I haven't heard the SVS speakers but the first few reviews seem to be pretty good. At first glance the SVS system would be more equivalent to M2s plus VP100, not M22s and QS4s, so comparable price would be ~$845 plus sub with the HT "5 items" discount.
Dollar for dollar, the SVS system is a darned good deal (although it has to be in order to compete with a Hsu Ventriloquist system), particularly if you are going to be mostly using it for movies rather than music.
The SVS speakers might be a bit small for your room depending on how loudly you are planning to play, but I want to stress that they (or the Hsu, or the Axiom) will be WAY better than any of the regular HTIBs so don't let us scare you away from any of them.
In case it helps, the Axioms are manufactured in North America, up here in Canada. Axiom doesn't make all their components (nor does SVS, from what I remember) so I imagine there are some offshore components in both. BTW, I didn't actually see anything on the SVS site saying that the SBS units were manufactured in North America, so if you're trying to avoid "made in China" you might want to check.
Having said all this, if I was in the US with your budget and room size I would be thinking real hard about getting the SVS system with the 12" sub. That's a big room to fill with bass.
It all depends on what aspect of the system is going to give you the most pleasure, and that's where you want to focus your $$ -- if you're going to be playing a lot of music, particularly anything acoustic, I think you would get your money's worth out of the extra cost of Axioms and maybe even getting a lesser sub to stay in budget might be a good deal. If, on the other hand, you're into movies and care enough about bass to already know about SVS, getting "the right sub" and spending a bit less on speakers is probably the best plan.
They're both going to be pretty darned good systems. The SVS speakers might be a bit small for your room but I ran M2s and a good sub for a while and was VERY happy with the results. The only place they fell down was loud rock, where the M2s were just too small unless I was within 7-8 feet of the speakers (or turned the volume down). The SBS speakers would probably hit their limits at about the same point.
I should also mention that Axiom surrounds are often described as the best in the business, giving a really nice "big spacious sound" that regular speakers can't match, without the "blurred" placement that you get from dipole speakers.
Last edited by bridgman; 11/28/06 03:10 AM.
