My wife had actually heard me playing around with the speakers (at higher volumes) in the office while she was in her office in the next room.
She noticed a difference in sound quality right from there. I had asked her to come into the office and listen to these 2 speakers to get her opinion. As she was coming over to my office she mentioned she liked one of the speakers i had playing "a couple of minutes ago". The one she was referring to at the time happened to be the Tannoys and she hadn't even seen them yet.
Since at this time i was not sure whether i liked the Tannoys, i put her to the test. She still liked the tannoys better over the technics speakers while sitting LOW in the chair. She thought they had a really smooth sound but perhaps muted compared to the Axioms.
She liked the Tannoys even more once i discovered my tweeter placement issue and even winced at the horrible quality of the Technics tweeter in the second sound tests. Her ears are more sensitive than mine to those high frequencies.
That's ok though. I have a better sense of smell.
The Technics system had served me well for 10 years in university. It was mildly abused for volume but otherwise well taken care of. I hope if i can sell it on ebay that some other student may pick it up and continue the trend. Lotsa history with that thing. I'll be sad to see it go.
