hmm, why axioms, pletora of reasons (let me say first I think I did an excellent choice as price/value trade-off):
1. I had no artificial cap on budget so it was only 'how far do you want to go?'. Since I'm a tight-fisted guy and don't believe in high-priced labels (some I do after researching them, I drive a beamer e.g. ;-) I wanted to get most for my money. Both, Odyssey and Axioms fitted in here and I think I was right.
2. I am a big believer in 'internet-review-by-dummies' thing coupled with a couple of experts not being too negative about a product. Again, I think I got a hit here.
3. I am a bloody beginner to world of high-end audio albeit I always loved to listen to music and (dreadfully) sing along. So, I think it's like wine, you can't buy very expensive bottles first since you'd think it tastes like gully since you need to educate the taste and you also have to learn what you like. So a thing like Axiom was probably a good start, I knew I like forward-presentation and detail and it looks like I was quite right here to albeit I seem to mallow out a little ;-) I don't say M80s are beginners' speakers since I can't judge it yet but even if they are and I go into expensive, other gear, it was a good starting point. Maybe I keep them for 20 years, don't know yet.
4. I wanted something very neutral to experiment a lot and see the effects without guessing whether the amp or speakers makes it sound different. Again, Axiom & Stratos seem very neutral on sound.
5. I have this little plan of buying a house right now and setting up a home-theater. Wife will get the M80s and I have a good excuse to go and shop for speakers again in a year or two ;-) I'd go and buy something really expensive now, things wouldn't be that easy and maybe I would hate it in a year.
6. I listened to lots of gear, also very, very expensive and I walked away with the recognition that price from a certain point (about 15k$ for a setup I would say) very weakly correlated to whether you like the sound and that esoteric stuff takes a silly amount of work to get the sound you loved at demonstration out in _your_ home (I don't want to build special rooms and treat them, I don't want to play with fractions of inches placements). The only true exception was TacT, that made me drop my jaw and then the money. The difference is distinct and amazing and actually I have this little feeling that speakers and amp matter much, much less all of a sudden (in terms of very flat frequency response).
'nuff reasons ?
--- tony
