>>This is the only thing I have not been able to reproduce with my axiom setup. The axioms do hit hard however unless you have ever heard the A7s it’s hard to explain this feeling they provided. Actually I think this will be difficult to reproduce with most speakers now days.
I don't know the answer to this one either. I was never sure if you just needed "big speakers" or a big room as well to get that sound. It's not, strictly speaking, accurate sound AFAIK but it sure does sound good
I went to a Musical Box concert (they reproduce the old Genesis concerts extremely well) and was probably most surprised by the sound quality. All of the instruments, and most of the sound systems, are either 70s-era or as accurate a reproduction as they could make, but the purity and punch of the deep bass off the pedals was a real eye-opener. I don't know exactly what speakers were being used but they were all A7-era horn-loaded bass reflex cabinets with compression horn tweeters. Man that sounded good.
I guess the big question is how much of "the sound" is just great bass response (which a better sub will give you) and how much is peaky frequency response at certain low notes and emphasis of some of the harmonics (which you would need M80 + big-ass sub + some signal processing to reproduce).
If you're in the California area you could give Tharkun a call and ask to audition his system -- 5 M80s, 2 EP600s, some QS8s, and about 250,000 watts of amplifier
