Any apprehension I may have had about buying speakers off the Internet faded a few years back when I scored some great-sounding bookshelf speakers from a Web-only audio company. Those remain in use today, and I'd be game to match them up performance-wise against any current model in their price range. Of course, outfits that sell gear exclusively online have since multiplied, and Axiom, the Canadian firm whose Epic 80/500 home theater speaker system is the subject of this review, is among them. Buying a pair of inexpensive bookshelf speakers online is one thing, but a whole $3,000-plus tower-based system? What, if any, are the advantages to doing that?

The first and most obvious is cost: By eliminating middlemen and selling direct, a company like Axiom can offer speakers at more affordable prices. Another advantage is the home audition: Axiom and many other Web-based companies offer a 30-day trial period. (The initial shipping cost is free, although Axiom makes you pay the return freight if you choose to pass.)

In this case, you can also take comfort in Axiom's longtime involvement with the speaker-measurement and psychoacoustical research programs at the National Research Council of Canada. This government-sponsored program is partly responsible for the many excellent speaker brands that have emerged from Canada, including Energy, Mirage, Paradigm, and PSB (see this issue's review of PSB's Synchrony speakers). If you require some kind of objective seal of approval for speakers, association with the NRC is about as good as it gets.

I was pleasantly surprised by this system's sleek and stately looks. The angled front corners and tapered cabinets of the Millennia M80 v2 towers and the VP150 v2 center speaker provide a slimming effect that's visually appealing, and the look is echoed by the QS8 v2 surrounds' angled front baffles. Build quality is excellent: Cabinets are solidly constructed and furnished with gold-plated binding posts. The towers come with both spikes and rubber feet for carpets or bare floors. My system had an attractive Mansfield Beech finish with black grilles, although other options are available.

The M80 tower — a 40-inch-tall, three-way design — has a pair each of 6.5-inch aluminum-cone woofers, 5.25-inch midrange drivers, and, unusually, dual 1-inch titanium tweeters, with the second tweeter present to beef up the M80's power-handling and dynamic capabilities. There's also a pair of bass ports located on the back.

The Short Form

Price $3,332 (as tested, w/5% discount) / axiomaudio.com / 866-244-8796

Snapshot

Axiom's impressive system makes buying speakers off the Web a sure bet.

Plus

•Clean, neutral sound on music •Wide dynamics, with low, powerful bass •Sleek, stately looks

Minus

•Some drop-off in dialogue crispness at off-center seats •M80 towers need careful amp selection

Key Features

Millennia M80 v2 ($1,330/pair) •(2) 1-in titanium tweeters; (2) 5.25-in and (2) 6.5-in aluminum woofers; 39.5 in high; 56.8 lb VP150 v2 ($408) •(2) 1-in titanium tweeters; (3) 5.25-in aluminum woofers; 7.5 in high; 21.8 lb QS8 v2 ($540/pair) •(2) 1-in titanium tweeters; (2) 5.25-in aluminum woofers; 8.3 in high; 13.5 lb EP500 v2 ($1,230) •12-in aluminum driver; 500-watt amplifier; 19.5 x 15 x 19.5 in; 72.5 lb

Test Bench

The M80's response has a 7-dB floor-bounce notch at 400 Hz and falls by 1 dB/octave above 200 Hz. The VP150 center showed significant off-axis lobing as soon as the mike was moved off center; you can hear the sound change as you walk about the speaker. The QS8's multiple driver facings offer interesting interference patterns at all listening angles to encourage good envelopment. The EP500 sub has excellent bandwidth uniformity, delivering 104-plus dB at any frequency above 25 Hz. — Tom Nousaine Full Lab Results

With two tweeters flanking a trio of center-mounted 5.25-inch woofers, the VP150 is likewise one of the more curious center-channel speakers I've come across. Designer Ian Colquhoun says Axiom settled on this arrangement after determining its superior off-axis performance through rounds of measurements and double-blind listening.

The QS8 surround speaker is yet another unique design. One-inch tweeters mounted on either side of its angled baffle fire off the highs, while 5.25-inch woofers on the speaker's top and bottom handle bass. Although the QS8 looks like a typical dipole, its dual, opposed driver sets actually operate in-phase (bipole): In Axiom's worldview, THX-style dipolar designs are a no-no.

Rounding out the system's low end is the EP500 v2 subwoofer. A 500-watt amp drives the 12-inch woofer on the front of this hefty vented box; a DSP chip inside is said to allow the sub to hit frequencies below 20 Hz in an average listening room without distortion. Along with variable crossover and phase, you get high-level speaker and pro-style balanced line inputs and outputs. A trim dial offers three presets: Flat, Full (increases output above 33 Hz), and Half (partially increases output above 33 Hz).

Setup
The M80 towers are rated at 4 ohms, which means you'll need an audio receiver or amplifier with enough juice to drive low-impedance loads comfortably. With 200 watts x 5 channels hooked up to the Epic 80 system, I had plenty of fuel. I nudged the M80s a few feet out from either side of a 50-inch plasma TV, while the VP150 center channel sat on a shelf in my TV stand. After hoisting the sub into the room's front-right corner and listening to some reference bass tracks, I set the trim dial to Flat and chose a 60-Hz subwoofer crossover on my processor for the M80 towers and 80 Hz for both the center and surrounds.

The bottom-firing woofers on the QS8 surround speakers limit you to two installation options: wall-mounting using supplied brackets or Axiom's FMS QS stands ($286/pair). I really liked the Axiom stands. Not only do they have an open bottom plate to let sound escape from the bottom woofer, they're extremely sturdy — and at 38 inches high, they're tall enough to hoist the speakers above ear level when you're sitting on the couch.

I started out my sessions with the Epic 80 sub-less and in stereo-only mode. On "Save Me" from the Magnolia soundtrack CD, Aimee Mann's voice emanated from dead center between the M80 towers and sounded as pure and clean as I usually expect to hear it. The M80s also did an impressive job retrieving spatial details in the spare recording — such as drums that sound pushed back to a rear corner of the room and strands of guitar and concertina that casually weave in from the left and right.

Switching to something denser, I put on "I Hope I Know You" from the Clientele's latest CD, God Save the Clientele. Given this recording's honey-glazed, retro-1960s tone, it was a revelation to hear how crisp and detailed it sounded on the M80s. Cymbals had a shimmering, airy quality, while the tremolo-soaked guitar retained a crisp, twangy bite. And the cleanness of the bass-guitar fills revealed the M80s' articulate low end, which sounded fairly substantial even without help from the subwoofer.

After I reintroduced the EP500 sub, the system displayed a truly impressive sense of depth and authority. Listening to a reference electronic-music track, Squarepusher's "The Exploding Psychology" (from Go Plastic), the bass sounded taut and controlled, with little sense of overhang. Integration between the EP500 and the M80 towers was also smooth; even at loud volumes, I encountered no booming or blatting effects that would draw attention to the sub's location in the room.

Movie Performance
At the risk of treading into overused demo-disc territory, I watched some clips from the HD DVD of 300 to get a feel for the Epic 80 system's movie-sound chops. Its overall dynamics were excellent: In the slo-mo scenes where Spartans first battle Persians, the whooshing effect of sword strikes filled the room, and the impact of weapons hitting armor had a full and resonant quality. The QS8 surrounds also performed well in these sequences. For instance, when the Persian army launched a literal cloud of spears, the slash of the spears raining down sounded equally powerful in both the front and surround channels.

The system's center speaker did a mostly fine job when delivering dialogue. A wide range of voices in 300, from the heavy-handed narration to King Leonidas's barked orders and the superhuman sound of Xerxes's utterances, came across as clear, natural, and unstrained. When I shifted to either side of my couch, however, clarity dropped off noticeably. Voices basically retained the same tone, but they sounded less crisp when heard from any position other than dead center in front of the screen.

Bottom Line
At about $3,300, the Axiom Epic 80/500 home theater speaker system delivers seriously good performance for the money. The system's clean, neutral sound shined with music, and its wide dynamics provided well-above-average kick for movies. If I were looking to upgrade my speakers, Axiom's free shipping and 30-day money-back guarantee would place the Epic 80 way up on my list. Both reduce the risk of an already excellent bet — although I'd wager that once you get these speakers home, you won't be sending them back.

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