Even though I bought my Axioms without ever hearing any Axioms (ship date is Dec 10th), it wasn't until today that I actually heard a setup with Axiom speakers like I will have. A new Axiom owner (leaving his name out to protect the guilty) of about 3 weeks invited me over. I stopped by with my wife and 2 kids, so we didn't want to be rude and stay too long, but we heard a THX intro, the Pod Race from Star Wars EP1, and a scene from Gladiator that showed off the soundtrack and ambiant crowd sounds and how well the QS8 surrounds handled them.
In a nutshell, I think that I am regretting going over. All it does is makes me want my Axioms even more. The sound was clean and clear, with a great mid and high range from the M60Ti fronts. The center VP150 was great. My wife developed a slight hearing problem a few years back, and always complains about not being able to hear "the voices" in a movie. The VP150 was great, and she liked it. The QS8 surrounds enveloped the room with the key surround information. He had a SVS PC-Plus sub that covered the low end, so I was not sure just how much low end was coming out of the M60Ti fronts.
My biggest concern was the issue of "brightness" that some people complain about. I didn't find the sound bright or hard to listen to at all. Granted, a lot has to do with configuration and setup of the receiver and room characteristics, but I was very happy to find out that the fear of "bright" speakers wouldn't exist, at least for me.
Now, all I need is one of thoe fabled "gold emails" from Axiom saying that my stuff shipped early, and I would be super excited.
