If you start shopping for speakers at this price point, you’ll probably Google, “Best Speakers for $2k.” What comes up?

In alphabetical order the most common brands are: B&W, Dali, Fluance, GoldenEar, JBL, Kef, Martin Logan, Monitor Audio, Wharfedale.

What do all of these have in common? They’re all made in China and have big advertising budgets. Most of these are made by job houses that make a plethora of brands. In fact, several of THESE are made in the same house, as you can derive from their similar design. It’s like looking at the same golf shirt with different logos.

I’m not saying these speakers are BAD.

I am saying we can do better- and not support Chinese job houses in the process.

Let’s get better sound, with superior reliability AND support a family owned company who builds with TLC in Canada.

Please consider Bryston/Axiom. These two family owned Canadian companies were once separate entities. They merged some years ago and the company is simply called Bryston. Bryston is the banner used for their higher end speakers with 20 year warranty. Axiom is the less expensive line with 5 year warranty.

Axiom M60, $1900 Per Pair

{37.5h, 9.25w, 15d, 48 lbs, 92dB SPL, 8 ohms, 10-250 w/ch}

Black Ash, Walnut, Boston Cherry

The best alternative to all of the above Chinese imports is the Axiom M60.

M60 is a fanny kicking 3-way that will rock your world. The bass is deep and hefty, yet defined. The $2k speakers from China are flimsy in comparison.

M60 uses a Titanium tweeter. It sounds smoother than aluminum or mixed dome construction. The midrange and woofer drivers are constructed of contiguous Pure Aluminum. The Chinese use paper or woven fiber for the most part. They’re big on running sandwiches of drivers, using one material glued to another. Bryston much prefers its Pure Aluminum which won’t suffer from annoying buzzing or distortion from mass produced sandwich drivers that weren’t made just right.

M60 is Steinway Smooth on top. The Chinese are invariably tuned BRIGHTER to grab your attention. This is no accident. Axiom is more accurate in tonal balance for acoustic instruments like pianos, guitars, violins, and most importantly, the human voice.

Let’s address the bass first. M60 goes down to 36Hz within 3dB, and will move the floor boards in your living room. M60 use two heavy 6.5” woofers with a legit 3-way crossover. The Chinese speakers listed above will barely reach 50 Hz, regardless of their advertising claims. They’re big on sandwich drivers with small magnets, configured in a 2.5 way (instead of real 3-way) design. We have seen these speakers actually measured in mags like Stereophile and British hi-fi News. The $5k offerings from these Chinese guys rarely touch 45Hz.

What this means to your music is that M60 will deliver the impact of a big drum kit or stand up bass. M60 will allow you to feel the lowest register of the piano so you can appreciate what LVB wrote in the magnificent Pathetique piano sonata.

The logical question would be, how does Bryston/Axiom accomplish this while far richer and better known companies do not?

On the R&D side Bryston has some advantages over the big names. In addition to having its own anechoic chamber to work with every day, Bryston has a secret weapon. That weapon is its 100 foot tall tower in the countryside. An anechoic chamber only allows a designer to measure down to

about 90Hz due to the boundaries of the room. Below 90Hz the designer is basically working with his educated guess as to what’s happening. That’s OK. But Bryston is PRECISE. In the R&D stage of every model in the Bryston/Axiom family, that prototype is run up the tower. It is measured down to 12Hz without the limitation of room boundaries. Bryston can see exactly how the speaker performs down to lower than we can hear. This allows Bryston to attain deep bass while remaining taut all the way. This is a tool the rich guys simply don’t have.

Bryston makes its own drivers in house. Each driver has to pass a battery of 8 tests before being moved on. The Chinese just screw drivers into boxes as quickly as they come off the line.

The benefit of Bryston’s TLC is first of all, richer & more powerful bass. Bass is the foundation of music. When you hear M60 you’ll appreciate it right off the bat. You can’t miss it. Along with that more powerful driver array comes increased reliability.

Bryston/Axiom’s imaging is outstanding. Because the L&R speakers measure virtually identical in performance, a centered vocal is striking to behold. It’s like viewing your world through glasses of an accurate RX vs… being in the neighborhood.

The QC efforts guaranty a mellow rather than acerbic midrange/high end. Steinway is the world’s favorite piano for its timbre. Let’s appreciate it through a clear window instead of through colored glasses.

Bryston has trickled down the technology it uses to make its high end speakers, which are some of the best values on the market. Axiom models have become the beneficiary of this work. Please visit to hear M60 in person- the old fashioned way to shop for speakers!