Dale:
I can't speak for Axiom regarding the height of the new stands, but I do know that the same thing was discussed with the older speaker stands and evidently it was a safety matter. Those little QS8s are VERY solid, and I think a scenerio of one of them falling from a 5' or 6' height onto a kids head is scary...

FWIW, the new stands LOOK very cool!

::::::: No disrespect to Axiom, but my favorite woofer is my yellow lab :::::::