I'm baffled. It doesn't even seem to be new content he woke the thread up for.
It's Gene. He doesn't make much sense in anything that he does. Unless you consider horrifically bad self promotion (at least in his videos) as "making sense."
What's worse are the blind lemmings that follow this guy's every word. Sure, Gene could say that I am a blind lemming for owning Axioms, but I bought mine 11 years ago after a lot of research, listening to other brands, but before even hearing the Axioms. I liked them so much that I didn't worry about the more expensive brands that sounded similar. That is also why I later upgraded my VP150 to a VP180, added 2 more QS8s, and bought 4 M3 on-walls just last fall. I like the speakers, I like the company.
Better products out there? Sure. Some costing the same or maybe even less, probably. But most of those other companies are barely above paying someone to build a DIY type speaker (not that some can't look nice). Some do offer nice looking products. But how long will they be around? I think of a maker of amazingly great subwoofers right here in my state of Iowa. Elemental Design was basically a "garage" business in the small town of Newton, Iowa. People RAVED about how great their products were, and things were going great for a while. Then, and I don't know the details, they started having issues, put current stock on clearance, and closed up shop. to this day, I don't think that anyone who has owned one of their products has had anything but extremely positive feedback. They has everything going for them and offered tremendous performance and at a reasonable price, but didn't last.
I'd take someone who has been around a while, has a product that I like, etc. Sure, the pricing has gone up a lot in the 11 years of ownership, but so have the costs of R&D, materials, and construction.
Nick - this is a well stated post. One of the lessons learned from my end in the 4 years of Chase Home Theater is just how hard it is to get good people to deliver products to customers.
Chase Home Theater was started with my brother in mind - he was going to handle all the logistics and assembly, while I provided marketing and paid for all our products up front.
As with Axiom, our stuff was largely sourced with North American raw materials, or "American Made" (keep in mind America is actually two continents, not a country).
I am still living the "pain" of trying to get people to deliver products to customers. I currently have customers who have been waiting since May for products that should have shipped IN May.
My brother was a "disaster" in terms of this - and his replacement is far worse.
Now that I am back doing the on line reviews - and actually enjoying the hobby again, the experience with the business end has really given me a new appreciation for companies getting products delivered.
The Axiom products I ordered took about 5 weeks from order to delivery, and this includes the custom oak finish.
It was a visit to Axiom - seeing the production line, the anechoic chamber, the blind listening lab - that made me pull the trigger.
Today, in terms of speakers, most ID companies order containers of products from a Chinese source. They have no in house R&D.
I have had a chance to hear several of these products, and have seen the fit and finish.
The M100's, VP-180, M50's and EP-800 look fantastic, and the build quality is first rate.
I know Axiom will be there tomorrow - better than I will for my old customers. That is something I personally find embarrassing - all those customers who were excited at purchasing our Chase products only to see me "close the doors".
The people who rip into Axiom are also the same people who would never take a blind listening test. This is why I am hopefully going to have a real listening "studio" at my place, complete with the ability to do blind listening tests with switching done at the pre-amp level, and also level matched.
It will be fun to let people hear different speakers under blind conditions.
Our hobby deserves more honesty and sanity than it has now. And I hope to be a small part of both.
