It is also possible that they had the tone controls active, or the MCACC set-up wrong. I went into a tweeter and asked to listen to the Yamaha 2500, the denon 3805, and the Pioneer 54 (AX3). I requested that all be set to direct, with no tone control or acoustic adjustment. The salesperson after much fiddling said he had it set up correctly. After about 30 minutes of listening I was about to write off the pioneer. I liked the way it presented the music, but there was something about the sound that wasn't quite right. I sounded as if the loudness button was on. I went adn fiddled with the receiver and sure enough, the loudness button was on. Turned the loudness off, and voila, the music sounded the way it should. I bought the 54, but not from that tweeter.
POint is. you have to be careful, and explore things for yourself. Even if you liked those speakers with the Yamaha receiver from a previous visit, the sound on that day could have changed because of speaker set-up with-in the room could have changed, or maybe they would have messed with tone control and YPAO. They could have been running extra speakers and/or a sub on the previous day. Who knows.
In the final analysis how the AX5i sounds with the speakers in the shop is not as important as how it sounds with the brand of speakers you either own or are going to buy. Try to listen the receiver with the speakers you plan on using, then if it still sounds flat and lifeless, you know it is not the receiver for you. The sonic characteristics of the AX5 and the AX3 should be very similar.
