I will try to address the hearing (or ear) problems you talk about.
I too have had trouble with my ears for a numbers of years. I have had far to many inner ear infections to even count. At one point haveing to have drain tubes inserted into my ears for right about six months or so.
I also have had some pretty serious bouts with sinus problems affecting my hearing. As of right now I have a ringing in both my ears (tinnitus) I cannot or will not ever get rid of. There is times when this gets to the point that I have pretty sharp pains that shoot through my left ear and causes me a tremendous amount of pain. To rid myself of this I have to go on a series of different medications.
When I went to the ENT for my last hearing test it was noted that I had some hearing loss in the higher frequencies starting at 4 KHz. It was not substantial but it was indeed there.
Now on to the Axioms and their affects on my ear problems. I can with out reservations tell you that my M80s has no ill affects on my ability to enjoy my music. As a matter of fact it is a blessing that I found a speaker that I can clearly hear a cymbal when brushed or hit. Other instruments are (to me) reproduced as if they were right in the room with me. A guitar sounds like what it does in person, same goes for the piano, brass instruments and every other forms of reproduced music I have had the pleasure of hearing.
I hope this gives you some comfort in knowing that even though my hearing is far from perfect I can still sit down with my favorite tunes and the Axiom M80s bring a big sh!t eating grin to my face every time.
BTW is there a speaker, either past or present, that you have listened to that could give us some sort of referance as to what you like?
