Ritz, believe me it was not because I didn't love the sound of the Maggies (and the jury is still out on the Axioms as they have the same 30 day trial period as Outlaw). It's just that I know my wife wouldn't let me get the 1.6's anywhere near our Great Room because of their size. I'm still contemplating figuring something out for a 2 channel system at some point in the future using Maggies. Maybe I can set something up in our basement where she can't complain about their size. That will have to wait however, until I recover from buying the Outlaw stuff and whatever speakers I finally decide on for the HT. I might order the MMG's through Magnepan to do a side by side comparison realizing that the MMG's are half the cost of the Axioms so it may not be a fair fight.

The Axioms are definitely a more directional speaker as I would have figured so I need to experiment a little to find the sweet spot. So far I would compare them to the Paradigm Studio 60's. I think they sound very similar, maybe a little more "forward" sounding, but it's hard to tell as the acoustics in our great room are completely different from the showroom where I listened to the Paradigms. I asked the people at Axiom what they thought about comparing the two and they indicated that they have actually had people bring in Paradigms to compare the two. According to them (and I would expect nothing different although they have been very frank with me on other issues such as speaker wire, etc.)the Axioms came out on top each time. Axiom received two awards at the 2006 CES related to the M80ti's: one was for the Exceptional Value Award from Soundstage for the M80's and the second was from Audioholics for the Product of the Year Award for the Epic 80 HT System of which the M80's are the main towers. But, as always with speakers, it's up to our ears regardless of what others say. Soooo, I've got some listening to do.