Arthur:
I'm sure others more knowledgeable than I will expand on this, but there's a HUGE factor that you're leaving out of the equation: Your listening room.

It's probably safe to assume that the Licoln Center or Carnegie Hall have better acoustics than your listening room!

I can say that in my particular case, by far the biggest factor in the "quallity" of my playback is the interaction of my room with the speakers!

::::::: No disrespect to Axiom, but my favorite woofer is my yellow lab :::::::