upgrade

[shokhead]

From my 7 year old B&W 603's,602's and cc6 to Axiom M50's,M22 and vp150. Upgrade?

[N. Abstentia]

Man I don't know....a step up? Probably not. I'd say sideways or even a downgrade but you might like the sound of the Axioms better. It's all relative. If they sound better to you then they are an upgrade.

[kexodusc]

I don't know the 602's and 603's from 7 years ago well at all. The best I can do is provide a comparison with Paradigm's Monitor Series lineup and the M3Ti's I own and the M22's I'm very familiar with. Axiom's speakers are easily as bright as the Pardigms, which is great for detail, but can be a bit fatiguing during violin music I find. They're a bit shy in the bass compared to the Paradigms. Other than that I find them to have superior resolution and a bit better imaging. The midrange is clearly better with the Axioms, very low distortion, they like playing loud. I find my M3Ti's less fatiguing than I remember my old Mini Monitors being. My Axioms were really fussy to setup and get optimal sound though, for the longest time I thought they were sub-par, but I tried them with almost no toe-in at all and it was surprised at their performance...they need to have some distance from the side walls though. They're not as good as Paradigm's Studio line, which you'll see Axiom fans claim too often, but definitely a bit better than the Monitor line over all - so somewhere in between.

I think they're a bit cheaper than a lot of comparable speakers still, so they might be a good buy relative to Paradigm, B&W, etc. Axioms are known for being very easy to integrate with subwoofers because of the fast roll-off, and you'll need a sub to compensate for the slightly less bass.

Whether these are a worthwhile upgrade to your 600's I can't say - I'd consider them fairly close to the current DM600 S3 line-up in terms of overall performance...you might like them more, you might not. If they are an upgrade, I'm not sure they'd be a big upgrade...

Geoffcin might be a good guy to track down and seek input from, he's heard a few models I haven't and I believe also had a good impression with Axiom.

Not sure if this is any help...it's hard shopping for Axiom since you can't easily demo their models.

Oh, one last thing - the fit and finish/looks are better than most at that pricepoint -looks are important too.