Back in 2009 James Tanner, Bryston’s CEO, had designed a speaker he dubbed The Model T, for Tanner.

James needed a speaker capable of full range, big time power and better dynamics than other financially attainable towers at the time. James’ goal was to have some Model Ts built for Bryston’s R&D facilities to help them better design electronics.

James reached out to Ian Colquhoun, who owned Axiom. Axiom had been making speakers down the road a piece for 30 years that it sold at bargain prices direct to the public. James hoped that Axiom might be willing the build a few Model Ts to his specs. Ian is an agreeable guy and said yes, sounds like fun- this little Bryston project.

The Model T is a much bigger, more powerful beast compared to anything Axiom had made. For example, Model T was based on three 8” cast frame woofers, each of which was 5.5” deep and weighed 15 lbs! The finished Model T is a 108 pound tower. Axiom had never built anything close as it focused on the blue collar buyer.

When these new Model Ts reached the Bryston factory, they blew the engineering team away. James got big kudos for creating speakers that would allow Bryston to hear things they hadn’t heard before. Three pairs were immediately put to work. At this juncture, James thought Bryston’s relationship with Axiom was complete.

Well… there was that pesky recession in 2009. Does anybody out there still remember how March 9 changed the world?

Companies like B&W and Kef, who dominated the upper crust speaker market got their teeth punched in over night. Orders across virtually every business were canceled as the stock market tanked. The audio biz was hit especially hard. We know a custom cabinet maker who saw almost $3m worth of orders canceled within 24 hours. His biz was flushed within 90 days as the house of cards came down. It was very sad, especially because it was mostly due to mortgage deception nation wide.

Speaker companies that were making products in Europe and N America could no longer sell real quantities of speakers. Their orders were onesies- few and far between. Pricing virtually doubled as this played out.

The boys at Bryston started thinking… Since B&W, Kef and the other guys who were dominating the sub $10k market almost DOUBLED in a flash, perhaps this auspicious Model T might just step right in and find support in the market place.

Bryston had Axiom do a short run of Model Ts and guess what? The market saluted! Model T found a welcome home in the audio culture instantaneously with its huge performance and 20 year warranty. They made wonderful sounding, powerful speakers and weren’t interested in long production runs that could get them into speculative trouble.

Audio Emporium, among other dealers, found customers who were delighted to buy this BIG BOY tower with major league power and dynamic range characteristics- at LESS money than what was driving the biz just a short time before.

It wasn’t long before James expanded the T series, based around his work on the Model T specifically. Shortly thereafter, James created the A series that revolved around 6.5” woofs instead of 8s. Within a couple short years Bryston was contracting Axiom to make a plethora of high performing speakers. The relationship was so successful that the companies merged and is now simply called Bryston.

Axiom’s construction know how and efficiency allowed Bryston to get into the speaker business. Bryston’s engineering expertise created the Bryston lineup, and is now enhancing Axiom’s speakers as well.

Of course James nailed down his Bryston Ts and As first. He has since augmented these lines with the company’s premier range, the T10s. With this work finished, Bryston is focusing its expertise on the Axiom lineup. New models have been coming into the line in the past six months or so.

If you check our recent newsletters you’ll find a dozen or more Axiom models that have been introduced, benefiting on this relationship with Bryston. At long last I’ll get to the point of THIS missive, which is to introduce two exciting, affordable, muscular Axiom towers.

Axiom Models

The goal is to make Axiom speakers sonically competitive with Bryston at significantly lower price points. By dissecting every detail of the design, James ultimately found that he could achieve much of Bryston’s sonic refinement while sacrificing mainly power limits. If you love the Bryston sound but don’t need the sports car top speed, Axiom is a perfect fit.

Axiom models are similar to Bryston models in many ways, but don’t have quite the bass or power handling capabilities that Bryston has. The drivers, crossover components and cabinets used in Axiom models aren’t as robust as Bryston. But for customers that don’t demand the muscle that Bryston produces, Axiom provides an outstanding alternative for much less money with a 5 year warranty.

Doubles

These two new towers are based on Bryston’s “doubles” blueprint. Each model uses a pair of tweets, mids & woofs. Well, M100 uses three woofs. M80 uses a pair.

The purpose of running doubles is multi-fold. Doubles allow much higher power handling. Doubles produce a taller, wider sound stage. You’ll be pleased, and surprised, by just how massive and spacious the soundstage is with Bryston and Axiom speakers running the doubles technology. There’s the added benefit of higher efficiency as well.

Tanner introduced the doubles in the big dog Model T at the beginning of Bryston’s speaker journey. He further implemented it into the Bryston models A1 and A2, with great success soon after. We have sold truckloads of A1s and A2s over the years. And by the way, they are all still under warranty to the original buyers. M80 and M100 are the same sizes as their Bryston brothers. They just don’t pack quite the punch.

Axiom M80 Towers, $2300 Per Pair

{39.5h, 9.25w, 17d, 63 lbs, 4 ohms, 94 dB SPL}

M80 runs PAIRS of drivers. Think of M80 as a Bryston A2 “light.”

You get a pair of Titanium tweets, a pair of 5.25” Pure Aluminum Mids and a pair of Pure Aluminum 6.5” woofs.

Freq response is 34-20kHz, +/- 3dB. You’ll find Chinese built towers for $5k don’t even come close in the bass.

Efficiency is a surprisingly high 94dB. Axiom impedance graphs are friendly, a world easier than the Chinese for example.

Axiom M100 Towers, $3000 Per Pair

{47.5h, 9.25w, 17d, 81 lbs, 4 ohms, 92 dB SPL}

M100 adds an additional woofer in a larger cabinet with a more sophisticated crossover.

Think of M100 as a Bryston A1 “light.” M100 has more air, space and power than M80.

Freq response is 31-20kHz +/- 3dB. Once again, you’ll find $6k Chinese towers that die at about 50 Hz. They’re no match for M100, much less the Bryston A1.

Efficiency is a very manageable 92dB. M100’s impedance graph shows it to be a breeze to drive. The Chinese competitors are a roller coaster of hiccups for your amp to navigate.