Hi spiffnme,
Great to read your excellent reviews and comparisons back in '03, and your listening judgements are dead-accurate (they correlate very closely with my double-blind comparisons of various speakers including Axioms).
I took note of this comment especially:
"Soundstage - Another win for the M60's. I think this is where having the Radio Shack switcher helped a lot. Upon immediately switching you could hear the sound just "open up". The Veritas sounded compressed and "closed in" in comparision."
To reflect on FredK's question on the 3-dB or more depression in the Veritas 2.4's frequency response, this sense of "opening up" is exactly what I heard comparing the Axiom M80s or M22s to the Veritas 2.4. Those differences are quite noticeable--even dramatically so--when you do instantaneous comparisons as you did, and I wish more enthusiasts would rush out and buy the Radio Shack switcher to do careful comparisons.
However, to answer Fredk, a 3-dB difference is subjectively "somewhat louder" or "slightly softer". If you hear the Veritas speakers by themselves, in isolation, they sound quite lovely because the gentle midrange dip is that--gradual. No nasty spikes or resonances. But put a pair of M80s, M60s or M22s into the mix and switch immediately and suddenly the Veritas 2.4s sound somewhat dull or "closed in" (as you said) compared to the Axiom M80s or M22s (or M60s).
Regards,
Alan
