>>could it be that the axioms are just harder to drive than my older Infinity Reference 2000.6 towers??? i mean, my Infinities are a hell of a lot louder at -5 than these axioms are.
That's just efficiency (sometimes called sensitivity) -- how much sound you get out of the speakers for a given amount of input power. Generally bigger speakers are more efficient than smaller speakers, but not always.
You can see this in the specs for Axioms and other speakers... here are the ratings for M3 :
SPL in Room1w/1m: 92 dB
SPL Anechoic 1w/1m: 88 dB
... and the rating for M60 :
SPL in Room1w/1m(dB): 93 dB
SPL Anechoic 1w/1m(dB): 89 dB
So... if you feed a 1 watt signal from a power amp into the M60 and measure the SPL 1 meter away in a typical room, you get a reading of 93 dB. Of course there is no such thing as a typical room, so the anechoic readings would be more useful... except a lot of manufacturers don't GIVE anechoic readings ;(
>>am i the ONLY person here who listens to their music at basically reference level to be happy?
No, but you are one of the relatively few who is allowed to do so
