From the posts of various Axiom owners, the general consensus seems to be that they bought Axiom speakers because...a) favorable reviews, b) testimonials of previous owners, c) 30 day return policy, and d) act of faith. Could I argue that Axiom has a tightly focussed line, and makes choosing more consumer friendly, both in selection and web page navigation?
There's a new book out there called the "Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less" by Barry Schwartz, go to Chapters or B&N and read it for free. I think a lot of it is appropriate to the audiophile business. The author argues that having so much choice in the marketplace complicates the consumer's decision process.
There's probably over a thousand speaker models on the market. Some companies even market several dozen speakers. With so much choice, it brings out certain buying behaviors.
There are 2 kinds of buyers, Maximizers and Satisficers.
Maximizers put considerable energy and effort into the hunt, looking for the "best", whether by price, style, quality, etc. They'll search the ends of the earth to see if they really did make a good choice. They are not likely to be happy with their choice, because something better could be available.
Satisficers look for something that's good enough, and then stop looking when they find it. They're usually happier with their purchase than Maximizers. Standards can be just as high as those of maximizers. Many Axiom purchasers who responded to the previous thread appear to be in this category.
The book suggests that Maximizing is bad, because it ties up time resources that could be better used for other things. The remedy would be to go from being a Picker to being a Chooser.
Pickers are so overwhelmed with choice, they make selections based on what's available, whether it meets their criteria or not. Choosers have a list of features they desire, and will stop searching as soon as they come across a product that fills those requirements; if no product meets their criteria, no selection is made. (not so easy for loudspeakers, I know, b/c the best source of measurements, frequency response and averaged listening window curves, aren't readily available)
I believe that most audiophiles interested in the high end are maximizers; I bought something in 1995, and I've continued to look for better speakers for the last 9 years, even though I only listen to them for maybe 5 hours a month.
One of things that draws me towards Axiom is their relatively small selection of speakers (though I wish Axiom had a line of flat wallmount speakers to complement flatpanel TVs). Visit other companies like B&W, Infinity, Energy, or Paradigm, and tell me which company you'd rather deal with? Zillions of navigation links; hunting for product line comparison charts; costs of manufacturing and marketing all of those models...I'm sure it's a smart business decision to keep the product line lean. Agree? Disagree?
