From all I've read, if you want a "musical" sub, stick to Axiom, if you want depth and spls, you might find better offerings from HSU, SVS, ED... for the same price range.
While this may have been true a few years ago, driver tech has vastly improved and so has the sound quality of many subs.
Those 'non-musical' subs used poorly designed sloppy drivers. In reality, they were not that good for HT either as they would have the same slop for rumbly stuff. It just might not have been as obvious.
I also think that the EP800 is quite competitive now. The price of many US offerings has gone up as the US$ has fallen.
