Oh well certainly there are so many audio companies out there in this market today that anyone looking for the best 'bang for the buck' could literally spend years and years ordering, comparing, and finding what they feel is the absolute best value out there. The problem is, that conclusion is 100% subjective. Once YOU have gone crazy spending many years of your life researching all the different options, spending all your money for return shipping and all the rest of it until you've finally pieced together the best system you could ever possibly hope to find for the money spent... you can't come back here in 2025 and say, "ok guys I finally did it, everyone here needs to go out and buy XXX, I guarantee you won't find anything better for the price". You just can't do it, because ultimately while you might get lucky enough to find some that might agree with you, others will completely disagree with you.
So this is why the vast majority of people just go with something that fits their needs as close as they can find, without going through all of the drama involved with comparing every single choice available out there. That would simply be more trouble than it's worth for most audio consumers.
I feel Axiom makes a great product at a very competetive price over all. Have you ever priced Paradigm's top of the line surround speakers? They make the QS8's look like an absolute steal, I don't care how good they sound. And yet Paradigm sells them, proving that there are those who feel they're worth the money spent. And who am I to argue with them? I can't do that anymore than someone who has a pair of the ERD-1's can argue with me about my decision to purchase the QS8's. So to answer the question are there any surround speakers out there that I might discover sound as good or better than my Axioms for a lower price if I were to compare them? I'm quite sure of it... if I looked hard/long enough. But I'm not worried about it because for the money I spent, I'm more than happy with the performance I got. They are worth the money to me, which is 100% a personal opinion. Ditto with my EP800, I feel the performance I get out of it makes it worth the price tag. But I will admit that 5 years ago, I would never have dreamed I'd ever spend $2000+ dollars on a subwoofer, NEVER! It just so happened that I had the money to spend. The EP800 happened to be in the right place at the right time, and so the stars aligned and I got it. Are there subs out there that could do this for me at a lower price? I am absolutely positive there are. But for me the whole ordeal of purchasing all of the options I have to choose from, comparing them all to the one I currently have, then comparing them to the other one's I like and so on and so forth... the whole thing just becomes too tedious to be worth it to me. Call me lazy I suppose. On the other hand if I could quit my job and compare subwoofers for a living, then I'd be all for it! Hell if my living was to compare different brands of speakers all day long, I can pretty much state with much certainty that my personal HT would be comprised with a different manufacturer in every catagory. In other words my mains would be X brand, my center a different brand, my subwoofer yet another different brand, and for all I know my side surrounds might even be different from my rear surround speakers. I say this because I honestly don't believe any one company could possibly be the best at more than one thing. There is just too much competition to accomplish that towering feat.
But don't let me talk you out of anything here friend, if you want to purchase a few competitive brands to compare your QS8's to then knock yourself out, I'm not mad at ya at all. I'd be more than happy to hear your evaluations. If you find that Emotiva makes a better surround speaker for the money in your set-up, then I for one will be happy for you. Just don't expect it to become a universal opinion, because nothing in this hobby is universal.
