Vivid, clear, toe-tapping sound that''s not harsh nor boring.

They can only play so loud, Upper bass register bit stands out.

I''ve had these speakers for about 8 months now, feeding them with 120W/channel yamaha Int. amp and Onkyo CDP. To start off with, I think it''s just a little too much to say that M3Ti''s beat everything else in the price range. Plus I''ve never had even moderately expensive gears, my system always run under $1000 total. However, I''ve had couple of pretty well known small speakers lately, and I''ve never been this satisfied with any of them. I recall Paradigm Minimons were really good, it had a bit more dynamics than M3Ti''s and maybe more bass extension, but the overall transparency, sophisticaiton, and above all the VIVIDNESS of music reproduction of M3Ti''s are just stunning. Others that I owned such as Aegis 1, AR308HO, and old JBL weren''t even close to Axioms, at least to my ears. I''m using my speakers just for 2 channel music listening, so I can''t really comment on how they would perform for HT purpose. But for 2 channel small room environment, Axioms are beautiful performers and shine especially with uptempo jazz music(great horns and drums). They do pretty much everything better than average, transparency and tonal quality are exceptional for their size and price, and to me they have just the right amount of dynamics. Result is such pleasant vividness that makes me listen to music every night. Axiom''s customer service is also outstanding, just email Amy and she''ll take care of whatever problem you might have.

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm Minimons, AE Aegis 1, AR''s, JBL''s.

Balance, Transparency, and high quality vividness.

Slight exaggeration at midbass.

I''ve had these wonderful speakers for about 6 months now, and I''m yet to have a post-purchase syndrome. Speakers are extremely subjective especially when it comes down to describing their sound, and I don''t want to sound like something beats everything else in its price range. But as a Jazz music lover with a small room to set up my gears, these speakers definetely serve their purpose and some more. I think of M3Ti''s as very well balanced speakers. Aside from the fact that mid-bass area might be slightly exaggerated, I seriously can''t think of anything wrong with M3Ti''s sound, granted their size. They are definetely not those soft but murky sounding speakers, and they are not those neutral but boring ones either. As a matter of fact, "boring" might be the last word to describe these speakers. I''m not saying that these are hard-core head bangers for dorm students, although they do pretty decent job with "older" materials. Rather, the best quality I''ve found from these boxes, especially well recorded Jazz music, is the "Vividness." There''s something about M3Ti''s that makes the sound so.. alive. They are quite neutral, they have great tonal quality (especially with horns and percussion), detail that picks up fingering of cello maybe too loud, and transparency is the one thing that you can''t deny. However, in my honest opinion none of the virtures I just mentioned is "better than anything below $700" But the overall outcome of these beautifully balanced speakers are, well, simply amazing. I would say just the right amount of everything, if you don''t expect Sonus Faber out of these. Again vividness is the first word that comes to my mind after 6 months of listening. I used to own AR''s 3-way bookshelves, which didn''t really satisfy me, AE Aegis 1 which I found to be a bit to soft and boring for me, and Paradigm mini monitors for brief amount of time that kicked some butt with rock music, but for jazz music it just didn''t have the sophistication. But now whenever I play Art Blakey, Marsalis, Breckman, Corea, Foreplay, and so on, I''m more than impressed and better than happy. Service is great too, just email Amy at axiom(I believe she''s Mrs. Colquhoun) and she''ll help you out with the best she can. I had some shipping problem and she was more than nice to help me out through the process.

Similar Products Used:

AE Aegis 1, Paradigm Minimons, AR 308HO.

REALLY great treble area

slight midrange glare (may be my electronics however)

The new Boston cherry M3ti''''s came shipped to to my door in one big box. As I pulled the wedge shaped speakers out of the box I thought they were very attractive for the price but their vinyl cover does not look like real wood (no matter what that reviewer says.) The sound: I hated them. They have a glaring midrange, hard treble and no bass at all right out of the box. I thought the worst of them and was thinking I would be sending them back to Axiom for a refund. The amazing thing is that that was only eleven hours ago. In only eleven hours my feelings about these little beauties went from hate to love. I decided to do something I have never done before. To sit down and let a brand new pair of speakers go through some of their break-in period in one long marathon listening session. Yes, they still have more breaking in to do, but even after only 11 hours of listening I can say for certain I have never heard this quality of sound reproduction in any speaker for under $500. The highs improved very quickly. The treble soars to the furthest reaches of my hearing in a VERY detailed and natural manner. You can hear the true timbre of snares and strings and brushes etc. not just the HF hissssssssss that most tweeters give you. The web mag reviewers certainly got it right when they said this speakers tweeter was to good for its price. It is WAY more detailed and controlled than my old Paradigm Atoms and Paradigm monitor 3''''s. The bass was the second thing that improved dramatically. After about five hours into the session I began to notice a lot more punch. The bass depth is still improving at this point but I can already tell these will go plenty deep enough for my smallish room. Not as deep as my Paradigm monitor 3''''s but MUCH more under control. These speakers sound much larger than they really are. They won''''t give you a huge wall of sound like panel speakers can but certainly nothing will sound miniaturized. But then again I''''ve never liked the oversized (seven foot long flutes) that many electrostatic and ribbon panels will throw at you and ask you to call it natural. Also, they don''''t have the huge dynamic mid-bass punch of my little Paradigm Atoms but the Axioms mid-bass may be a little more natural. Because of their bass punch I think the Atoms will make better rock speakers than the Axioms, but the Axioms will reproduce acous

Similar Products Used:

paradigm Atom and monitor 3

Great bass for a speaker of it''s size. Blends perfectly with subwoofer for seamless bass extension. Smooth, neutral response. Absolutely no listener fatigue after hours of listening. Far outclasses other speakers in its price range. NO other budget speaker even came close in performance vs price.

A subwoofer is necessary for "complete" sound.

I had an older Axiom sub for my home theater that was given to me as a gift. When I decided to replace my main speakers with something relatively inexpensive (I was using a dinky in-a-box setup), I mentioned casually that I was looking to match to an Axiom sub. The salesperson recommended the M3. I auditioned it, then said I would come back with my own music and movies in a week or two. In the meantime, I browsed the rave reviews the M3 received on the SoundStage network, but was still skeptical. With my own software in hand, I went back to Wacky''s, with interim trips to Future Shop as well. The M3 blew away its competitors for every CD and DVD I had with me. The speaker is indeed as good as advertised. It has a laid-back feel to it that makes listening a pleasure for hours on end...I''m even enjoying my wife''s opera! In addition, it handles wildly dynamic movie soundtracks (The Matrix, Moulin Rouge) without breaking a sweat or missing anything. The M3 is not the best speaker ever made. You obviously miss out on subtleties of imaging with an inexpesive speaker, and for full-range sound the M3 needs to mate with a decent sub. However, if you''re looking for a starting point for a great stereo or home theater setup without taking a big hit at the bank, I would give my strongest recommendation to auditioning the M3.

Similar Products Used:

Cerwin-Vega LS-5 and LS-8, JBL N28, PSB, Polk Audio, Jensen, Energy (can''t remember models)

Soundstage, clarity, price, effortless music reproduction...

Price leads people to believe speakers are inferior (ie. so called audiophiles who can't believe a $220 speaker can compete with the big boys)

I love these speakers, they are small but they produce big sound. I listen to all types of music and they handle everything, at low volumes and high... I do have a sub so they may lack a little bit of that house rockin thump that rap/dance music produces but they produce bass nicely on their own. Other than that they are flawless, highly recommended - this is a fantastic product - at any price, you won't be disappointed. Keep in mind they do take a while to get worked in, mine just keep sounding better and better. When I listen to some of my old music it's like I'm hearing it for the first time...

Similar Products Used:

Too many

Clarity, price, quality of construction, quality of sound, smoooth,

None

I paid 300 canadian, I got $50 off for a pair with a 'cabinet blemish' I'm not quite sure what blemish they are referring to, I almost needed a magnifying glass to find the minor imperfections... I guess they sometimes have a problem putting on the cabinet finish on the second corner of the bevel on the front, haha but I can hardly notice so I'm very happy :))
They sound fantastic, I can't believe what I paid for this quality of sound...I hope Axiom doesn't get all big and famous and start getting greedy and overcharging anytime soon! I haven't listened to them for 100 hours yet, which according to one reviewer is what it takes to break them in, but I don't see how they can get any better!

Although these are fantastic bookshelf(or satellite) speakers I just want to say that they are just that..bookshelf speakers, I think when some people read a good review they expect a miracle, yes for 300 dollars my stereo sounds louder than a rock concert, smarten up people and always listen before you buy!!

I'm also scratchin my head about candice's review, I think she probably didn't connect them correctly and blew them up. It sounds like a problem with her amp/receiver -- VERY odd that BOTH would have internal damage... maybe she works for a rival speaker company :)

Similar Products Used:

Lots...

Amazing clarity, good imaging, surprising bass response.

At this price, I don't think so.

I own these speakers now for about 2 months, and they continue to amaze me. I have owned or heard floorstanding speakers costing 2 to 3 times as much as these little M3Ti's that don't come close to crystal clear sound they produce. They outperform both my JBL and my Jamo bookshelf speakers in every category except appearance, which is meaningless without good sound (the maple wood Jamo's do look sweet though). I am no audiophile, but I have yet to hear another bookshelf speaker that can match the Axiom's, and I've listened to just about everything over the last six months. They also continue to impress friends and family. I have people bringing over their favorite CD's to listen to them on my system. Are there better loudspeakers? Sure. For under $300, I don't think so. I am currently using an H/K AVR 500 to drive them, but they also sounded pretty good with my old Sony. The M3Ti's serve as mains in my 5.1 system.
One Note: Although the bass response is quite impressive for a bookshelf speaker this size, if you like deep punchy bass in your music and movies you probably won't be happy unless you have a sub. The best part of it is that you can experience a taste of audiophile quality sound without the insane price tag usually associated with high quality audio gear. Give these little Axiom's a listen and I think you will be amazed. If not send them back, you've got 30 days and the customer service will impress you.

Similar Products Used:

JBL, Energy, Polk, KEF, Klipsh, Jamo

Treble, Detail, Price

Ability to reproduce ensemble with electric bass

I got the Axioms M3ti SE from a Canadian Dealer (http://audioshop.on.ca)
for $380 Canadian, $238 US shipped to Boston. So, you can save money over the $275 offered on Axiom’s website, since Canadian dealers are willing to ship to the US. They were on ebay 3 months old and went for $227.50 shipped—proof that Ebay isn’t always a bargain. The dealer asked me to compare them to my NEAR 50 Mk IIs. That’s really unfair, since the NEARs cost nearly $2k, and are no longer made. One thing both have in common, all-metal drivers. I got the Axioms to give as a Christmas present.

So, I hooked the Axioms up. Here’s the rest of the setup:

Sources: Toshiba DVD-Audio Player 9200, Rega Planar 3 with Decca Gold Cartridge, Old Heathkit Tuner I made.
Van Alistine Mos-FET/Tube Preamp
Antique Sound Labs Explorer Single-Ended 40W Tube Monoblock Power Amps
DIY Interconnects
13x26’ Room is well damped with carpet, shades and upholstery, but he pump organ, baby grand piano, three guitars, hammer dulcimer and taterbug mandolin play along with the speakers.

Impressions: The brushed snare on Diana Krall’s “Why should I Care” single is a good tweeter test. You can really hear the circles the drummer made. Very clear. The tweeter is a sweetheart. Is it better than the NEAR? It may be brighter, more forward, but it isn’t worse than the NEARs. The Guitar intro on Bruce Cockburn’s “Last Night of the World” and Leslie Sacher’s Love Letter Dobro are likewise very clear, high definition audio in the midrange. Percussion in general has good punch, soundstaging and dispersion cannot be faulted.

I ran into trouble with Natalie Merchant’s “Carnival” on her TigerLily DVD-audio. As soon as the electric bass came in the inner detail went to hell. I had to back off the volume to get greater clarity. But, it didn’t wholly come back. I think it is asking too much of the woofer/midrange to do both. It is working so hard to reproduce the electric bass that it is moving out of the voice coil’s sweet spot and losing definition. It didn’t happen with other low instruments like acoustic bass or kick drum. I think it is just the fat, sustained blare of an electric bass. So often pop albums are mixed for ear buds or car stereos, and this one likewise has an artificially loud bottom to make up for the rolloff in portable speakers. It made me think that maybe the best Axiom combination would be a sub-satellite setup, like Cambridge Soundworks.

Speaking of CS, I got an Ensemble (III?…the smallest ones with the two driver sats) for my father a while back, and since they are in the same price range, it might bear comparison. The CS system has fewer vices and deeper range, but isn’t as clear. A flannel shirt over the Axiom tweeter would imitate the sound. The midrange in the CS is wooly-sweet, but doesn’t get as congested as the Axioms, I presume because the sub takes up the low frequencies. In comparison to the Axioms, though, the Ensemble is mid-fi, purely on the transparency difference.

Speaking of transparency, the last measure of midrange definition goes to the NEARs, but not by much. Only with more than five instruments playing I could notice that the background instruments blend a little with the Axioms. It is probably just a function of the smaller, faster 4” midrange cone of the NEARs vs. the 6.5 inch Axioms. I didn’t miss the deep bass of the NEARs. I almost wish the Axioms didn’t try so hard to be full range, they lost so much going deep.

In a way, the last measure of midrange definition serves only to drive me up a wall. A standard CD has upper midrange grain that the NEARs reproduce faithfully, especially in close-miked vocals. I don’t know if modern mikes close miked impart that grain to produce “presence” or if it is a digital artifact, but it doesn’t exist in old vinyl or live-to-tape. HDCD is better, DVD-Audio is better still, but the vocal grain is still there. The best modern vocals are either not close-miked, big voices say Kathleen Battle or Thomas Hampson. Barbara Streisand also seems to avoid it using her antique Neumann mike, everything else, Alanis Morrisette, Sheryl Crow, all of the small, close-miked voices have that grain. It really isn’t part of real singers’ vocal resonances, since the pulsations, overtones and layer of the buzz is unharmonic and electronic-sounding, not what comes from a human throat making sound waves. The Axioms smooth it out, so it sounds like a natural part of character voices, like say Huey Lewis or Dave Matthews. I have spent years in choral societies. It seems like the current crop of sound engineers for pop recordings only know what a good PA sounds like, not a natural unamplified voice.

The Axioms love vinyl, loved my tubes, got really sweet and smooth with my audiophile pressings of Dave Mason and the Doors. Flawless guitar, piano and voice timbre. It may have helped that vinyl does have compressed dynamics. Short digression: Check out www.warrengregoire.com for the best phono cartridge ever made: the Decca. I can’t get www.audioreview.com to give it a listing, so here’s a free plug.

The Axioms are neither analytical nor warm. I couldn’t notice any coloration. In that, they are like the NEARs. The only other thing I noticed was a slight heaviness in the lower midrange. They have a soft resonance around @100 Hz. More of a mound than a peak. It is a hazard of bookshelf speakers I remember from the old KLH, Acoustic Research, Advent, Boston Acoustics days. It is conspicuous by its absence in boxless designs like the classic Quad Electrostats, or the tuned radiator 3rd and 4th order Butterworth filter designs like the Early Polks or ElectoVoices, now continued in the classic Dunlaveys. It is pretty tame in the Axioms. Makes you feel like you have more bass than you do.

I can’t imagine better sound coming from a 12x8x8” box. The dealer says the M22ti is doing better saleswise, probably the two 5 inch drivers beat one 6.5 because they have lower mass apiece for greater detail and don’t have to work as hard to produce the low frequencies, since between the two they have more surface area. Just don’t ask the M3tis to reproduce electric bass at live volumes and you’ll be fine.

Back to the NEARs, that effortlessly fill the 13x26’ space. While the Axioms do a fine job of the timbre of a piano, especially in treble, competently on bass, with the NEARs you can hear the pedal felts coming off. The NEARs aren’t perfect. They don’t play really loud, they soak up amplifier power, and the bass is weird (I probably have to do something with spikes). I don’t know what would be available to compete with them, Thiels? They seem to share the same cabinet manufacturer, at a wicked price multiple. Martin Logan? You must be able to hear the transition from sub to electrostat. An old B&W tried that and sounded really schizo. I’d be tempted to try an Axiom sub-satellite combination. Maybe also the www.ascendacoustics.com people. Everything else is too expensive.

Scott

Similar Products Used:

Polk, Cambridge Soundworks

clarity, balance, smoothness, value, very musical, easy to drive

long break-in required, about 100+ hours.

Must concur with Jeff. The M3Ti is an outstanding monitor that is worth far more than its asking price. I own several Axiom-Audio speakers, and cannot help but marvel at the wonderful sound they produce.

I was disappointed when I first heard that the company was discontinuing their AX line of speakers and replacing them with the new M series. I have always preferred soft domes over metal tweeters and was concerned that the new titanium tweeters would be grating on the ears. Not so. The M3Ti were wonderful to listen to, possessing the familiar Axiom refined tone to which I had become accustomed.

However, what was new was the startling clarity of presentation. Transparency so stunning that it would make one (almost) believe that they were listening to live music. Compounded to this is their ability to be driven reasonably well with modest electronics. Cannot say thay about my 4-ohm AX series Axioms which DO require quality electronics to get them to sing.

The one and only problem that I had with my pair of M3Tis was the presence of a slight indentation in one of the woofer cones. Cannot say that it affected the sound quality, only that it wasn't going to do. I called the company a few days later and was told that they would ship me forthwith, and at their cost, a new driver cone. No questions asked (except for my address!). Sure enough, the very next morning, I received a new woofer cone by courier. Fair to say that this is a company that firmly stands by its products and service to its customers.

I think it is also fair to say that I have been "spoiled" by the Axiom sound. When looking for a pair of new computer speakers several months ago, I was so disappointed when auditioning various computer speakers (i.e. Cambridge Soundworks, Altec Lanseng, etc.). I did not want to compromise. So I purchased a pair of M zeros (in gloss black, of course!) and a small Onkyo sub for my computer. Wow! Never have my Mp3s sounded this good!

To date, the M3Ti is the best speaker that I own. It is also one of the least expensive speakers that I have purchased. Consequently, its value quotient remains exceptionally high. For the budget audiophile in all of us, the M3Ti is the way to go. Highly recommended, especially in the Boston Cherry finish.

Similar Products Used:

Axiom Mzero, Axiom Millenia AX 1 reference monitor, Axiom AX 3 towers, Axiom AX 500a subwoofers, Mission 70 Mk.2 monitor, Jensen LS-5 towers.

Everything you could hope for in a bookshelf design speaker

Absolutely none at this level

Friends, you will not find a better bookshelf speaker at a better price ANYWHERE! The M3Ti speakers are an incredible value that simply cannot be topped at this point in time. The price is $275 U.S. direct from Axiom. This is very reasonable, but I got mine at a 20% discount because I agreed to accept a pair of cabinet blemish speakers. Supposedly, these have some very minor finish scratches, but I couldn't find any. Not that it matters anyway; they still have Axiom's 30-day return option, and full 5-year warranty. Does anyone else offer this guarantee?

Yes, you can buy a better speaker, but not at this price. Listen, if you want a high quality bookshelf speaker at the best price to be found anywhere, then purchase the Axioms. My guess is that any of the other models in the Millenia series will perform just as well, and would also be a tremendous value. I'm convinced that this company is producing some of the best speakers on the market for the money. And the customer service is topflight.

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Realistic Minimus 7