The Pioneers were indeed fuller and achieved higher SPLs and I could not bottom them out but they sounded very "thick".
I had a similar experience. I use Axioms (M22s) for my music system, but I had some H/K satellites for my theater system. So given the price I figured it couldn't hurt to try the Pioneer bookshelves. At first they sounded much better, but after just a little exposure I heard that "think" sound. Still an improvement, and I can crank them, but I'm looking forward to converting the larger room and I can swap in some M80s.
