Amie and Ian Colquhoun of Axiom Audio
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2001 Product of the Year: Axiom Audio Millennia M3Ti SE
Loudspeakers
GoodSound!'s existence is a celebration of
affordable audio equipment, as our regular readers will attest. Therefore, the GoodSound!
Product of the Year must represent a great value among great values. While a POTY
must offer quality at a fair price, it must also be good beyond qualification. And this
year, do we ever have a dandy.
The GoodSound! Guys have chosen the Axiom Audio
Millennia M3Ti SE as the GoodSound! Product of the Year for 2001. At $275 per pair,
you should expect good sound and a solid value, but what you get with these speakers is great
sound and an extraordinary value. And that makes them something worth
talking about.
When you un-box the M3Ti SE several things stand out right
away. The first is the aluminum-cone drivers. You don’t expect to see such high-tech
(or high-cost) parts on a $275 pair of bookshelf loudspeakers, but the drivers are only
the start. From the all-metal binding posts to the trapezoidal cabinet, designed to break
up internal standing waves (which Axiom calls Anti Standing Wave or ASW for short), the
M3Ti SE simply screams performance. And while the measurements
help to confirm this truth, listening to your favorite music through them tells the whole
story.
And -- you better believe it -- the M3Ti SE delivers great
performance. Our GoodSound! Guys have waxed lyrical about the sound of the M3Ti SE.
Doug Schneider said, "It has soaring, extended highs that never fatigue the listener
and quite extended bass, given the small size of its box." You certainly get more at
the frequency extremes than you expect. It's what’s in the middle, however, that
seals the deal. Doug elaborated: "What really sets this speaker apart -- and I mean really
sets it apart -- is its midrange performance. It has an exceedingly clear, you-are-there
presentation that can fool you into thinking you are listening to a speaker that’s
far more expensive."
The M3Ti SE can serve as the heart of a more complex
system, too. As good as these easy-to-drive speakers are on their own, what excited John
Potis is, "how easy it is to integrate them with a quality subwoofer for a
presentation that combines their delicacy and finesse with the brawn and wall-flexing
power of a much more expensive system."
Vince Hanada captured the little Axiom as well as any,
stating, "When I think of the M3Ti SE, I think balanced. Although other
bookshelf speakers may exceed certain aspects of the M3Ti SE's performance, no bookshelf
speaker to which I've listened has offered such balanced sound."
And that last bit really sums up the point of GoodSound!.
When you can spend so little and get great sound across the board, you’ve really
accomplished something. The Axiom Audio Millennia M3Ti SE has certainly accomplished a lot
in the past year, including our award for Product of the Year for 2001.
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