Of the two you listed I would go with the Denon. As for Axiom being bright, I will add my two cents. For a time I thought my Axiom's were bright, and blamed it on my Receiver, then the speakers. However it is all fixed now. If you are not happy with your Axioms at first allow a burn in time. When I got mine I loved them, then it went through a stage where sound was bright, and somewhat shallow. However now with many hours on them, I could not ask for a better speaker for the money. This was just my experience.
