Wow, very interesting, Joey, thanks. It's easy to enjoy a speaker when it is the only one you have. Once you have another to do an immediate comparison with, things get complicated. There will always be things you like about a certain speaker and things you don't. Sometimes those differences become more apparent when there is a measuring stick. In the end, good speakers will still sound good by themselves. Another speaker may do the same thing(s), but maybe do those things a bit better. When that measuring stick is removed, well, you still have good sound.
Tough speaker comparison in terms of price, but we knew that going in. You hear what you hear and that is that. I think secretly we want the M3s to be very close to the two other speakers (I always root for the underdog), but when you pay that much for the other speakers you should expect to hear something a little different. Respectively, all three speakers probably sound pretty good given their range and purpose.
