I had a chance to demo the LSi9's in the Polk listening room at the HT expo in NY last year. I was impressed with the warm, full sound coming out of the bookshelves. The bass seemed a bit bloated, but overall, I was impressed.
However, I own the M22's, and while I never A/B'd the Lsi's and the Axioms, I much prefer the clean, detailed sound of the M22's, with a sub filling in the low end, to the more bloated sound of the Lsi9's. And, if you are quoting a price of $599, you're still talking quite a bit higher than M22's from the factory outlet (under $400).
One important factor to keep in mind about the Lsi's is that they are all 4 ohm speakers, and really require a lot of juice to power them. I have read a bunch of stories of people who purchased them expecting to just "plug and play" with their existing receiver, and had major problems due to the ohms. Conversely, the M22's are quite easy to drive with typical receivers.
So, if money is not an object, and you are willing to invest in the proper equipment to drive the Lsi's, and spend the extra money on the Lsi9's vs. the M22's, I think they're very good speakers. But, I'll stick with my M22's.
Clinton, as an aside, have you ever demo'd Ascend Acoustics CBM 170? The CBM 170 is supposed to sound similar to the M22's, but be a bit more "full" sounding. I'd be curious to see if you dislike those as much as you did the Axioms.
