Why do people hate Axiom Audio?

S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
For the dumb people who cant click links in my original post:

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Like many of you, I have been wondering what on earth all the vitriolic Axiom-bashing that is showing up on this message board and others is all about. We’ve always followed the same principals of loudspeaker design, and although some aspects may not be considered mainstream, we firmly believe in taking a scientific approach to loudspeaker design, regardless of what the ‘flavour of the month’ is with reviewers, competitors’ products, or trends on message boards. We stick by our research and that makes us unpopular from time to time. That is all part of doing business and of being true to our ethos.

Unfortunately, not everyone sees it that way, and today I have some very disturbing news I feel obligated to share. The rampant bashing we have been receiving for some time now has left many of you - and myself - scratching our heads as to what in the world would be causing it. We are beginning to find the answer, and the news is quite shocking. We have evidence that shows that at least one of the bashers, JBall, sends his or her posts from the same IP address that is used by Gene DellaSala from Audioholics when he logs onto our message boards, as well as when he sends emails to Axiom. This has led me to believe that JBall is in fact Gene himself.

As I have mentioned before I was bothered after the opening of the Audioholics store by the fact that we were sending money and product for supposed objective independent review to a competitor in the marketplace. The fact that Audioholics was purporting to be an independent source of reliable commentary while also building up what would best be described as a house brand speaker line did not sit well with me either.

There was some talk after the store first opened of selling our products in the store, which would then at least change it to a quasi-dealer relationship. After much pondering on this we decided that it simply did not fit with our business model and in the summer of 2010 we cut our ties with Audioholics. This resulted in Gene threatening me by saying that he had built the Axiom brand and he could destroy it.

We do have further evidence that shows the scope of the problem is larger than just the postings being made by the IP sharing JBall but we do not yet know the full extent of how deep it really goes. We may or may not investigate it further as we are really not people who wish to spend time delving into this kind of pure negativity. We really just want to have fun with our customers and provide the best products and service we can offer. The majority of people we come in contact with every day are happy with their Axiom products and their experiences with our company, and those are the people we wish to focus on.

I guess if I had to look for a positive in all of this it would be that there is a certain odd flattery in realizing your competition fears what you are doing so much that they would resort to these kinds of tactics. More importantly, I want to thank those of you who have braved the wrath of these people here and on other message boards. I know how draining the negativity can be. I appreciate your support.

In closing I would actually like to extend my apologies to those who make legitimate posts in our forum with real opinions that are not favourable towards us. We watch these sorts of things as they can contain information that leads to product and service improvements. I am not talking about the endless repeaters of the same negative opinion over and over again that we do not agree with and therefore are not going to change. Or those who bash with no firsthand experience with the product they are bashing. That sort of behavior is not constructive to anyone. But to all the others making constructive points, that we need to either respond to with our reasons or change in order to keep making the products and overall experience with Axiom better."

You are only interested in character bashing with nothing to contribute. You omitted the context of the rest of the discussion that you linked to, where JBALL turns out to be Gene's misguided nephew. While Gene accepts responsibility for the situation, he denies making the inflammatory statement that was attributed to him. Insofar as I know Gene, he wouldn't behave in such a way. Since you are obviously only here to stir doody up, I am going to do something that I have never done before to a non-bot: I am going to ban your ass!
eleven.jpg
 
H

Hetfield

Audioholic Samurai
Anyway, i spread some truth of the real reasons why axiom hate is so prevalent here.

Enjoy your circle jerk boys. Im out

Tons of great speakers out there to enjoy....including axioms :)

Peace
You quoted your own post! That's the topper of this discussion.

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NINaudio

NINaudio

Audioholic Samurai
You don't have anything straight and clearly missed the point

When a grown "man"(gene) makes a puppet account on an axiom forum board just to constantly bash and private message users to bash axiom products....it's beyond the point of a simple dislike of a product. And says loads about his character. And of course he probably denies it...but IP's dont lie

Axiom builds a solid product that performs and in many case, out performs the competition. Yeah, its just my opinion but at least my opinion is based on unbiased real world listening and not frequency graphs and ball suckling fan boyism lol

To defend such childish and sketchy poop lile his puppet posting antics...is also beyond pathetic
I've got plenty straight. On page 8, Ian says :

"Amie and I spoke with Gene yesterday and he assured us he would investigate and clean up his internal problems that lead to all these JBall posts over the past few years. We are very happy to see this sort of negativity coming to an end. Audio is a wonderful hobby that brings much enjoyment to the majority of people in it; that is very positive.

Gene has asked that we remove all the JBall posts from our boards which I have already asked Steve to do when he gets to the office. As the regulars on this forum know it is a rare occasion when we delete a post. But I think this is one of those rare occasions where it will be a very good thing. "

So he seems fine with it, but you aren't. Get over it. Ian did.

"Unbiased real world listening" doesn't exist. As soon as you see what you're listening to you've got bias. I'll take concrete evidence of performance over your hearsay and opinions.
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
I just don't know what that guy thinks he is going to accomplish. No one is going to read his posts and think "Axiom must be a great speaker if people are trying to bury the truth about it! I should buy some!" It doesn't do Axiom any good.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
LOL why do screen names (or political action groups) with names like "truthseeker" tend not to?
 
H

Hetfield

Audioholic Samurai
I just don't know what that guy thinks he is going to accomplish. No one is going to read his posts and think "Axiom must be a great speaker if people are trying to bury the truth about it! I should buy some!" It doesn't do Axiom any good.
Oh I was just now extremely close to hitting the buy button for the 2 tweeter center. I remembered people talking about it but seeing is something else.

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Kingnoob

Kingnoob

Audioholic Samurai
Oh I was just now extremely close to hitting the buy button for the 2 tweeter center. I remembered people talking about it but seeing is something else.

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Multiple tweeters this brand is better, wish I could afford

Bose bashing, axiom just the new Bose ?
 
H

Hetfield

Audioholic Samurai
Multiple tweeters this brand is better, wish I could afford

Bose bashing, axiom just the new Bose ?
Nah I have no idea. I'm just busting that guys balls. Axiom speakers are not cheap though for an ID company. Not something I want but to each their own.


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Kingnoob

Kingnoob

Audioholic Samurai
Nah I have no idea. I'm just busting that guys balls. Axiom speakers are not cheap though for an ID company. Not something I want but to each their own.


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Maybe he’s a troll who came from axiom to promote the brand , even bashing is getting its name out there .
 
H

Hetfield

Audioholic Samurai
Maybe he’s a troll who came from axiom to promote the brand , even bashing is getting its name out there .
Tekton look like very interesting speakers. Never looked into them much but they look cool. They also look very expensive.

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Kingnoob

Kingnoob

Audioholic Samurai
Tekton look like very interesting speakers. Never looked into them much but they look cool. They also look very expensive.

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I wish people who like full rangers would buy them and stop crying, a Guy on a different forum was crying over using towers 80hz x over I’m like no one forcing you to do it try 40hz or lower ...almost as bad as bashing a brand

Yeah too expensive for a full system , a few models are under 2k pair . Cheapest is over $500 ea
Popular cheap pro speaker for hifi wish I had more space to try them but my mom wouldn’t like the idea , seems everything hurts my left ear anymore . Even tv speakers
 
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H

Hetfield

Audioholic Samurai
I wish people who like full rangers would buy them and stop crying
Yeah too expensive for a full system , a few models are under 2k pair . Cheapest is over $500 ea
Popular cheap pro speaker for hifi wish I had more space to try them but my mom wouldn’t like the idea , seems everything hurts my left ear anymore . Even tv speakers
Yeah I was just on their website, they are not all priced super duper high. There are some affordable stuff to my surprise. They look very interesting.

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bigbassdave

bigbassdave

Full Audioholic
I remember an epic subwoofer shootout on this site l around 15-20 years ago or so. It included SVS, Rhythmic, HSU, and others. If anyone could post a link, that would be rad. Seemed like Axiom had a pretty good reputation around here prior to the shootout. They declined to enter as they disagreed with Audioholics testing practices. It wasn’t a good look.
I will say this. I own a pair of M22 bookshelves and have a pair of 20 year old M80ti towers as my fronts in my main theater room. I also use pairs of QS8s (bought from Tom Andry through Audioholics) and QS4s as my surrounds and rear surrounds. They all sound fantastic. That’s the bottom line. Yeah my towers each have dual tweeters, but guess what? They sound great. They really sing paired up with my external power amp. The quadrupole surrounds are the best I’ve used.
To be fair, I did buy their VP150 center channel many years ago, and it was atrocious, but aside from that, I’ve been very pleased with the brand. Would I rather have a pair of B&W 700 towers? Heck yeah, and it’s a goal. For now, these do just fine and put a smile on my face daily.
Lastly, and as others have pointed out, they may not be the best value proposition when buying new. Second hand, you can find very good deals if you’re patient. I got my M80 towers for $250 together, and paid < $400 for the 4 surrounds combined. If you were to buy the newest versions off their site today, you’d pay $4,500 for all that.
If you’re in the San Diego area and want to hear them, you’re welcome to DM me. I take zero offense if your taste ends up differing from mine, and would love to hear other’s opinions.
 
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gene

gene

Audioholics Master Chief
Administrator
I remember an epic subwoofer shootout on this site l around 15-20 years ago or so. It included SVS, Rhythmic, HSU, and others. If anyone could post a link, that would be rad. Seemed like Axiom had a pretty good reputation around here prior to the shootout. They declined to enter as they disagreed with Audioholics testing practices. It wasn’t a good look.
I will say this. I own a pair of M22 bookshelves and have a pair of 20 year old M80ti towers as my fronts in my main theater room. I also use pairs of QS8s (bought from Tom Andry through Audioholics) and QS4s as my surrounds and rear surrounds. They all sound fantastic. That’s the bottom line. Yeah my towers each have dual tweeters, but guess what? They sound great. They really sing paired up with my external power amp. The quadrupole surrounds are the best I’ve used.
To be fair, I did buy their VP150 center channel many years ago, and it was atrocious, but aside from that, I’ve been very pleased with the brand. Would I rather have a pair of B&W 700 towers? Heck yeah, and it’s a goal. For now, these do just fine and put a smile on my face daily.
Lastly, and as others have pointed out, they may not be the best value proposition when buying new. Second hand, you can find very good deals if you’re patient.
If you’re in the San Diego area and want to hear them, you’re welcome to DM me. I take zero offense if your taste ends up differing from mine, and would love to hear other’s opinions.
Good to see a fan of our site for so long.

I think you are referring to this shoot out from a very long time ago: https://www.audioholics.com/loudspeaker-design/2010-subwoofer-shootout

We have a continuously updated database of EVERY subwoofer we reviewed and measured in excel form on our Patreon as well as some of the review articles on this site. We never tested the Axiom EP800 but the original larger box EP600 managed our medium bassaholic room size rating. I'm not sure how their smaller new EP600 would fair.
 
bigbassdave

bigbassdave

Full Audioholic
Good to see a fan of our site for so long.

I think you are referring to this shoot out from a very long time ago: https://www.audioholics.com/loudspeaker-design/2010-subwoofer-shootout

We have a continuously updated database of EVERY subwoofer we reviewed and measured in excel form on our Patreon as well as some of the review articles on this site. We never tested the Axiom EP800 but the original larger box EP600 managed our medium bassaholic room size rating. I'm not sure how their smaller new EP600 would fair.
That’s it! Thanks Gene. Not as long ago as I had thought. I’m going to have a blast revisiting this.
Love this site. I’ve used its guidance from my first Kenwood HTIB to my latest 7.2.4 separate setups. The writers and knowledgeable community have always steered me straight
 
Kingnoob

Kingnoob

Audioholic Samurai
I have only heard simulated comb-filtering. I can't recall ever hearing something severe from a loudspeaker setup, because no sensible person would commit such an obvious error. I don't know how clear it would be from a speaker like those Axioms. But another question would be why two tweeters? A single tweeter should have enough dynamic range to keep up with the rest of the drivers, unless it is a bad tweeter. Why risk comb-filtering effects blurring out the sound when it gives you no advantage? I think they are banking on uninformed customers thinking, "oh wow, 2 tweeters? This must be some kind of super speaker!"

It can't be good for imaging either. Most loudspeakers are designed for the acoustic reference point to be roughly at the tweeter point. They are made to behave like point source speakers. Well, how is that affected when the "point" is starting to get spread out between multiple tweeters? There is just no good reason to do that.
I wonder if these surrounds I’m using have any comb filtering?
Don’t get a lot of effects on regular tv so I can’t tell . Might watch some movies and see … but axiom are far pricier than this tier of Klipch ? ..
I’ve not heard axiom or tekdon two brands w multi tweeters.
That VP180 is too pricey and big for me but wow that’s a massive center speaker !!! That doesn’t mean it’s good , Leave that to people who have reviewed it or heard it . Good or bad I’ll probably never have the brand .
Center Channel seems to do everything, mostly using a roku on spectrum app. Probably no surround encoded.
 
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D

DacHawk

Audiophyte
I have a 9.1.6 config for home theater with an Lyngdorf MP-60 processor, 3 axiom amps, eight M80 axiom tower speakers, VP180 and VP150 Center speakers, 6 MP5 height speakers and 4 subwoofers (REW'd) from SVS (3) and velodyne (1). The velodyne sub I bought used from Audioholics many years ago.

I've accumulated speakers and amps from Axiom over many, many years and bought largely speakers on sale. Axiom on sale means refurbished, loyality points and black friday sales. Sounds great in my home. I do my own video and audio calibration as a hobby.

I'm happy with Axiom products and their service has always been great.

After finding and reading this thread, I felt obligated to post positive feedback and recommendation for Axiom.
 
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