I thought 301s were OK but not great. They have the little vane for direct/reflecting, right ?

If your friend has the $$, go with an all-Axiom system (QS8s really make a difference and if he buys all 5 at once he gets a 5% discount) but if he doesn't want to spend the money the 301s would be perfectly fine as surrounds for a while. I would use them as surrounds rather than mains if he has a sub... if no sub then not sure which is better as a full-range but the M22s will be quite a bit better across most of the frequency range.


M60ti, VP180, QS8, M2ti, EP500, PC-Plus 20-39
M5HP, M40ti, Sierra-1
LFR1100 active, ADA1500-4 and -8