Quote:

so maybe it's a question of breaking them in


No, it is not. You may take a couple of days of listening to the speakers and come to like them as your ears adjust to a new reference sound. Whatever you heard before consistently would be your reference point. If it happened to be a better system, say like your uncle's Monitor Audios, then yes, the JBLs may not sound all that great. I wasn't sure what to think about my Axioms when i first received them, but after a few days, several key characteristics really showed how well they were designed and the quality of the sound. That being said, i cannot say much about your JBLs. I have not heard them but the last JBLs i did hear, i was very unimpressed.

As for your uncle's Monitor Audio speakers, i recently compared Axiom M60s with some MA Gold Reference series. The review is here. I also compared a slew of other speakers in the past that may help in describing some of the Axiom sound. Again, none of these speakers reviewed were the M3s, but you can find several good accounts of the M3 sound on these forums if you do a search.

"Those who preach the myths of audio are ignorant of truth."