the late 1980's, probably among the first factory visitors on this board in 1990, and have continued to buy and visit the factory - my last visit was August 2023. The product is still good value and the staff helpful.

It has been interesting to see products, people on the board, and topics come and go. I enjoy my time here and the anniversary events that Ian hosts!

That wasn't a bad way of running a forum, IMHO. The 1980's to 2020 was really dark age of audio where consumers were in the dark about the loudspeaker pecking order. There were some of us in the know, particularly those who read Sound & Vision (Canada) and Audio Critic in the early 90's, who already knew that DAC, cable, and amplifier differences were mostly imaginary. But hardly anyone would give us the full loudspeaker measurements, perhaps because it wasn't part of the design and review process.

So all we had were marketing sound bites for us to figure things out. Axiom's marketing spin was being NRC science-based. They never showed more than the on-axis measurements, but that was better than what the competition was doing.

It wasn't really until websites like ASR, EAC, and spinorama.org quantified and aggregated the data in a manner that was accessible. Now we see who has their pants around their ankles, and it's not pretty. It was fortunate that Axiom and Bryston eventually published the listening window and sound power composite curves, the only 2 curves that matter for spectral balance according to the NRC and Harman research. Anyone with a v.4 product is sitting pretty.

It's not too late to follow in the footsteps of someone like Ascend Audio and just straight-out publish all their measurements of their latest products, they were a company that once made laughably bad measuring products.

I think you missed my point, which was a person could disagree with the thread - whether it was science based evidence, personal belief or personal choice - and the hate would reign down. I have strong beliefs in many areas of sound quality, what affects sound reproduction and what I believe to sound better to me. But I would never berate or talk down to those who believe differently.

That level of respect was missing for a few years.

BBIBH good morning!

Yes, I enjoy your posts. You are knowledgeable and courteous. Let a thousand flowers bloom.

Hi 2x6,

thanks for the kind words. I enjoy your posts about your audio technology and your experiences as well.