Narrowed it down. now which ones should i get

You should buy whichever sounds best to YOU in YOUR room on YOUR gear. No one can tell you which speakers are going to sound the best to you. I would order just a pair of each R/L mains and A/B compare them in your own home for a while. Then decide which you prefer and return the others. You can always tell the company upfront that you are doing some comparisons and they will still honor any "package" discounts when/if you complete the system. Besides, you may find that BOTH sound like dog doo to you in your particular room. Where would you be then if you took the advice of some schmo on the internet and bought a complete system of brand XYZ and they end up sounding terrible to you or not what you were expecting?


You have at least 30 days from each company to try them out and still get a full refund. It just doesn't make sense there for to NOT compare them. You are about to spend a fair chunk of change on a complete system.... why not do yourself a favor and trust your OWN ears rather than just going on the advice of someone who has no idea what your tastes are with regard to sound? You'll be glad if you do....


Good luck.

I agree with quadriverfalls that you should pick a few of those and order them for an in home demo. No better way to buy a set of speakers than to have them to demo at home for some time. A couple of other things I would add.


Don't ignore B&M stores. Some will let you take home speakers (in my case he brought the speaker and equipment over) for an in home demo which you could coordinate with and internet direct demos you might do.


I would order the center speakers demo too, because how all three front speakers integrate and how the center speakers sounds is very important for 95% movies.


In the case of the Axioms (possibly others) if you could fit an additional M22 (matcing bookshelf speaker) above or below your TV it would give you 3 matching speakers up front which though not necessary for good sound is considered ideal. The M22 would also cost you a lot less. Alternatively an M2 would also work well as a center for the M22s mains and save you even more money. In many if not most cases you can get a better sounding bookshelf speaker sonically matched to your mains that sounds just as good or better than a horizontal center speaker and pay less for it.


Lastly, how these speakers integrate with your subwoofer will be critical. So make sure to have the subwoofer available while you're doing the demo so you can hear how they sound as a whole system. It's very possible one set of mains/center could sound better than the competition w/o a sub because they go lower but when integrated with the sub another brand might turn out to sound better because of clearer vocals or better highs


Cheers,

Dean

I have to put my vote in for the Axioms. I ordered a full 5.1 set up from them for my theater and could not be happier. As was mentioned before, it really depends on the type of sound you are looking for.


Also, not sure if you can order demos from Axiom. I did not try.


Here is what I have:

EP350 Powered Subwoofer

Pair Millennia M60 Towers

Pair QS8 Surrounds (these are awesome!!)

VP150 Center