I don't own Axiom LCR, (I use PSB) but I don't think what you are reading is due to any compensation or even blind loyalty. Problem is, speaker sound is very subjective. Once you hit a certain point of quality, all the basics of performance are covered and it’s a comparison of characteristics. Those characteristics are highly influenced by listening rooms, music preferences, etc. So people - like the people you name - that have great setups and love their systems know for a fact the Axioms sound great - to them in their systems with their music. You can’t blame them for stating same when non-owners and never-have-listed’ers claim they are inaccurately harsh. It’s the blog age, most opinions are formed from reading an opinion – it is just hearsay.
Honestly, with most of the comments of "harshness" I felt this was the case; people just repeating something they had read elsewhere. There were a few accounts, however, where people claimed to have ordered them and sent them back because of the "harshness" at higher volumes.
But I, for one, don't like really bright speakers. For example, I often prefer silk tweeters over Ti, where possible. My PSBs can hit a note every so often that I don’t like in the upper range. So I may not be the best M80 candidate on paper, considering nothing but performance. But in the real world where cost is a factor, I would probably love the M80s as much or more than my PSBs, and just dial down the treble one notch if needed. When buying my speakers, I A/B’d speakers ranging $20K over the purchase price to get a feel for sonic changes. They were different, no doubt, but the differences don’t appear as errors in the other speakers. And given how impressed I am with the little QS8, I’d probably have to try to M80’s.
All you can do is take it all in and try to figure out the characteristics you really don't like, but after a certain price point and within certain known companies, you are safe as lemons are few and far between.
This is exactly what I'm trying to do. I'm not the type of person to read one review and spend thousands of dollars based on it. I've spent months reading every review I could find of various axiom products (as well as many others) and searching through forums for various listeners personal experiences. Although this is my first foray into a real sound system, I feel I have a pretty good grasp of what I want from a speaker and I think I'll know if axiom is right for me as soon as I hear them.
