Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Axiom Vs PSB

302 is right in that Axiom doesn't offer anything directly comparable to either the Image 5 or the Paradigm Monitor 5 (a mid-sized speaker with something like M50 driver complement). The argument, I guess, is that once you add in the cost of stands you are at pretty much the same price point as the same drivers in a floorstanding cabinet, ie make the box bigger and get better bass rather than a smaller box plus stands. There are good arguments for both points of view, of course.

Having said that, I am not a big believer in the theory that rear ported speakers need to be placed significantly differently from front ported speakers. Ian puts ports on front and rear (except for the bookshelves where there is no space on the front), presumably to even out the bass response in a typical room, so the Axiom floorstanders are kind of half way between front and rear ported.

I have had to pull front ported speakers AND sealed speakers way out from the wall to get what I consider to be smooth bass response... I guess I could be convinced that the Axioms need to be pulled out another 6 inches but that would be it...