m22 vs. atom

No reason to kick yourself. The Atom speaker has been out there for more than 16 years ... it is a good speaker for the money. Each iteration has been a winner.

Getting back to your previous post, you should try shelf placement before buying stands. I have had cats with high flying talents for two decades now and have had to place speakers out of necessity on shelves inside of bookcases, on top of bookcases, on their sides on shelves inside of bookcases ... you get the idea. They perform pretty well, especially if the shelf/bookcase has an open back ... otherwise you wind up with a box inside of a box. If you feel that the bass response is losing something, simply plug the rear port with foam ... it will work just fine.

Regards, Rich

Thanks guys... that is SUCH a relief to hear. You have put my heart to rest :). These speakers are indeed primarily for music listening, not home theatre... so it feels good to know I made a good choice. I had a feeling having 2 midrange drivers on the axiom as opposed to 1 on the atom felt like a quality vs. quantity thing... I mean, as an extreme example, I have a pair of Fisher speakers that have 5 drivers... 2 tweeters, 2 mids, and a 15" sub... and they sound like garbage compared to the atoms.

About the stands... I actually just picked up a pair last night off of audioadvisor based on a link from another thread I posted... seemed like a good deal at $50 marked down from $200. The issue of the speakers being knocked over is indeed a concern of mine... that is one thing that appealed to me about the bookshelf route. Although I don't have any cats or dogs to worry about... there is always the occasional dancing mis-step or burning meteor through the window. I will have to think of some way to brace them well...

What do people use to attach the speaker to the stand? I heard BluTac mentioned... not sure what it is or if there is a better way...

Okay. First go to Office Max and spend $1.50 on blue poster tack as the Blu Tac is grossly over priced. Second. I've owned Paradigm Atoms and Axiom. You've done fine. Good trick is to open them up and pack the corners with rope caulking from Home Depot. It will lower the cabinet resonance if these are the older model with MDF. These are great little speakers. Enjoy

These are new V.5 atoms, but I think they still use MDF... 3/4" though, so it's pretty thick. I wouldn't have the guts to open the speakers up yet being an audio equipment newbie... but the Blu Tac alternative is intriguing.

How adhesive is this stuff? Are my speakers going to be permanently attached to the stands? I think I heard one person say they ripped off some of the finish on the bottom of their speaker by lifting it off a stand with Blu Tac.

I'll bet the Atoms would sound great with the Arcam Solo.