Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners M80 floor speaker comparison

has anyone ever heard the Bowers and Wilkins S3 704 towers? I am trying to determine if the Axiom M80 floor standing speakers are as good, or even better, than these particular tower speakers in sound quality.

I am trying to learn as much as I can about the M80 floor speakers that I can, including other peoples experience with them if possible. Will push them with a Emotiva XPA-3 GEN3 amp. I currently have M22 Axiom bookshelf speakers.

I heard those B&Ws but not beside the M80s. I had the M80v2 and wasn't satisfied with the width and depth of the soundstage. The B&Ws did not sound neutral and lacked bottom end.

I've never heard the M80v4 but every v4 I own fixed the M80v2 problems. Axiom did a lot of testing between v2 and v4 (likely after the v3 fiasco), and greatly improved the design of every v4. How much so? I'd take the M3v4 over the M80v2 any day and even the M2.

The v4 extend soundstage width and depth. They are like sonic holography machines. As you move up from M2/M3 to M5, M100, the soundstage expands and images are rendered in higher resolution with greater dynamic capability to boot.

To fully utilize the power of the Emo, I recommend you get a b-stock or used M100. You will love it.

sans sub …

Among those in the know, B&W doesn't follow the NRC principles of speaker design. That means they have "a sound", rather than a neutral sound profile. It's like having an integrated amp with an equalizer profile that can't be turned off.

Now is the perfect time to shop for loudspeakers because we now have publicly available measurements of hundreds of them at every price point. Try perusing the spinorama dot org website. The tonality/Olive score is a flawed but quick snapshot wrapped into a simple number; higher is generally better.

But it doesn't tell the whole story that the listening window and sound power curves tell; the NRC research says that if those lines are straight and predictable within a tight tolerance (say +/- 1.5 dB), they tend to win double blind listening tests over speakers with less controlled frequency responses. Eyeballing those two lines tell more than a raw score ever could.

Axiom publishes those curves on their website, and they're competitive with loudspeakers with tonal scores above 6.0.
https://www.axiomaudio.com/pub/media/catalog/product/m/8/m80_freq.gif

The Audio Unleashed podcast talked about a review of the B&W 805 D4, and had some colorful commentary on B&W's product design philosophy.

https://youtu.be/FSNMhB1UFiQ?list=PLPca_7i5G2sgIW7krPELAUQzeRPi9QxK_&t=2862 (time cued)

Here's an M100 from the Axiom refurb store. Don't like black oak? Call Axiom and I'm sure you can work something out.

BTW, the M100 comes with the high powered woofers included in the price.

https://www.axiomaudio.com/arb-0320

Way back in the day I demo'd 703s to my then m60s, I then became an Axiom owner.