I was wanting to upgrade my $500 Sony HTIB, but didn't know which direction to turn, because my only experience with speakers, was a Bose 901 Series II that I used to own (mid 70's to early 80's then they were stolen and I never replaced). I went through a long period, where I didn't listen to music much and didn't even own a TV.
Anyway, I Googled for "audiophile speakers", and Axiom Audio was one of the companies that came up. I was intrigued with them, but just couldn't justify the cost of a pair of M80 at the time. Looking at the place where I wanted to put them, there just wasn't room for them anyway.
So, my thoughts turned back to Bose. A sales man at Nebraska Furniture Mart, where I was shopping demo'ed some Bose Acoustimas (cost around $1200) for me and cranked it up. Immediately, I hated them. Grating on the ears. Unpleasant sounding overall. Back to the drawing board.
I decided I wanted a sound bar. Yamaha seemed to make the best one, from my research, but, they discontinued it. I went to a Magnolia Best Buy store to demo what they had. They had what they called their best one connected up with sound and a TV. They were playing Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds on it and it sounded good. I put in a CD that I had brought and, twa-la, there was no bass, and it sounded poorly overall. They had a pair of Elemental Design's, floor models, skinny and tall towers, on sale that I almost bought, but thought I could do better with Axiom.
I ordered my first pair of Axiom M22 with stands. Sounds ok, but not what I was looking for. I had a cheap Sony Receiver, I paid $150 for off of NewEgg.com, I sent it back hoping my problem was the receiver, and not the speakers. It was a few months later, that I bought the Pioneer Elite reciever I have now. Listening to this combination was like audio nervana. I was in love.
I had a 27" lcd on a stand with these to either side. Then I bought a 37" and mounted it on the wall. Now I wanted the on/wall variety. So I bought on wall VP100, and a pair of M22, all in black. It looked really, really good. But after time, visitors started complaining how there was a certain shrillness to the sound. Then it started to bother me. I moved the on-wall M22's up, then added the bookshelf M22's with stands back into the mix, and the sound was much improved overall.
Later I swapped out the VP100 with an M2 for center channel, to test, and wasn't satisfied, so I placed it above the Tv to use in conjunction with VP100. When I found an on-wall VP150 in a finish I liked on the auction site for a good price, I got it.
Tried out the EP175 and wasn't satisfied with it. Then I upgraded to the EP350 and it's a winner.
My next step for this room, would be to replace the 37" tv with a 47" tv. Then perhaps eliminate the on-wall M22's. Move the bookshelf M22's up, and add a pair of M50's.
