Hello JohnG,
A few comments are apropos, based on the preceding messages: Most of us live in rectangular rooms (square rooms are even worse), which--in terms of getting smooth bass response throughout the area--is highly problematic. The long wavelengths of low bass frequencies interact with the room's dimensions to create standing waves. Those in turn generate regions of bass cancellation--where you'll hear little or no bass, or only certain bass frequencies and not others--and bass reinforcement, where you may have overpowering bass at one frequency and a "hole" or node with no low bass at all.
So when you place a subwoofer, you're trying to find a location for the sub relative to your listening position that is somewhere between these areas of bass cancellation and extreme bass reinforcement. Your sub may be fine at the front of the room (it's nothing to do with how Axiom subs deliver bass, Canadian guy, or "front-of-the-room placement kills bass"). It's entirely a product of your room's idiosynchrasies, dimensions, where you sit, and where the subwoofer sits.
You could test in advance whether the entertainment unit placement will result in good, indifferent, or poor bass by putting the sub at your listening position, and crawling around the area where the entertainment cabinet is while low bass frequencies are playing. If you hear smooth, extended, powerful bass, then you're in luck. If it's boomy, "one-note" bass, or you hear little at all, then you're going to have to pick a different location. Crawl around the room until you find the spot with the smoothest bass, mark it, then move the subwoofer to that position. It's a tedious process, I know, but it's easier than hefting a sub around the room!
Regards,
