Welcome Douglas.
As Alan just wrote in another post in this thread a moment ago, the room and speaker placement within that room is very important. It's always near impossible to predict how a speaker that you're hearing in a showroom (or warehouse!!) will sound in your room, which is why so many of us are big believers in Axioms' "try it in your home" policy.
I haven't made the comparison myself, but many feel that the Axiom 60s sound is pretty similar to the B&W 700 series...at quite a bit less $$$. And the 500 sub is supposed to be simply awesome!
