Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions I didn't know where to put this...

Whoa, this is a tough one. In the Axiom price range you can get speakers that sound a bit "smoother" but there also seems to be general agreement that the response dips which give you "smoother" sound also make them sound "dull".

If you are willing to spend quite a bit more than the Axioms some people feel they have found speakers which sound roughly as accurate as the Axioms but with a slightly smoother sound. I think that's what "refined" refers to.

The Monitor Audio Gold speakers are the only ones I have seen mentioned more than once in this context.

The nice thing about Axioms is that they are well positioned at the knee of the "diminishing returns" curve -- you can get better sound but you have to spend a lot more $$, while if you spend less $$ you tend to really notice the difference.