Luminous Audio Axiom Walker Mods

Luminous Audio has been a round a for along time now and has developed a good reputation for cables and their passive pre-amp, the Axiom,. I;ve owned the original Axiom for 12 or 14 years now, and the little box has served as my volume control reference and has been used with a dozen or more amps, always with great results. I first read about the Walker Mod Axiom many years ago and have been curious what the upgrade would do for the sound (or lack thereof) over the base model. I finally placed a wanted ad on US Audio Mart and within days had found what seems to be pretty much the top of the line Walker for a great price.

First of all, the Walker Mod Axiom is built into a much larger case than the old school version, and that gives the newer model a lot more room for expandability. In this case, the Axiom has balanced in out and two balanced outputs, plus a subwoofer out mounted onto the side. The volume pot is much more substantial but is a stepped attenuator. Plugging the Walker into my system using balanced to rca adapters, the sound is full wide and very live feeling. Back to back with the old version, there is an easy to hear difference, but although it is different, I’m not ready to say it is better. Both are very good and very neutral in my system, with a wide range of amplification. Overall, I prefer the smooth action volume control used on the original model, and prefer the Audio Music TVC over either of the Axiom models. I do think I’ll be keeping th original Axiom for the long haul (Its already been the long haul really), as it is just so versatile, compact and always works flawlessly. I wish I could say the same about everything in audio! Luminous Axioms are a great buy, either the original or the upgraded Walker. I don't think you can go wrong with these passives.

Solid construction, but nothing fancy here, just functional beauty. The volume pot is large and very sensitive, but stepped attenuators are just never my favorite.

A third, side mounted output for a subwoofer.

This version of the Walker is fully balanced, and the rest of my gear is not, so I am using adapters. They seem to work just perfectly.