I am considering the Epic 60 - 500 system for my HT, but I have not had the opportunity to actually hear it.

Can anyone describe how that system might sound compared to one based on Totem Sttaf, or Definitive PB7006?

Zap, i have heard the Totems before (Arrows, Staffs and Winds), though not in an A/B test, my preferred manner for comparing speakers. What i can say, subjectively, is that i felt the Totems would be great for a small room setting. They had a very small cabinet design and would equate to the Axiom M22s in a three quarter tower size IMO (Arrow and Staffs).
They do sound nice, look lovely, but are more pricey, yet with wood veneer finish.
If i recall, the Winds were rather bassy. The salesman was rather taken with them, but for 7k, i was not.

It is also noteworthy that they used to sell, and may still sell, a ridiculous piece of equipment called a bullet that was to be placed on the top of their speakers, adjusting for personal sound preference, around the surface to "focus" the sound more accurately or some nonsense.
Any company that promotes such BS, doesn't get alot of attention from me or my pocketbook.

Do the M22's compare at all to the Paradigm studio 20 or 40's?

zapdude,

i heard the M60's, M80's and most of the def tech lineup and i didn't feel that the def tech's were worthy of the absolutely stupid prices they wanted in the local store. given their pricing though (may be different in your area) they would be more comparable to the M80's..and the M80's kills them. It's like bringing a Nuke to a knife fight...except Axiom's nuke was half the price of def tech's knife.

Actually they are called Beaks. And yes they still sell them. I think the idea is that you can move them around on top of the speaker to control cabinet resonance or something of that nature.

I have Totem speakers that I bought ten years ago. Totem makes nice sounding speakers with beautiful wood enclosures for sale through B&M stores. The Model One monitor is arguably their finest speaker. However, Totem eschews the NRC approach and the speakers are not linear like the Axioms. Depending on your taste, they either sound "musical" or they sound overdone and somewhat coloured in the mids and highs. I also picked up some beaks when I bought the speakers. The beaks look like shell casings and are supposed to control speaker resonance but in reality they are just silly audio jewellery, an interesting conversation piece but that's about it. For the money the comparable Axiom speakers are much better performers.

I stand corrected.
They are called Beaks but look like bullets.