+1 to everything that Alan says.
While I have not owned Paradigm speakers, I have heard them demoed several times. They're good. To my ears, they share the same sort of 'musical ethos' of Axiom. If Axiom ceased to exist, I'd likely turn to Paradigm for replacements. I came close to buying a 'closeout' pair of
Reference Studio 100's a few years ago. Really lovely speakers. But it'd be a stretch to call them *better* than M80's. At the same price, sure, RS100's give M80's a run for their money. But they're not the same price, the RS's are almost twice as expensive.
Now Klipsch....
Horn-tweeted Klipsch speakers have the honor of being the only kind of speaker where I've asked the shop owner/demoer to turn them off. For some reason, I simply cannot stand their horn-loaded tweeters. Literally like fingers on a chalk board for me.
If you want to hear what Axiom's sound like, the best way to do it is to arrange a demo. Many of us here have no problem offering demos at our homes to curious board members. There are a few threads over in the 'Hearing Things' area that may help. You can either look for forum members in your area, or email Axiom directly (I think...) and they'll set something up.
But if you can't or don't want to do that, I've always said that Paradigms are the closest mass-market speaker you can find that will give you a taste of Axiom's sound. If not Paradigm, I've found that B&W's 7xx series speakers are acoustically similar too.
