Sorry I'm slow to jump in, but I seemed to have suffered the same Mother's Day audio moratorium Jason did. I've been married long enough (and to 2 different women at that!)that it was a self-imposed moratorium.
Anyhow, I think Jason captured it spot on, at least for me. I own an EP500, and have owned an SVS 20-39 pci. It was pretty easy to tell which sub was playing each and every time. Talk about a "signature sounds". I had never participated in a true blind test before. So I'm no expert, but it was fun.
That SVS hit low and it hit hard. It was very impressive in that regard for movies. I know it's a bit of a cliche, but it literally had my pant legs flapping on both Toy Story 2 and U571. I could hear the point about all of the LFE almost obscuring the higher frequencies of the metal twisting, but I'm not sure that I personally missed it as much. The EP600 was no slouch by any stretch of the imagination when we played those scenes, but they were clearly different.
For the music (which was focused on DVDs) the Axiom was my preferred choice. The SVS would seem almost too intrsuive at times. That was why we asked to see if dialing it down a little would help. When Jason did that, it did seem to blend a little better, but I still felt that the Axiom was more tuneful and integrated. The Axiom filled in the low end without calling attention to itself.
Even though the 2 subs were co-located, the SVS initially was the sub closer to the wall/corner. To rule out any additional corner loading benefits for the SVS, Steve suggested that we swap their positions. That really didn't seem to have that much of an impact on our overall impressions.
In the end, it really boils down to personal preferences (talk about cliches!). Both are fine subs. I think you need to consider your content, and hear them both to figure out which appeals to you more. I definitely came out of there pretty ambivalent, and was not sure what I would do. It's easier to be impressed by the sheer attack of the SVS on film content than it is by the subtlety of the Axiom's music performance.
Listening to them also made me start pondering what was the audio engineer's intent? Which of those subs was reproducing what the movie maker or musician wanted? Would they say one sub was better than the other? But that's an entirely different thread, and one that I've seen beaten to death as well. But it did come to mind as I was trying to decide if there was a "winner".
Many thanks to Jason (and his wife!) for so graciously hosting this mini gtg on a weeknight. Jason had clearly worked on this long and hard, and had considered many of the variables. I was impressed with his thoroughness. The overall set up was gorgeous and sounded terrific. So I really appreciated the opportunity to hear and see all of this. And it was awesome to meet Tom and Steve!
Rich
