-I think a large part of my willingness to 'chance it' was that I had not read a single truly negative review of the speakers that seemed credible. There were a few I saw, but they seemed less like (even subjective) reviews and more like either anti-axiom rants or “I’m too cool/rich to not spend $20000.00 on a pair of speakers you poor smucks”. All other reviews were either positive or "nice, but not my cup o' tea". And those reviews (mostly for the M22s I was eyeing) that did not care for them always said the same thing “forward” and “lacking in base”, but have “great mids”. Even when criticized Axiom speakers were consistent! This is across all the forums (reviews and comparisons) I read: audioreview.com, hometheaterforum.com, avsforum.com, and The Spot.
-In addition, I could not find any complaints about customer service. Not that I could find a lot of raves (which I found and contributed to), but I could not find anyone complaining. That says a LOT more than any number of raves about service to me. It means that even those that are bitter and feel entitled to godhood can't find fault!
-This forum and a post from Peter (thanks man!) about a comparison of the M22s and CSW speakers I had. The people of the Axiom forum are open and honest (perhaps roughly so) about their opinions and experiences with the speakers and the company and Axiom let’s us do this all on their dime and on their site! No one is told to post elsewhere if they say they prefer a different speaker. Just don’t mention cables/isolation pads/tubes/warm sounding solid-state receivers…
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-30 Day money back guarantee that forum posters has noted using w/o negative effects.
Overall I got a feeling that if I did not like the speakers I could return them with very little fuss and little out of pocket expense. And WOW oh WOW am I glad I did.
jr
