On the idea of subwoofer driver driver direction, I'm not sold on the concept that the direction of the woofer will change much of the sound.
The problem with determining whether a downfiring vs. a forward (or rear) firing subwoofer actually makes a difference is that one needs to use the EXACT same subwoofer but in two different configurations in order to test it. Had Axiom sold both a downfiring and forward firing EP350, now that would have been a review to read, but to date, i've only seen reviews of completely different subs trying to differentiate sound differences via the woofer firing direction reasoning. Mind you i did once have my EP350 on its side lifted by pucks so i could test this idea.
The longer wavelength of a low frequency note is what makes the sound hard to localize. With that in mind, a downfiring or forward firing woofer (with the identical build) will still move the same amount of air to produce this effect. The key here is that the air movement around the subwoofer (or any speaker for that matter) is not unidirectional and air molecules will go in several planes. Being closer to walls makes a difference as the molecules hit the resistance of a hard surface and either rebound or add their energy into a wall struture (hence the increase bass closer to corners and such) but this phenomenon has to include the effect from the whole subwoofer structure and not just the driver direction.
Anyways, i digress. Thoughts to ponder.
Here is the original picture of the Axiom subwoofer that we heard on tour.
You can now clearly see it is just their prototype before the port design was changed and the driver raised, but otherwise it was the EP600. We did not have a ton of time with the sub but from what we heard while we were there was impressive.
Just for the record, my wife and i really only have one Axiom 'secret' left to hold for awhile. Then we will need to take another tour i'm thinking.
But that's ok. There's an excellent spa resort about 40 minutes away so the trip works for everyone!
Maybe next time we will have time to visit Amie and Ian's fabled house of wood.
