Epic 80 Build Quality
One of the first things I noted about the Axiom Audio M80ti(s) was their hefty weight. At 57lbs/ea these speakers aren't made for walking. Put on the spikes and they hungrily grab your floor and buckle down for the long haul.
The gold-plated double binding posts were situated well on the back of the M80ti(s), allowing for easy attachment of my bi-wire cables, but also providing for any other sort of connection you may wish to engage. With this said, we couldn't figure out why Axiom didn't utilize the same binding posts on the VP150. Ours came with a different type of connector that made it almost impossible to attach a standard banana jack. We actually bent a high-quality gold banana tip in attempting to insert it into the center channel!
The
internal bracing on the M80ti(s) is solid. And there
is damping material aplenty inside of the enclosures.
I was particularly impressed with the quality of
the vinyl finish (mine was the Boston Cherry). "Seamless"
is the word that comes to mind. Unless you're sporting
some nicer speakers, you may be used to seeing edges
and corners where the vinyl meets vinyl. Not on
Axiom's line - we're talking invisible joints and
corners, and that's refreshingly nice. It makes
the speakers, already a great bang for the buck,
seem like an even better investment.
Let's
talk ports for a moment. The M80ti(s) have three
each, one on front and two on the back. The midrange
drivers are completely isolated from the rest of
the speakers via the internal chamber construction.
The triple vortex ports are tuned solely for the
dual 6.5" low frequency woofers, which contributes
to them attaining such good frequency response.
