Curtis, welcome to the site.
As you should have seen in my earlier post on
nit picking, several points remain valid.
Blind testing is the only way to remove any bias that people have before reviewing speakers.
What you could have done with your testing was this:
Invite ppl over for a listen but don't even tell them what speakers they will be listening to.
Put up the grille cloth that Amie had provided you in front of the speakers.
And then yes, you need to have TIME and PATIENCE to do the listening properly.
You could setup any sets of speakers behind the listening area and you (and only you) would be the one to do all the speaker changing.
Sure it is alot of effort, but the results from people not even knowing what brands were behind the grille were being used could easily have provided alot of different descriptions.
In fact, a fun addition to this test would be to ask each listener to try and guess the brand after hearing each.
The time for the brain to adjust to new sounds is variable but typicallly takes longer than an hour or two (many people falsely believe this is actually speaker break in time). Your weekend testing should incorporate two days at least. The first day ppl can make first impressions and listen lots. Give them a night to 'cleanse' their pallettes and then have them back the next day for brunch and another round of listening. I bet hearing speakers a second time a day later may change from their first impressions. I know mine did when i first heard my Axioms on day one and was a bit upset they didn't 'blow me away" like so many ppl had posted they would. Heck, someone may have been in a bad mood the day before, or perhaps even imbibed too much wine.
As JohnK had mentioned about the 'metallic' thing, did it ever occur to you that ppl often research the speakers they are about to hear before listening to them?
Several have mentioned in past posts how metal drivers always sound "metallic and tinny" while silk tweeters seem to be 'soft'.
I think JohnK had put it into the best perspective in stating:
"Can't recall many comments about a "papery" or "plasticky" quality of a [poly or paper driver based] speaker. "
More test music is required and it should be familiar to the listeners. I cannot stress that one enough. It is apparent this Norah Jones cd is recorded very different from the classical music you used since the Jones showed brightness while the classical violin did not. This may be a fault of the recording, not the speaker.
Beyond those major issues, your listening session is a great idea, but when ppl (newbies) on forums use that info to base their buying decisions, i find it to be very lacking in completely accurate info.
Kudos to your attempts to get across to people that they are just your opinions though. Nonetheless, some do take them as gospel.
As for the idea that we over on the Axiom forums are biased, of course we are, to some extent.
I myself have mentioned that my Axioms are bright, but since that is my preference especially for HT purposes, i'm thrilled. For music it makes them detailed and if you have a well recorded music piece, it really shows! Unfortunately many music cds have that edge of higher treble from the designs of the sound mixing ppl that is hard to work with.
Eventually my wife and i will be putting together a second system, stereo and music based only and chances are we will not be buying a second set of Axioms for the main speakers.
Why?
Because shopping for something new and different is just more fun. Who the heck would want to own nothing but the same Honda Civic model each year, for both husband, wife, kids all the time for 20 years? Where's the fun in that?
So in regards to Axiom bias, yes, i know i certainly do have some since afterall, i do own them. But please don't believe our comments or rebuttals are based solely on such premises. Some of us do try to be more objective than that on the whole. For some of us, its our livelihood.
