It looks to me like Audioholics has taken alot of "creative license" with this ground plane vs. 4pi issue. I've had the privilege of testing several subwoofers at Axioms facility over the years. Both groundplane and 4pi testing were used, the 90 foot pole only on clear windless days. Both methods are fine and Ian has said that consistently many times. Groundplane is by far the more practical method and a standard. However it is a proxy for the more technically precise 4pi measurement. I highly doubt Axiom would have said anything much different. Which again makes me wonder where Audioholics is coming from.
Jakeman;
I was going to let this issue settle down but now I see the Axiom crowd wants to know more. Here is a PM Alan Lofft has been sending to readers inquiring why Axiom won't submit products to our shootouts. Since Alan Lofft is one of Axiom's most trusted employees, its safe to assume he speaks for Axiom, especially since he deals with customer emails on a daily basis.
Here is his exact message:
Thanks for your email and apologies for the delay in my response, but I honestly was pondering how to answer this.
Audioholics has reviewed several different models of our speakers, including subwoofers, and we're delighted at the response to Axiom from Audioholics site visitors.
However, on the subwoofer "shoot-out", we declined to participate because it's extremely difficult to properly measure true subwoofer output free of errors.
The only way to do it correctly is to have a tall outdoor tower, like Axiom's (90 feet) and do a 4-pi measurement of the sub hauled to the top of the tower on a very still and windless day. That, coupled with a large anechoic chamber, which Axiom also has, is the only means to correctly measure subwoofer frequency response and keep the competition fair.
Audioholics has neither of these facilities. Doing subwoofer measurements by a ground-plane measurement, or worse, in the room, is hopeless. The results apply only to that room, the listener's location and the sub location in that room. It would also require a double-blind listening facility and Audioholics has been reluctant to do such tests in the past. There are so many possibilities for erratic conclusions that we felt it was not in our interest to participate. The reviewer who will be doing the Audioholics tests also has some peculiar beliefs (based on his articles for Audioholics) that are not supported by our double-blind testing of loudspeakers and subwoofers.
I hope this is some help in explaining why we decided not to participate.
Kind regards,
Alan Lofft
***************
It was only after I was made aware of this response that I emailed Ian directly to refute this nonsense. That is when Ian made his statement about accepting groundplane but didn't denounce Alan's comments. Ian then came up with a new reason to not want us to review his sub. His new reason was that RBH was in the shootout and he claimed that RBH is an Audioholics E-store house brand despite the fact that RBH does NOT sell direct. It's important to note that the Audioholics E-store has offered on many occasions to integrate Axiom products to their offering. I honestly don't care what the Estore sells and doesn't sell. My primary goal with Axiom has always been to provide them honest product coverage and drive traffic to their site to make them a happy advertiser. Visiting them on an annual basis has always been a highlight of my work.
This latest imbroglio in addition to the slanted comparison between the M60 and EMP E55Ti has me convinced that the people who run Audioholics need a primer in how to deal with their conflicts of interest. Audioholics needs to seriously rethink how they manage their business relationships in light of their zeal to expand and market new products at this website.
My comments in the EMP review were written months prior to this situation. My comments focus on product strengths and weaknesses of all 3 speakers in that comparison. That is the point of a product comparison. I clearly stated there are people that would prefer the Klipsch or Axioms over the EMPs. The point was none of the 3 speakers were perfect but all were very good. I like the Axiom M60s despite a few issues I found. I like the EMP's despite a few issues I found. I don't really care for the Klipsch despite the Audioholics Estore sells them and they frequently advertise with us. Trust me when I say this, Klipsch sells more speakers than Axiom and EMP combined regardless of good/bad press. In fact Klipsch is the #1 selling speaker brand in the AH E-store. They are a trusted name with a loyal following and they NEVER complain about results of product shootouts. It speaks volumes about how the Klipsch business is run. They ALWAYS want to be in our shootouts!
I am not sure how far Ian and the folks at Axiom want to take this or if Axiom wants me to reveal the real reasons why they flew me up to their facility a few months ago. I personally wanted to end this before it got ugly. I still consider Ian and Amie friends and hope to resolve our differences over this.
I value the relationship I built with Ian and Axiom over the last decade. I appreciate all of their support on this site. My issues with them were never monetary. I just don't like having my site being misrepresented by Axiom employees, namely Alan Lofft. He has given us way too many black eyes in the past. It deeply hurts me as I opened my house to him as a guest at the exact time my wife suffered from an attack of Bels Palsy from her 2nd pregnancy. I placed priority on shooting a video for Axiom/Alan over rushing my wife to the doctor to be treated. Her own father had to help me in this crisis.
This is something I thought would never happen with my Canadian friends.
