Synthguy……..

I find your thesis statement contradictory to the rest of your post. You start off stated you are not enamored by high dollar everything, but then you go on a rant justifying that very stance. So where do you stand?? Are you someone who believes you have to pay for quality or not? Are you someone who puts a price on sound quality or not??

I come from the nuclear industry. I know the difference between crap and quality. I get paid a good wage to ensure that things are done right, the first time and I am very well aware of just how much money goes into ensuring things are done right. I also know how much money is simply wasted by inefficiencies inflicted on departments by morons who can’t tell the difference between a screwdriver and an end wrench, but who insist in instructing a highly skilled technician how to use them. I’ve seen crap that costs many times that of the identical product, but with a significant improvement in quality by a different vendor or contractor costing much, much less. Your statements that you must pay to get quality just don’t hold water. This is amplified with products that are being produced for a consumer base that makes their purchasing decisions with vanity and peer status in the mix. Bose and Monster immediately come to mind. I’m probably being generous, but I’m going to say that Bose and Monster budget no less than 70% of their operating expenses into marketing. That cost is passed directly to the sucker that believes their BS. Wine is in the same category. I have many friends who refuse to drink a bottle of wine that costs less that $50 because to them, anything less than $50 is crap. Even after "fooling" them into loving the $20 bottle during a blind tasting, they continue to live by their silly $50 rule. Screaming Eagle at $2000 a bottle is a prime example. People who buy it do not buy it to drink. They buy it to be part of an elitist group. It has nothing to do with quality.

Axiom may be a ‘budget’ speaker, but the quality of their products does not have a large peer base. Their business model lends itself to allow them to put a higher percentage of operating expenses into R/D and quality control instead of marketing and buying components for no other reason than to satisfy an ignorant buyer’s lust for status and vanity.