Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Wood Veneer

I heard at Audioholics that Axiom speakers would soon be offered with real wood veneer so I am wondering when and how much more money that will add to speaker prices?

Incidentally I figured out that Axiom representatives weren't actually ignoring my emails, yahoo mail sends them into the spam inbox with thousands of other messages - great...

I think the "when" may be late March* or April but take my words with the proverbial grain of salt.

*January Newsletter.

Adding to Ford's comment, expect to pay a premium price. Their present offering for custom finishes is rather hefty per pair. It really starts putting Axioms into the category of those "other" speakers down the road that "were" more expensive with equivalent quality.

There is something to be said about nice wood veneers though and i'm sure that Axiom will pull it off with amazing quality. Their eye for a finished product is second to none at this point. The Factory Outlet speakers may as well be sold as "A" stock IMO.

The best part is that you could still get the faux finishes, the custom faux finishes, the high gloss finishes and the real wood veneer ... and the choice is still yours. I like. I've been looking at other speakers as they have to look as good as they sound to please SWMBO*. If you've got the budget why not? My current Infinity RS IIIb's look beautiful and sounded the equal of their looks years ago.

The $275 for a custom finished system isn't bad ... wonder how much more the real wood veneer would run? Couldn't be as much as the high gloss custom finishes.


(* She Who Must Be Obeyed)

I suspect the real wood veneer will be the price leader. If thats what you want and you can afford it then it's great to have some choices.

Did the custom shop change? I don't remember it being 12% per model. To me that's fairly reasonable.

Yeah....that has changed. There used to be more High Gloss choices as well.

They expect to ‘launch’ the veneer at the end of March, possibly fist part of April. There will be offering satin, semi-gloss, gloss and piano finishes.

Not sure what the price will be yet, but it’ll definitely be more.

Even if the cost is 50% extra for a piano finish (for example: $1850 for a set of M80’s), these speakers will still be very reasonably priced. Look around some at the different brands out there that have wood veneer in a piano finish. You’ll have a hard time finding one under $2000. And you will not find any with the performance specs of the M80 / M60’s for under $2000. You also have to remember that shipping costs are included, which will usually be a couple hundred extra.

My eyesight seems to be getting worse year by year so the finish isn't as important as it used to be

Once upon a tme, Axiom offered a Reference lineup - for the original AX lineup - before the ASW cabinets became part of the AX lineup - and maybe even after, as I am not up on that period of the history.

This lineup included real wood veneer, lifetime warranties, among other items.