I've gotten so used to answering questions about Axioms, here and at other forums, that I've created a Word document containing most of my standard comments. That saves a lot of typing time, even if it does subject others to, at times, painfully boring redundancy.
Here's one of the paragraphs from that document.
"
With music, having owned lesser speakers I had gotten into the habit of cranking up the volume in order to give me the listening experience I wanted (hearing everything). I have found that these speakers do NOT need to be cranked to provide the satisfying experience of hearing everything in the mix."
Here's another incident that supports that statement, and at the same time, indicates there IS something to the psychoacoustic theory.
I had a nice local fellow over to listen to the Axioms, and we were listening away at a healthy volume, when we started to talk a little. Realizing that the volume was making our conversing difficult, I quickly lowered the volume to a level where both conversation and music could be comfortably heard. But, when I did, the thought "UGH, the music at this volume doesn't sound so good, and won't show off the Axioms much" went through my head. After talking for a few minutes, I realized I was thinking "Man this sounds SOOOOOOOO good at this volume.
Moral? If you listen at high volume, short term or long, and change to a substantially lower volume, initially, that lower volume is not going to please. But, if you allow yourself to become accustomed to that lower volume, short term or long, the Axioms are gonna sound great! With Axioms, You do NOT need to listen at loud volumes to have a wonderful listening experience.
I don't know about you, but that sure is different from any other speaker I'VE owned.
