>>Although Axiom may actually sell an occassional blemished speaker through the outlet, the fact that Axiom continually offers "blemished" speakers for sale, in all of their speaker models and color choices, leads me to believe that the "outlet" is really more of a way for Axion to control its production schedule by taking advance orders and not being required to ship them immediately. This way they do not have to stock a large inventory of all speakers and colors for immediate delivery, yet still can advertise immediate delivery (for those willing to pay a 10% premium?).
I think it's the other way round -- lead times based on when they are statistically likely to have a cosmetic fallout based on historical reject rates and production schedules. If the published time arrives and nothing got dinged I assume you get "A" stock. My QS8s were definitely blemished -- one had a big thumbnail-like mark in an edge and the other had a small ding on a corner.
I suspect FO buyers win for two reasons -- one is that if the calculated "mean time to dinged black M80" period is too long Axiom probably caps it at a shorter time, increasing your chances of getting A stock, and since they seem to be constantly fine-tuning production methods I imagine their fallout rates are generally lower than the historical ones they use for lead time generation.
Of course there may just be a dartboard behind Ian's office door marked "factory outlet lead time calculator"
