Hey Curtis, thanks for showing up. Your shoot-out was interesting reading. And, keep in mind that I am not dismissing or disputing your opinions--they are your opinions and that is obviously fine.
I honestly think, as JohnK noted, that the use of the word "metallic" leads to the strongest rebuttal from Axiom owners. We all know that Axiom advertises aluminum woofers and titanium tweeters. So, yes, there can be implied a metallic undertone to their sepeakers. But, I know that personally, I have played Norah Jones (one of your test disks) for a ton of people in my home using the Axioms, and everyone has said that it sounds beautiful. And obviously, the large amount of professional reviews have (and take them for whatever they are worth) never mentioned anything about a metallic sound. While Axioms may be somewhat bright, having a somewhat higher tweeter output does not impact their stellar midrange, and I have never found listening to them to be a problem. Who knows, maybe this results from my always using a sub with my M22's, and the help a sub provides to balancing the sound.
So, please accept our respectful disagreement with some of the findings from the face-off. And, the bottom line is, Axioms are not the choice for everyone, the same way the Rockets and other speakers are not the choice for everyone. The beauty is, there are tons of great brands out there now, for every taste.
