Ok, I'll jump in feet first ready for a bloddy nose! LOL
The difference is only (with one acception) marketing. You can take anything in north america with a excalibur vixen. Its the slowest cheapest bow that they make. If you go to the excal site some information will bear out the fact that it does the highest speeds of say 350 or so does not, in the real world, significantly make an arrow flatter. That is to say that you still have to compensate for normal hunting distances of less than 40 yards whether you are shooting a slow excalibur bow of 285 ftps or if you are shooting the fastest of 355 ftsec. What more power does get you is a higher terminal energy, this is the acception, the only difference the higher powered bows get you. Recently an elephant was taken with an Excalibur. You can bet that every single foot pound of energy was needed and used. To truly appreciate and utilize the highest poundage you have to use HEAVY arrows. Not sure but I think the elephant arrow was in the 700 grain range. That is a real heavy weight if you compare to most crossbow arrows that are around the 400 pus weight.
So after explaining the true reason for speed here comes the explanation as to the reason for the differences.
#1.. arrow weight, when a company markets a bow they want the highest speed to be shown, so they use impractical arrow weights to get high speeds to attract you the potential buyer.
There is no standardization like the vert bow biz that states IBO specs of a minimum of 5 grains per pound of draw weight. Yes this almost immoral but if there is no standardization, whats a company to do to survive? They need to sell to survive and they need to attract to sell. Speed sells! Might not be relevant but it does sell.
#2...efficiency. What does make things efficient is things like string tavel (this is the best way to get speed), efficiency of limb design (Excaliburs have the most efficient limb design being the only one with recurve limbs), cam design (some cams store more energy)
Thats all I am aware of and I hope this clears the mud!
Welcome to the most fun archery forum on the net. We get carried away sometimes having fun but its a good info sharing forum.
I'm sure there will be a difference in opinion as well as more information but take everything that gets said (including me, LOL) and buy what feels the best to you after you shoot it. I will not tell say what I think is the best bow for you but I will tell you that it is pretty well the consensus of general forums that the Ten Point generally the best production wheel bow available. Wheel/compound crossbows are narrow. The most uncomplicated bow is the Excalibur but it is wide.
Ok guys take your best shot at me!