The 30 day money back guarantee is a safety net, so I'm not that afraid to get them and dislike them.

My tastes so far have been that I dislike Klipsch's floorstanding and bookshelf models, since they are not only bright, but seem to lack a midrange and bass depth I was expecting from speakers that weren't satelites. They were tinny. I don't need tons of bass, but a lot of the midrange and lower bass just wasn't there... tinny is the perfect word for what _I_ was hearing.

Athena's AS-F2 sounded close to perfect to me. A neutral sound, with just the right amount of midrange, bass, and treble. Nothing really sounded exaggerated through them.

I was considering factory outlet Axiom M60ti speakers with a Harman Kardon AVR230 receiver and to biwire them with some 12 guage cable.

Basically, I have heard many places that this is a bright speaker(thus the HK receiver I wanted to offset the brightness), which gives me the idea that these may have a tinny sound with bloated treble. What is your experience with this? I know I could always send them back, yet I'd prefer to know what kind of speaker I was getting before I order and decide to send back for being too bright/tinny. Should I expect a superior nicer sound to the Athenas with my taste? I was seriously considering them, yet their most expensive speaker was a bit below my budget and I thought I could do better with another company.

Thanks.

You can safely expect a far superior sound to the Klipsh from Axiom. They're not bright; they're just accurate. Therefore, if the recording is hot, they can be perceived as bright. Haven't heard the Athenas, but the Axioms are excellent.

BTW, bi-wiring is a myth. Have a look at this article.

The receiver warmth/brightness thing is highly debatable. You will hear both sides of the issue around here.

Thasp, welcome, and ditto to Ken's reply. What you've heard many places is wrong; the Axioms are simply accurate and reproduce what you give them. So, forget "bright" and for that matter forget bi-wiring too; use a single run of speaker wire of 16 gauge to 12 gauge, depending on the length of your run.

Thasp

everyone's ganging up on you.

buy some M60's and run ONE of 12 ga. Klipsch are bright speakers, Axioms aren't. I really can't stand listening to klipsch.

Athena is good but a tad dull because the soundstage is not so expansive. Axioms are far more open, and also more accurate.

Find a local B&W dealer. Listen to their $2500 703 towers, then pay $760 for the M60's and get pretty much the same exact sound.

Thanks people. The Axioms are back on my list!

Yeah, I was getting a pretty well reviewed brand of 12 guage speaker cable, and the spool was 100 feet for so little more than the 50 feet(which still would be way overkill), so I thought bi-wiring couldn't hurt to try, since I might as well use the extra wire I pay for. If it's a myth to my ears, I can always put it back in the spool to use with surround and center channels way down the road.

Again, thanks for the input people, I appreciate it!

good call Spiff

i do find that the 703's are extemely close to the M80's / M60's