AdamP88
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2001
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Well, they lack compared to the Paradigms, but that's not really a fair comparison as the Paradigms are floorstanders with dual 8" drivers and the Axioms are dual 5 1/4" drivers. On their own the Axioms go down to about 50hz, so for most electric bass and acoustic bass, you'll get a decent (but not great) representation of low bass. You won't get chest thumping bass and you'll definitely miss out on some low frequency info, but on the plus side you don't get any bass bloat that many bookshelves are guilty of. The M22s play what bass they can accurately, and then roll off smoothly but quickly.
Because the rolloff is so smooth and they don't try and overcompensate for bass, the M22s mate extremely well with a good sub. We've got them mated to an SVS PS1-ISD, and they match seamlessly. They sound much bigger than they are, with a real sense of authority, and have much better bass extension (22hz) than most floorstanders.
Anyway, if you're only looking to buy a pair for standalone playback, then I could understand if you felt the M22's were a little bass-shy. Don't get me wrong, for their size and the size of the drivers the bass is good, but I went from listening to a floorstander to listening to this much smaller bookshelf. But with the outstanding overall qualities of the M22, and the money you're saving over models of similar sonic quality, you owe it to yourself to get a decent sub to go along.
You could spend <$1K on the M22 and a good sub and have a system that beats the pants off $2K or even $3K floorstanders.
Because the rolloff is so smooth and they don't try and overcompensate for bass, the M22s mate extremely well with a good sub. We've got them mated to an SVS PS1-ISD, and they match seamlessly. They sound much bigger than they are, with a real sense of authority, and have much better bass extension (22hz) than most floorstanders.
Anyway, if you're only looking to buy a pair for standalone playback, then I could understand if you felt the M22's were a little bass-shy. Don't get me wrong, for their size and the size of the drivers the bass is good, but I went from listening to a floorstander to listening to this much smaller bookshelf. But with the outstanding overall qualities of the M22, and the money you're saving over models of similar sonic quality, you owe it to yourself to get a decent sub to go along.