I am planing on buying a sub next year. Even though the final choice is up to the customer's ears, I am interested in the results. As previously mentioned, if all the reviewers agree, it can give you an idea if a particular sub would be worth your while to look at or not. Not everybody has a possibility to listen to several subs in the same room in order to make their decision. So if this shootout helps narrowing to a few choices, I think it's good. If one sub that you were looking at is featured in this shootout, you can have an idea to how it performs, same as any other review.
Even though they could return the speakers, a lot of people bought Axiom speakers without ever hearing them before, just bases on the reviews that they have, and are extremely happy with them. So I don't think it's a bad thing IMHO.

Bruno
M80s/VP180/QS8s/EP600/AVR-890
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"The problem is choice..."