Hi prz,
There's no great challenge in designing great cost-is-no-object speakers at $20,000 per pair. Kevin Voecks is a good friend of mine who designs those Revel speakers, and they are excellent. Actually, Kevin's Revels are quite superior to those overpriced monoliths from Wilson Audio Specialties, many of which I've found disappointing.
But the real challenge is designing neutral, transparent speakers at $1,100 per pair, and the Axiom M80s meet those criteria with few liabilities. Try your resonance damping but just put the bottles full of sand on one of your M80s, then put up an acoustically transparent fabric in front and get someone to switch between them to see if you hear any difference.
Robert Harley is a nice guy, but attributes some of the most dramatic improvements in sound quality to things like AC line conditioners and cables. Doesn't that tell you something?
Regards,
