The M22's were my first purchase. Took me months of research to find, pick and finally buy Axiom. Everything everyone has said about the M22's was right, they were crystal clear and open and sounded much bigger than they are but my ears are sensitive to high pitch sounds and the highs were killing me even with the treble turned down, plus I couldnt stop wondering what I was "missing" with my treble turned way down so I sent them back and got the M3's. I have been very happy with the M3 but they were temporary, now that I have room for the M50's I suspect they will be my mains for many years. Right now I have my M3's set up as rears and it is spectacular but I have to send my maple M3's back for trade in so I might reorder them in cherry to match my M50's and go with the M50/M3 combo myself.
I'm really quite happy with the M50/M3 setup. I really like the way the center duties are handled by the M3s since I sometimes find that I hear some voices sneak through the sub when I cross at 80hz, so I usually cross at 60 and the M3s just luv that. But generally I'm just happy with the sound of the M3s. I've been watching for years to see if Axiom would come out with a center using the 6.5s, but so far it ain't happened. Another thing I feel kinda bummed out about is there's no 6.5" QS10. I'd really like to see some surrounds with the 6.5s. I like the sound I'm getting with M3s as surrounds, but I'd really like to hear the sounds of a QS series rather than just strictly direct radiating. The only concerns I have about a 6.5" based center and surrounds is the lack of the ports and losing the lower extension that I'm currently so happy with. I've tried every way I can think of to be happy with crossing at 80, but each time I try it, I just keep going back to 60.
Our M3s are the older M3TiSE models in Boston Cherry. They're in the back as surrounds now of course, and we have newer Black M50s up front cause the Wife wanted to kinda hide them and cause the TV is black/gray, as is all the other stuff around the TV. We have a newer but still pre-V2 M3 for center also in black, and it mates up really well with the newer pre-V2 M50s. In our situation though, the Cherry surrounds fit the back of the room better than Black would, so; we're cool!
I use the center M3 vertical and inverted and it covers the listening area quite well. I'd like to set it on its' side cause it'd just look better, and I may well do just that if I can sneak a W3 in below the screen. It's almost too easy to localize the M3 way up on top!
But yeah; I'm really happy with my M50s and the presentation they give. I can't imagine that I'll ever be changing them!
Rich.
