One could quantify the statement of bright in more ways as well. I've never found the Axioms to be raspy sounding, but a pair of crap Sony speakers was both bright and raspy, simply harsh, on the ears. A pair of horn Klipsch speakers actually made my ears ring.
Our Axioms always have a clean sound and so far have taken a ton of power bringing that clean sound to high SPL. Only at the point of clipping with a receiver did they start to lose that sound cohesion and only then did they sound more like the crappy Sony speakers, for obvious reasons.
I should also point out, i've never been bothered by any brightness quality with movies, only with music. The added resistor on the tweeter also helped in this regard. The clarity of dialogue and great dispersion of the QS8s is one reason why no one will pry them from me.
