Man, there are way too many loudspeaker manufacturers out there.

Yeah, it's almost like a pizza parlour mentality. Every town these days seems to have 20 of those buggers.

I also am realizing how much many of these "hi fi" speaker company's websites...suck. They are so hard to navigate and confusing. "Whats the difference between your bluebird line and your cardinal line" Pictures really small, navigation all funky. The axiom website, on the other hand, is probably one of the most intuitive websites i've been on. All of the products have a nice image, everything is laid out nicely so you don't have to click around 50 times on the website to acutally get a grasp of what the whole company has to offer.

I design a couple websites on the side so I guess I can be quite passionate when I see people doing a bad job on an obvious high-budget website. At least Axiom did an excellent job.

Anyways...

I think the problem with some websites is that they're using templates developed in the 90s. It also speaks to who their target audiences are. If you do most of your business online, you're going to be damn sure your website is easy to use.

I've had the same experience. Lots of flash, little content. Very irritating.

My 80’s are going to the HT room shortly, so I need another set of towers for the two channel system. This time I want real wood veneer. So, I either buy anther set of 80’s with wood veneer when they come out, or I look around a bit. I’m looking around. And yes, there are simply hundreds of different manufactures out there. The only things I have around my neck of the woods to audition are B&W, Paradigm, Boston Acoustics, McIntosh, Polk and Infinity.

Out of all of those brands, the Paradigm studio 100’s are my favorite (besides some $8000 McIntosh speakers). I’m guessing the wood Axiom 80’s will be between $1500 - $2000, so I might as well look and see what else is out there. About half my CD’s are poorly recorded rock CD’s and I get fatigued listening to them on the 80’s. So I’m just wandering around the net reading reviews and asking questions. So far, it’s hard to find a speaker with the same build quality and performance of the M80’s in the < $2000 price point. I just wish there was an intuitive speaker that could automatically sense a sibilant recording and alter the X-over to compensate.

I’ll probably just get another set of M80’s, but it doesn’t hurt to look……..

Man, I'm going to get sucked into Hi-Fi for the rest of my life, arn't I.

Interesting! I was just checking out (online) the opus line for my new 2-channel system. Definitely won't be able to audition them here. I agree, that they sure look nice! Because I already have good speakers in my HT, I can take my time and audition, even if it means taking a road trip.

"Man, I'm going to get sucked into Hi-Fi for the rest of my life, arn't I."

it's futile to resist... only the WAF will fight it

Crap, I just got a quote for the Opus 3’s…….$2495 plus $400 shipping. Or, the Opus 1’s for $1495 plush shipping. Both brand new, sealed in the box from an authorized dealer. Five year warrantee on both. They sold out the 2’s.

I………..can………….resist…………