Welcome to the club, Van. I think you'll be pleased with your purchase.
Do let us know!
Before I knew about Axiom (and before they were purchased by Klipsch), Energy was my preferred brand. I've done quite a few showroom demos from the Veritas and Connoisseur line. No, not as valid as actually owning the speakers in my home, but good enough, I suppose.
As someone else mentioned, and IMHO too, the Veritas i line of speakers matches up quite closely to what you can expect from Axiom's big towers (in my case, specifically, the M80's). I might even put the 2.4i's a notch above the M80's. Those 2.4i's were excellent speakers. Neutral, clean, powerful, and spacious sound. They were quite lovely, when I last heard a pair in a shop. Had they not been nearly 3x my budget, I might have come home with a pair.
It's too bad that Energy appears to have discontinued them, as they were really lovely speakers.
The Connoisseur's are/were a step down from that. I would consider Connoisseur's to be solidly good speakers, and probably a cut above most "mass-market" speakers out there. But based on what I've heard, I do not believe they are quite as crisp and clean as what you should expect from Axiom. Someone else mentioned a 'muddiness' to them, and I'd have to concur. I took a CD of music that I liked, and one my most distinct memories of the Connoisseur's that we heard was that the midrange sounded a bit more muffled and the highs lacked a certain amount of sparkle. They lacked the acoustic 'pop' that I'm used to with my M80's.
I have not ever heard any speakers from the Reference Connoisseur line, so I can't say for sure about those.
Good luck, and have fun demoing. Always fun to get new speakers
