Hey Nuge, welcome.
v2 v. v3 is a designation regarding three things.
-Crossover tweaks
-Driver changes (most notably, the white dust caps)
-Magnetic grills.
Officially, v3's have only been out a few months, but many of these changes were incremental, so later v2's sound identical to v3's. Not only that, but the differences between the versions are likely fairly subtle.
The Vassallo designation relates to real-wood veneer.
Even the Vassallo speakers are made with MDF; they have real wood veneer, they are not solid pine (or whatever species).
Axiom has all kinds of product in all kinds of places. I wouldn't ascribe motive if it is factory-direct.
