Before I purchased my Axioms, I tried out some B&M speakers which just didn't seem to cut the cake for me. After I pulled the trigger, as they say, one of the first things that I noticed was that the tweeters on most of the store speakers were exceedingly bright, compared to the M22s, in my opinion. I don't want to get into the I don't like that speaker vs this speaker debate. I'll just say that if you hear a speaker you like better than the others you've heard, it's probably a good buy for you. I haven't heard any Ascends, but have considered them in the past, mostly due to the rave reviews. I never ordered them, since the Axioms I have are the best budget speaker I've heard so far, and I keep reasoning that the differences between these are probably slight rather than large. Sheep will probably jump all over me for this, but I think Axioms are a very good speaker. I've heard a few other speaker brands I like, but they aren't different enough for me to change brands.