Hopefully, he DOES. I need some good stories!
Groy, play around with placement a bit. Floorstanders, with their greater bass output, can be a little more susceptible to bad placement.
Also, you said your primary source is MP3s. Are those "typical" MP3s at 128kps? If so, spend 10 bucks on a Diana Krall CD to setup and compare the speakers. Whether you love her jazzy style or not is irrelevant, her music is recorded very, very well. The Axioms are very revealing speakers, as mentioned above, garbage in, garbage out.
Also, as mentioned above, turn off any Audyssey-type processing. Temporarily, you can measure the distances to each speaker or simply guesttimate. Processing like that will change the sound of the speaker; not infrequently for the worse.
Finally, if those Cantons have a one-month return trial, do all this quick so you can decide to order QS8s for the rear (assuming of course that you'll love the Axioms once you get everything dialed in). I used to be a big fan of Cantons back 20 years ago when I last heard them, so I don't mean any disrespect towards them, but many people consider the QS8s to be about THE best surround speakers out there, and would not only envelope you in sound better than the direct-radiating Cantons, but match with the M80s better too.
Let us know how you make out!
