Welcome. I hear you on the bass. I love bass, but a good system should sound "boomy" throughout an entire listening or watching session, unless someone is listening to rap. The bass should be "smooth" and in line with the volume from the rest of your speakers. You will find cheaper systems will have lots of lows and lots of highs to give the impression of a good system (cough, cough, Bose, cough).
I have M60s for fronts, VP150 for the center, and QS8 rears. I bought these when my original listening area was a larger open area (a mulitpurpose area in my basement that was about 14x35x8, and they were plenty for the space I wouldn't say that they were too much, but I know that anything less would have had me wondering what I was missing. I have since moved everything to a dedicated room that is about 15x10x8, and they sound amazing.
I don't have an Axiom sub as I got my speakers back when their subs weren't quite up to par with the rest of their product line for Axiom's larger speakers. It is from SVS and specs are about in the middle of Axiom's EP350 and EP500 but more at the EP350 price (due to less expensive materials and such on the SVS). If I had it all to do over again, I think that I would get the EP500 instead for performance and looks (my SVS is a cylindrical sub that is pretty tall and ugly as far as my wife is concerned)...
Good luck, and fire away any questions you have. You will find that you will get good, honest information here, even if it isn't about Axiom products. That is what makes this forum a great place.
