great, a fellow texan.. nice to speak with you.
first off, what were the brands of subs you were testing? the market leaders around here are SVS and HSU. i believe those are factory direct companies, so i would guess they didnt have those for you to listen to in the stores. and to answer your question on the the gain.. YES, almost ALL subs worth anything have gain/volume controls on the sub itself. now, they arent remote control or nothing, i mean you have to physically get up and adjust the sound, but they have them! as a matter of fact, the higher end subs should have a gain adjust, a crossover adjust, a phase switch, and the ability to daisy chain additional subs. that is just the basics, but a good polace to start.
depending on your price range, you can get a good SVS or HSU sub from $300-$800 bucks, just depending on what you want to spend. go to their respective web-sites and look at what they have to offer.
good luck in your search, and hope you can find a good one. BTW- you will be very pleased with your axioms.. awesome speakers!!
bigjohn
