this message is for anyone who is doubting the quality of factory outlet speakers.
Yesterday, I received a pair of M3Ti's from the factory outlet. One of them looked perfect. The other one, however, looked like a 'worst case scenario'.
It had a few cabinet blemishes that were barely noticeable, but then when I took the grill off, I see why they were Factory Outlet. There was a tiny scratch on the woofer (about 2mm long), but the tweeter looked bad. It looked like it was dragged on concrete. My original thought was
"This will sound TERRIBLE!"
but axiom swears they are sonically perfect.
Well, they are... I put the grills back on, had my mom mix the speakers, then I left for an hour. I came back, plugged them in, listened for two hours, and I really couldn;t tell which one had the sratched driver units. I had guesstimated it was the left one, and it was, but I think this was a total fluke. I've also played the same CD through the same channel (the left channel), switching the speaker, but it still sounds the exact same on both. Besides, even if it does fail, the speakers come with a 5 year warranty.
So if you're broke like me, but love good sound, factory outlet is the way to go!
