After much discussion, hours of listening and comparing, I finally ordered Axioms last week. I got two M60's, a VP150, and 4 QS8's. I was super exited when the FedEx gal dropped them off. I got them inside and was impressed with the looks. Very nice speakers indeed!
Now here is where the trouble begins. I open the M60's and put the spikes on the bottom. The first few go on easily then I have to 'encourage strongly' the final couple. It seems to me that should not happen. This lack of attention to detail is concerning, but I did get the spikes on so all was still good.
I got the M60's and the VP150 setup. It was getting late and I did not get the QS8's up yet, but I had to hear my new speakers. I setup my Onkyo 705 to just the 3 fronts and my sub. I turned on some music and put the AVR in 'pure audio' mode (not processing - going straight to the mains). I immediately heard a cracking sound from the right main. This was very pronounced with drum heavy tracks. I tried several CDs and got the same cracking. It was late so I went to bed (disappointed).
The next evening I swapped the speakers and replaced the speaker wires. Once again I got cracking (from the same speaker moved to the other side). I'm now positive it is the speaker. So I contact Axiom Audio. First they want me to swap tweeters with the other M60. Are you kidding me? I'm not taking apart a speaker I just purchased. After a few more e-mails, they agree to send a replacement. Great. Now I have to wait a few more days, but I hope it will be worth it in the end.
Incidentally, while I had some time this weekend I did install the QS8's. I decided to run Audessy to see what it would detect. It did come back with an error on the bad speaker(no surprise there). I do, however, have other concerns. When Audessy is running, it plays a special sound. When playing this sound in the past, it sounded similar on all speakers. With the new Axioms, the center sounds very different from the main (the good one). Also, if Audessy detects too much ambient noise, it replays its test tones lounder 2 times. Audessy had to do this on the good M60 (never had this issue before). I'm not sure what this means, but I am not encouraged. Guess I will see when the new speaker arrives next week.
Sorry for the long post, but I'm not quite sure what to make of all this yet. I'm really hoping the new speaker settles everything. I'd really like to keep the $1000 I saved when choosing Axiom over B&W....
