Micah,
I'm sitting here blushing right now. Thank you very much for your VERY kind words. I have to say that anyone who is on the fence about holding Axiom auditions should go ahead and do it, and if you are lucky enough to have anyone over who is half as nice as Micah, you will have a wonderful time! I told Micah that even though I don't get to come home too often, I was actually really looking forward to this audition because I love listening to music, and I also love introducing people to speakers they have not really heard before. We had a great time talking about room affects, and how even something as small as adding a riser for 2nd row seating or putting the speakers on a wood floor rather than a concrete floor will totally change the sound of the system. We also briefly mentioned Bob (Micah has been in touch with him via PMs), and both hoped he finds a sound that makes him happy.
It's kind of hard having people over and not going crazy about how you feel about Axiom. I wanted Micah to judge for himself whether or not he liked the sound. So, I wanted to start just by popping some discs in and listening. After a while, we started talking a bit about what we were hearing, and it was clear that Micah was very satisfied with the sound. In my opinion, going with a Axiom speaker also gives you that sense of security, knowing that they will always be there, and help/assistance is always a free phone call (or E-Mail, or Forum post away). The customer service is more than icing on the cake, it's one of the things that makes Axioms great.
For those on the fence about speaker finishes (there is another thread here on that), when Micah saw my speakers, he though that my speakers were wood finish. I had to tell him that I just have the basic black vinyl. The basic vinyl finishes on the Axioms are really that good (although I'd love to have high gloss rosewood for another room!)
I'd also like to mention that during this audition, we had the music pretty loud (I wanted Micah to listen to the speakers the way he would listen to them at home). I took out my SPL meter several times during the day, and we were constantly between 100 and 105 db. It was a nice test for not only the EP800s, but the Denon AVR-3806 as well. As expected, the Denon just shrugged the M80s off... I did notice some tapping on my EP800 on the left during the fishbowl scene in "Finding Nemo". My guess is it's one of the wires inside of the cabinet hitting a driver during it's excursion (we were really blasting the system, the room was literally shaking). I'm not going to open the EP800 yet since Axiom has already said they are sending new amps to the people who bought the EP800s early. When I open the speaker to replace the amp, I'll check it out. Again, knowing you have a 5 year warranty help you to not worry about these things, or rush into doing anything. You know that Axiom will make things right.
Again, I just wanted to say thank YOU Micah for coming over. I had a great time and I do look forward to seeing your system when it's all set up!
Best Regards,
Steve
PS - HEY! My screen is 126", not 106"
