Axiom Audio Epic 80 Loudspeaker System Review

Epic 80 Movie Theater Experience

Having come from a background in recording engineering and sound design for motion picture films, my passion is for good home theater loudspeaker systems. As such, my approach to this speaker review is purposefully structured to focus on the Epic 80's use as a home theater. Plenty of commentary is already available on the Epic 80 system which speaks to its build quality and penchant for producing loud, undistorted sound - and certainly these topics will be addressed later in this review. This exposition, however, is going to hone in on the practical applications, price, performance and overall value of having this system integrated into your primary entertainment center. By applying a real-world expectation and emphasis on home theater performance, I will attempt to present a practical review of the Epic 80 system.

But what about 2-channel and multi-format audio, you ask? Rest assured, I'll address musical applications as well, but I like to be up-front about my direction and intent on a review, so that there is no confusion about the intended audience or direction.

Back Story: The Movie Theater Experience
As the price of movie tickets go up and up, it almost seems that less and less attention is paid to the technical specs and maintenance of the theatrical systems. I'm sure you have all experienced the blown driver, or out of phase speaker that I have in certain theater venues. Maybe, like me, you even call ahead to check in which room a particular showing of a first-run movie is going to take place! What is the reason for this insanity? The achievement of the best possible experience.

 How does Axiom Audio's Epic 80 system play into all of this? As a proud new father, I know the merits of having a movie theater-killing system in your home. With less time available for going out, not to mention the added costs, one finds that having an excellent system in your home provides a wonderful venue for entertainment. One that does so at reduced cost while providing better imaging than a movie theater system. Big theatrical sound CAN be had in the home.

Epic 80 Packaging and Reference System

Axiom Audio is well-known for their great 30-day trial period offer. If, during the first 30 days, you do not like their speakers, they will refund your full purchase price. Shipping is free throughout North America and they have a 5-year warranty against manufacturers defects (1 year on subwoofers.)

The speakers arrived in double boxes, wrapped in plastic and braced with styrofoam. The foam was particularly cheap, as all but one piece broke during the shipment. It did its job protecting the gear, but it would be nice to have a more rigid solution for repacking in the event of a move or warranty replacement. When I find myself nitpicking about protective foam, it should give you an idea of how well these speakers performed.

The M80ti(s) and EP350 sub come with optional spikes and plastic feet for creating a solid connection to [through] your particular flooring material. I attached my floor standing speakers through the berber carpet using the spikes. As with any spike system, it is best to find a good position for your speakers first, then apply the spikes. Reversing the order makes for difficult speaker adjustments and needless hassle.

The Testing System

The Axiom Audio Epic 80 system fit well within my 12 x 20 listening room, providing enough room for the speakers to fire without being overly inundated by reflections. Below is the configuration utilized for this review:

The Sherbourn 7/2100 amp cleanly powers a 4-ohm load at 300 watts/channel and an 8-ohm load at 200 watts/channel. With regards to power handling, the Axiom Epic 80 system is 6-ohms all around, except for the M80ti(s) which are 4-ohm. I found that the speakers performed best at moderate to high SPLs. Music and home theater is dynamic, and without giving these speakers enough power, you're just missing out on all they have to offer .

The Listening Environment

My listening room is characterized by a series of natural baffles and a good combination of neutral materials. Lots of time it is necessary to hang draperies and build or purchase fancy bass traps to eliminate problems in a room. I prefer to do it naturally, and as I built my home, I was able to construct a room where the furniture and natural materials could do most of the work for me. Bookshelves serve as diffusers, and 9' flat ceilings with berber carpet produce a room that is lively, but not highly-reflective.

The central listening position is a sofa located in the center of the room, 11 feet from the front wall, and 8' from the rear wall. The M80ti(s) are 9' apart and the QS8(s) are 7' apart on the rear wall to allow for reflectivity of the 'quadpolar' design. The EP350 is situated inside of the left M80ti with the 180 degree phase switch engaged. This configuration was chosen after a long and arduous attempt at finding the best place for the subwoofer. Placing the EP350 directly in the corner of the room yielded poor results: bass response was reduced and very loose. Having heard the EP350 in other rooms, I knew the secret was finding just the right position for the cabinet. After several trials involving crawling around on all fours (yes it does work!) I located the subwoofer in its optimal position.

Epic 80 Adjusting the Speakers

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.

Epic 80 CD and DTS Audio Evaluation

We all have our favorite albums with which to listen to systems. It's important, because it's the only way to have a prayer at comparing a new system to what you already know, or the defacto standard you have created in your memory. For me, I utilize several albums which I will describe below. There are others I utilize as well, but these cover a wide array of testing material. These albums have been with me for quite some time and serve as good references for fidelity, imaging and how the speakers handle smooth Lexicon [or other] reverbs.

Steely Dan Gold (Expanded Edition) CD
I like to hear the clarity of a speaker system by playing "Hey Nineteen" at high SPLs. I could almost hear the M80ti(s) merely laughing at my futile attempt to test the punch in the guitars. When the background vocals chimed in I couldn't believe how much additional depth and detail were present. The most impressive detail present during percussion and absolutely revealed finger noise during guitar string plucking. After listening to the song a second time around I noticed that when moving off axis by just a few feet I experienced a dramatic phase shift in the music. Toeing the M80ti(s) in a little further relieved this and the shift disappeared. In fact, after the adjustment, walking around the center of the room yielded a fairly consistent timbre, probably due to the multiple drivers of the M80ti(s) which fill the entire area. The reverb in "Deacon Blues" absolutely enveloped the listening room with a smooth, natural sound unmatched with other speakers in this price range.

Epic 80 Movie Evaluation

For a review that was supposed to focus on the benefits of the Epic 80 Home Theater system, you are probably wondering how come it took this long to get to the movies! The truth is, the Epic 80 system is such a well-rounded set of speakers; I had to ensure that I fully explained its ability to accurately reproduce good music. But even more than that, this system offers a performance that exceeds systems costing far more.

With that having been said, there is a reason these speakers are designated the Epic 80 Home Theater system. They are absolutely suited for those wishing to stay home and enjoy a truly theatrical experience. It's no secret that I have long chastised movie theater owners and managers for not adequately maintaining their facilities. Broken drivers, phase issues, and poor audio calibration plague many theaters around the country. With the Epic 80, if you invite your friends over to listen to a well-produced DVD, you may just be able to charge admission!

The greatest asset to the Epic 80 system is the video-shielded VP150 center channel speaker. This is as clean and balanced a center channel as I've ever listened to at this price range. The triple 5.25" aluminum woofers deliver a stiff and accurate sound, reproducing crisp, clean dialogue and effects information. It is quite simply a pleasure to listen to this speaker. Because of it's unique dual tweeter design, both being located on the outside of the enclosure, the program material reproduced by this speaker are incredibly smooth, and transitions from the main speakers are almost seamless. The dual aluminum woofers were relocated to the outside of the speaker enclosure about two years ago to provide a wider listening area and reduce lobing effects. The result is the ability to move off-axis from the sweet spot without a drastic change in sound reproduction. Our discussions with Axiom yielded the following statement from Ian Colquhoun, Founder of Axiom Audio:

"We found in our experiments that the best off axis performance is achieved by having the tweeters to the outside of the Center Channel. We tried a WTWTW array but we could not get proper off axis performance. The current array of TWWWT gives the VP150 a very smooth response both on and off axis."

- Ian Colquhoun, Founder, Axiom Audio

In viewing the DTS Superbit version of The Fifth Element, the Epic 80 demonstrated excellent spatial panning and pointed surround placement. What surprises me is the ability of the system to provide stunning ambient surround information at the same time it provides directional pans and effects. For example, in Attack of the Clones, you will hear the wonderful environmental sounds of the water planet, coupled with very accurate directional surround information during the battle between Obi-Wan and Jango Fett. I chalk this up to the excellent engineering behind the Axiom QS8's quadpolar design.

U-571 is a great DVD for measuring the capabilities of any subwoofer-equipped 5.1 system. As you would expect, the EP350 performed adequately, generating a clean, controlled bass response that filled the room during the "Depth Charged" chapter. Over the years I've heard lots of subs, and one thing I did notice was that, while more expensive subs may deliver a more controlled punch, the EP350 is a well-rounded solution for bringing down the house. It also performs without the "chuffing" problems associated with other ported subwoofers due to its Vortex Porting (see image). After properly installing the EP350 subwoofer, you may have to take a tour of your house and nail down anything that is prone to rattling or falling off walls.

Epic 80 Conclusion

So What is the Verdict?

Here's the bottom line. I feel that the Epic 80 system is worthy of designating as a movie theater killer. I mean this. I would be happier sitting at home watching movies on this system than visiting the local theater. Here's why: The Epic 80 gives you better directional panning than most theater systems, so special effects and pans are coming from where they should be, not generally oriented for the dynamics of a general audience. I sit directly in the center of my home theater and know that when a plane flies overhead, it will fly overhead. Movie theaters have to concern themselves with providing an audio experience to a group of 85-250 people, depending upon the size of the theater.

Having mixed sound for television and designed audio for films, and having sent stems to the dubbing stage, I am familiar with the average size of a film mixing suite. With the exception of Skywalker Sound, most are set up more akin to a home theater than a large movie theater auditorium. Like a dubbing stage, at home I set up the sweet spot and the sound is custom tailored to me. It is more like the directors and producers (not to mention the sound designers) intended than when viewing in a poorly-maintained or inadequately-designed movie theater.

Do I still go out to see movies? You betcha. Not all theaters are as horrible as I put forth, and you will generally have the best ones mapped out in your area. I can honestly say, however, that films are typically much more enjoyable at home, especially when fed through my LCD projector and displayed on the big screen. With a system like the Axiom Audio Epic 80 handling the soundtrack, I can sit back, grab some popcorn, and enjoy the feature presentation.

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

• — Excellent
• — Very Good
• — Good
• — Fair
• — Poor

Metric	Rating
Build Quality
Appearance
Treble Extension
Treble Smoothness
Midrange Accuracy
Bass Extension
Bass Accuracy
Imaging
Soundstage
Dynamic Range
Performance
Value