If you don't care about neither the color of the drivers neither the magnetic grills, I would save my money and go with the V2s. V2s are great speakers and if they are only 1 year old, I bet a lot of the components are V3s already. You could always email Axiom with the serial numbers and they'll tell you. I doubt you could ear $500 difference although for some people a minor difference is already worth the money.

Bruno
M80s/VP180/QS8s/EP600/AVR-890
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"The problem is choice..."