A friend of mine owns a Marantz SR-8000 with Paradigm Reference speakers (older model Reference 11 I believe). When I purchased my Epic 60 System, he insisted that I try out the mains on his Reciever to compare to his Paradigm's.
We used The Eagle's Hell Freezes Over DVD and Fleetwood Mac's The Dance as comparison. The paradigms and the Axiom's were indistinguishable on the A/B test. However, the big thing for me was the sound was absolutely incredible from the Axiom's using the SR-8000. I absolutely cringe at high frequency audio and definitely did not find the combination of Marantz and Axiom bright.
