Ya know something Alou, "Everybody" who ever bought and liked their M40s is a "Winner"
When I first started visiting this site way back in the early days of this millenium, the M40 was a speaker that was bought and used quite frequently and had lots of happy reviews; by consumers both on this site, in Audio Review, and other, web sites; all was well in the M40 world.
Then there was that "Professional" review that stated that the M40 was as good as the M3 in a lot of areas, but not so good in others.(I'm sure you've read it) Unfortunately the areas that were discounted were the ones that many people thought were important enough to discount the M40s as "not quite good enough" That M40 review was followed rather rapidly by another review that stated further, that the M3 was inferior to the M22 in a number of important points. The M3 lost some of it's stature on the Axiom line-up, and the M40 dropped yet another rung.
At that point the M40s entered that slippery slope to where it ended up this week.
Seems to me that...
Some folks prefer warm, yet dynamic but comfortable speakers, such as yourself.
Others prefer somewhat more neutral speakers that don't call attention to themselves, such as Me.
Yet others prefer a more exacting, clean, cool sound, such as the average Axiom user.
Unfortunately for the M40(and the M50 to follow?)the average Axiom fan prefers the cooler, more accurate sound by something like a 15 to 1 ratio. And this is as it should be, as the Company is clearly aiming itself toward these fans of the more accurate presentation, which is a very good thing for Axiom, and their customers, as it's better to focus on one segment of the listening population and do a "great" job than to try to satisfy each portion with a mearly "much better than average" product.
It is gratifying to note that in it's dying gasp, the M40 reached out to a lot of folks and let it be known just how good they really were!
Rich.
