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Thread: Anyone able to test the S1's against Axiom M22 or M60?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
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    259

    Default Anyone able to test the S1's against Axiom M22 or M60?

    Curious....

    Guy here at work wants to get the Axiom but I am working on changing his mind if I can and it is appropriate

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Location
    Manhattan Beach, California
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    7,032

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    The M22 has been compared many times to the CBM-170 and 170SE.....same class. The 340 and 340SE has sometimes been compared to the M60...the M60 has more bass extension though.

    If you search the forum and archives, you should find some threads.

    The proper way to change his mind is to have him compare.
    -curtis

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
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    Denver
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    I have compared the Axiom M60v2 to Paradigm Monitor 9(current year model) on one occasion and those same 9's in the same room with the Sierra1s on a different occasion. The short answer is that I liked the Sierra's better. The longer answer is as follows (These are just my observations).

    M60 vs 9s
    We probably spent a good 4hrs listening between the two speakers. Both have +/- to their looks, so it was pretty much a draw. Both have a hollow sound when doing the rap test. These two speakers sound very similar at normal listening levels. The paradigms are quite a bit more efficient. The only real noticeable difference was when both speakers were pushed hard around (5db left on a pioneer 1016), they both started to show signs of fatiguing. Both tweeters started to become piercing on certain notes (less so on the 9's). The woofer on the 9's handled the bass better (cleaner), but even they started to muddy the sound when pushed. The m60 woofers had visible 3 dimensional movement in every direction during the same piece. I would give the 60s a slight nod in the midrange clarity on average, ever so slightly, with one caveat. The weird thing being that, during certain segments, the midrange would just jump out and become dominant before falling back in with the rest of the music.

    Sierras vs 9s
    Looks again are pretty subjective, well then again so is the sound. I preferred the Sierra's look, but it does require a bit more up keep dusting and cleaning to remove finger prints (piano black). Knuckle test on the Sierra is a bit painful... ie no sound at all. Again the Paradigm 9s were quite a bit more efficient. Sound wise, there was noticeable difference in tone and clarity. We had no trouble identifying which speaker was which. Though it was hard to believe the amount of sound coming out of these little bookshelf speakers. The base was slightly deeper and punchier than the 9's. Overall, I would say that the Sierra's sounded quite a bit cleaner on the entire range. The tweeter never showed signs of being piercing while providing incredible detail. We were unable to push the Sierras to point where they started to show signs of fatigue with the pioneer. One thing that was very nice is how the center channel sierra sounds with the left and right pair during movies. A more complete and seamless soundstage compared to the Paradigms with the paradigm monitor center.

    Hope this helps. Like your friend, I was interested in the M60s. After the first listening session involving several different Paradigms, Energy, and Axiom. I started to lean towards the Paradigm Monitor 9s. Then I bought the Sierras and compared them to the 9s (with a complete understanding that I would return them if they didn't sound better than the Paradigms). I'm currently an owner of the lcr Sierra1s running on an onkyo805. On a side note, I would have been happy with any of them, but do feel that the Sierras sound better and double so when comparing the price.

    Sincerely,
    -Brian

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
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    373

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    That was a good write up, Karma.

    Just thought I'd weigh in. I have great respect for Axiom Audio. I think they make some excellent products (I'm a HUGE fan of their QS8 surround speakers) and sell them at very fair prices. They also provide excellent customer support and have been very friendly and communcative any time I have had the pleasure of dealing with them. I bought some M50Ti's for my dad and he (and I) are certainly still very happy and satisfied with them.

    I've compared the M22Ti's to the CBM-170's (original, not the SE's) at length. I also compared the M22Ti's to the CMT-340SE's. And I have, of course, heard my dad's M50Ti's on many occassions.

    IMO, while the sound was not identical, the differences between the M22Ti's and the CBM-170's were very slight. To make it quick, if someone happened to like the look of one over the other, I wouldn't bat an eyelash in telling them to get which ever one they fancied because sound wise, I wouldn't really put one over the other in any truly significant way.

    The M22Ti's to the CMT-340SE's is a different story. More bass, cleaner bass, more cleanly extended highs and greater output. These are all attributes that the CMT-340SE's had over the M22Ti's.

    The CMT-340SE's to the M50Ti's - most of the bass advantages were decreased, but the bass from the CMT-340SE's is still tighter. On the high end, the Axiom tweeter starts to sound sibilant before the Ascend tweeter when you start to crank up the volume.

    So now we get to the Sierra-1's. I still haven't heard them yet, so I can only extrapolate and go by what has been said about them by others here and on other message boards. But if, indeed, we have an improvement on even the venerable CMT-340SE's, then I would say that the Sierra-1's would almost certainly sound superior to the Axiom M60Ti's.

    To keep this in perspective. If I were to buy M60Ti's, I've virtually no doubt that I would be very happy with them. This isn't like buying speakers that rhyme with "blows" We're talking about good speakers. And the entire Axiom lineup is good. If your friend buys Axiom speakers I'd be downright surprised if he wasn't very happy with them.

    I was, in fact, completely ready to buy a set of CMT-340SE speakers. I happen to like playing movies at THX reference levels and for some music, I like to go even louder! As I said, the Axiom tweeter starts to become sibilant and harsh when played extremely loud. I also found this to be the case with the "classic" Ascend speakers. But the SE versions had a better tweeter and could reach the kind of output levels I want without getting harsh and sibilant (or at least, much less so).

    But now, the Sierra-1's are available and they are even better - at least by all accounts thus far.

    Long story short, I don't think your friend can go "wrong". It's not like he's going to get any of these speakers home and feel like he got ripped off or be anything less than very happy. In fact, if he typically doesn't listen to very loud movies or music, it may be difficult to tell these speakers apart from one another. They are all "good".

    But if the Sierra-1's are all they're cracked up to be, then they are in another league. If Karma is right and it's easy to tell them from the Paradigm and Axiom speakers, then we may be talking about something truly different and better.

    Frankly, if you or he never compares for yourselves, you'll never really know. But if he gets the Axioms and you get the Sierra-1's, then that might be the only instance where I'd say someone would have buyer's remorse from buying Axiom speakers So do compare somehow if you can. I can't wait to hear the Sierra-1's myself

    Jon

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    Denver
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    Hey Jon,

    That was a good follow up post. My friends and I were always curious as to how the 340SE or the 170 sounded.

    Thanks again for the comparison.

    -Brian

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