Tonally, they are very close. They blend with the 80’s as a center very well. They also pump out a fair amount of sound for being so small. The 80’s just have a greater presences and I quickly came to the conclusion that there’s really no point trying to compare the two sets. It's like a feather weight fighting a middle weight. The feather weight can move a little faster, but he's just not strong enough to take the middle weight down and when he gets tagged, down he goes. The 80’s reach down lower and play so much louder it isn’t even funny. I actually prefer the M3’s over the 22’s as stand alone speakers. Add a sub to the mix and I’d pick the 22’s over the M3’s.
It doesn't really matter about the encoding because PLIIx does that too. Don't get me wrong, I'd definately go with rear surrounds, but just don't get to worked up over which speaker you put back there. If you have room, which you do, go with direct radiating seeing how you will have them. If a person doesn't have much room, and they have to buy something anyway then I'd tell them to go with some Q's. But if they already have the speakers, I'd tell them to use whatever they have and be done with it.
