In reply to:
I don't believe the good Dr. would put his name on a product that could be deemed anything other than that of the highest in quality.
As for the highest in quality, you always have to add "at the price point"... I own an STF-2, and at it's price point, it's a great sub. If the market would bear $2000 subs as a mid-range, Axiom, Hsu and SVS would all shift around their priorities.
I'm not saying a 12" driver is bad, but there's no such thing as a free lunch. What you gain from a larger driver (lower frequency response and more air movement in the same excursion) is offset by what you lose (how fast the driver "reacts" due to the extra mass). The car guys may understand it better in terms of gears - there are no diff gear ratios that give you more low-end grunt and top end.
Axiom's taken a pretty big step with the XLF DSP microprocessor controlled EP500 and 600. It's preprogrammed to take the physics behind the driver into consideration. While the purist in me shivers at the thought of silicon making decisions about what I want to hear, in the end, it does make some sense to "correct" for Newton's First law Of Motion.
Bren R.
