I'm living in Seattle, and I'm seriously thinking about
buying the Epic 60 system (although I'd upgrade the center speaker to the VP150). However, I've always been told that
I should never buy any audio equipment without hearing it
first and that's obviously a bit difficult with Axiom.

So, I was wondering if there is anybody living in the Seattle area who would be willing to showcase their system?

Also, I was wondering if anybody has input on whether I would be better off buying an Energy system (with C-9 front speakers). An energy system would not be more than $400 more and I was wondering if that would be a better buy?

ValiantSeattle,

In general, the advice about not buying before hearing is very good advice to follow. There are still plenty of internet-direct vendors out there who make and sell a shoddy product.

Axiom, however, is not one of those companies. I urge you to continue to try to find someone to audition the speakers; however, if you cannot find anyone, don't let that rule out the Axioms. As I'm sure you've gathered from your initial research, they are a great product from a fantastic company that really cares about their customers.

If in doubt, give them a call and speak to a real live person. It's much easier making a blind -- er, deaf -- internet purchase when you can talk to a human. And in the off chance that you do not like the speakers, remember about the return policy.

I own m22's and a VP150 center. I listened to C-5's and C-9's before purchasing my Axioms. We specifically went to a nearby HT store to listen to the C-5's, didn't like them much - sounded weak and tinny. The C-9's were *awesome* though. Seriously awesome. We prefered them over a last-year's Veritas 2.4 that was discounted to the same price. My wife really liked them and was pretty much ready to plunk down the $1,200 on the spot and knit sweaters for all of our friends and relatives for Christmas. I wanted to hear Axiom though. I used the same receiver at the store that I had at home, listening to the same CDs, unfortunately on a different brand of CD player, so that might affect things (I doubt it by much). The C-9's high's and mid's sound very similar to the m22's, but the bass of the C-9's simply blows them away. Take note, I'm comparing $400 bookshelves with $1,200 floor standers - I don't expect the m22's to have lots of bass. But the C-9's sound *beautiful* just on their own with no subwoofer. Since the mid-highs of m60's are identical to the m22, and the m60 has the two woofers, I'd wager that the m60 probably sounds pretty comparable to the C-9. That's only a guess, I've not heard m60's yet.