Speakers Distance from Wall

05-29-14: Philtangerine
... How do you feel Axiom, or even Mirage, compare to Definitives?

As I mentioned, I have owned and still own several Mirage speakers. Last fall I was on a speaker quest and so listened to quite a few, including MartinLogan Motion 40, Sonus Fabere Venere 2.5, GoldenEar Triton Seven, Magneplanar 1.7 (which I bought), and Phase Technology bipolar towers. Of those speakers (and of the Mirages I already had at home), the Phase Techs--while sounding pleasant on their own--did not have anywhere near the resolution of the other speakers mentioned.

Their bipolars never impressed me the same way the Mirages did--and still do--as my 1998 M5si's anchor my HT rig which gets used every day.

You have a lot of space to fill for $3K, but an interesting solution occurred to me--Axiom Audio. They're an internet-direct company with design and manufacturing in Canada, with offices in the US. They have some serious talent there including Andrew Welker, former designer with Mirage who had designed that company's Omnipolar and Omniguide lines of omnidirectional speakers.

I think omni, bipolar, and dipole speakers are a good fit for your situation because their designs can bring your room acoustics into the mix in a good way, helping to reflect the sound to fill the space.

Axiom offers three omnidirectional speaker models designed by Andrew Welker. They include DSP and a rear-channel amp that modifies the rear channel signal to provide a room-filling soundstage and at the same time provide sharper imaging than is customary with omnis.

Their top two omnis are priced above your stated budget, but the LFR 660 comes in at $2960 with free shipping. Even this one is pretty good-sized, with twin woofers and front- and back-firing mids and tweets.

If you go with a conventional front-firing model, you can get their flagship M100 V4 starting at $2790. However, for a more furniture-grade solution, you could go with the M80 v4 and trick it out with real wood veneer and outriggers and still come in at budget.

There are plenty of reviews linked from the website to get a more complete picture of how these speakers sound and what they're good at. As mentioned, shipping to you is free, you get a 30-day eval period, and if you return them, the return shipping is far less than you would spend on your own.

I have no affiliation with Axiom, but I am a fan and owner of several Andrew-Welker designed speakers. I love their tonal balance and the uniform way they energize a room.

When Philtangerine first posted, I immediately thought of Maggie 3.7s plus a sub or two, but it was above his stated budget. 1.7s plus subs would fit the budget, but w/o knowing his listening preferences, wasn't sure if they'd be big enough.

I listen to 1.7s plus subs in a 15x18 LR with 15' vaulted ceiling and the whole thing projects out onto a near wall-less open architecture. It fills the space just fine, even for big band or large scale orchestra, but I don't listen to much head-bangin' rock.

To answer the question, a 200 wpc Adcom should do fine with the 3.7s. Maggie's new x.7s series seems to be more amp-friendly than the older models.

And of course Maggies thrive with lots of space around them. I sure love mine.

WIth a 20-30Khz response and a friendly $2500/pr price tag, perhaps you should consider the Tekton Design Pendragon or the smaller--but still substantial-- SEAS Pendragon.

Reviews here.