Being that I ordered factory seconds to cut the cost, I immediately went looking for appearance flaws. One has a small scratch on the right side near the top, but as promised, you can't see it from 5' away. The other has a small circular impression on the left side, like if you took a small nail head and barely pushed into a small mound of putty, then let the putty dry. Odd, but again you can't see it at 5'. Again, this is near the top.
Visual defects won't be a problem as I put them right next to my glass door equipment towers with the problem areas next to the tower, so you can't see them anyway. Nice.
They really are quite tall, more like mini towers than conventional bookshelf models. Nice feel, solid even weight distribution.
On to initial listening. I turned my sub off, and set the amp to output only stereo and not 5.1 so as to hear only those speakers.
Even in the worst seating position, and concentrating on work not listening (had to at the time), I could tell that the treble was so much clearer, as were vocals (mid-range) of both male and female voices.
Bass is anemic, but that's bound to be my receiver as that cheapo model that only offers a minimum 100Hz crossover (later inspection revealed that it's been set at 200Hz for who knows how long...). I should set the speaker type to "large" to eliminate the crossover altogether. A test for another time.
The specs say that they handle down to 50Hz, so they should do much better.
I went back to 5.1 and did a quick calibration with the receiver's test tone. Big difference in sensitivity with the M22's so resetting levels was necessary. I'll dig out the RS SPL meter and do it right over the weekend.
When my "real" work was done I threw in the Eagles Hell Freezes Over DVD concert. I've swear I've watched this from beginning to end about ten times, so I know it pretty well.
Even at moderate/low levels (with one of my kids sleeping right above me) you can tell the soundstage is SO much wider. I put these speaker in exactly the same location as the old ones - about 9 feet apart.
The guitar, piano, strings (there's a small orchestra involved) sounds are so accurate. It's like I took my old speakers out of burlap bags.
Over the next days I'll dig out the DVD-Audio discs and SACD's I have (analog connections to Pioneer player), and others (regular CDs) to see how they do.
They do look quite nice without the grills, but the drivers would be visual magnets to little eyes with little fingers around my house - so the grills will stay on.
That's it for now. So far, money well spent.
Further observations and pics to come.
