If you have (and I am abso. sure Axiom does) a good manufacturing process with a good SPC process, failures as you described it would be rare. But they do happen.
I am betting for most people online speaker shopping is still a bit scary. If a speaker shows up not preforming properly at a customer, they may just pack the thing back up and ship it back, not even realizing it was defective. Because there is no store to take them back to and a duel listening session with a sales person or technician, the product has to work perfectly everytime. This must be critical to Axiom's business model (along with the excellent customer support they offer).
