mdrew,
No speaker is perfect; indeed, like that other transducer, the microphone, loudspeakers and microphones are the most imperfect links in the audio recording and reproducing chain. As transducers--the microphone, a converter of acoustical/mechanical energy into an electrical analog waveform that represents the acoustical energy, it is vulnerable to resonances and all kinds of nasty deviations away from linear, flat frequency response.
A loudspeaker, also a transducer--it has to convert the analog electrical voltages back into acoustical pressure that eventually impinges on our eardrums as "sound", or at least that's how our brain interprets those pulses (yet another conversion!).
The domes and cones of dynamic speakers (as well as those membranes and ribbons of other designs) have to rapidly pump back and forth without flexing, overshooting their mark, and without "breaking up" or resonating, an almost impossible task.
It's astonishing how convincingly well-designed speakers do this--reproduce music (and I do include Axioms in this category). However, we are always seeking to improve specific models with endless double-blind and single-blind music listening tests and technical anechoic measurements. Since I joined Axiom four years ago, that's been an ongoing process (and it existed before I came to the company) and particular models have been improved and changed.
Sometimes there is a change in the model number (the M2i, for example) but more often the change is an ongoing one.
I have never stated that any of the Axiom speakers are perfect reproducers, but I will state that my favorites in the Axiom line are among a handful of very revealing, transparent and natural-sounding speakers (given well-recorded source material!) that represent extraordinary value in terms of neutral sonics vs. price. Some of the other brands that I would also cite retail for many multiples of Axiom's prices, and regular visitors to these boards know the brands I've mentioned in the past.
