To me the adjective "dark" to describe the Axiom M80s has become a compliment with regard to revelation of all of the latent nuance that's hidden in the shadows of the soundtrack, the pianissimo, the oboe, the buried horn or string.
I have come to love the sound of dark, it's moody, it's uplifting, it's enlightening, it's more real, especially in comparison to electronic bright . . .
The experience of overly bright only seems to come into play at high volumes, when the axiom treble still comes on as neutral, balanced, and strong as it does at moderate volumes.
To me this seems an intriguing anomaly: with crappy equipment you have to boost loudness to generate excitement at low volumes but with axiom equipment you may have to tame the sonic reality of balanced frequency response at high volumes? I suspect audio engineering of the recordings may play a hand in the tweaks necessary to maximize realism, since they must be anticipating our playback equipment.
I'm starting to wonder if I do need dynamic eq when the commercials come on and to combat compression, but at low to moderate volumes on satellite tv, the presentation is pristine.
