So, I finally have my speakers hooked up and calibrated. My setup is as follows.

VP-150, M22's fronts, QS8's sides, QS4's rears, 12" Klipsch sub, Pioneer Elite 94txh, PS3...

The first thing I listened to was Cold. If you're not familiar with them, they are best described as soft metal. The first thing I noticed were the vocals, very open and 'in your room' clear. But I noticed also that as soon as some heavier guitar came in the M22's 'wussed out.' They suddenly sounded recessed and flat. I messed around with some stuff (processing modes, x-over frequencies, even receiver calibrated speaker sizes) but I couldn't help it. I played several cd's and all suffered the same problem.

I, not to beat the 22's too much, noticed that at higher volumes the tweeter sounded very harsh and the speakers sounded generally distorted. I knew what I was compromising when I chose smaller speakers but the volume was hardly what I would consider 'too much.' The speakers perform fantastic on movies, the QS surrounds especially sound really great with an enveloping sound, but I expected as much. Two channel music is what I was worried about.

My questions, are do the speakers open up with time? I have 10 hours on them now, will they get better from here? I suspect these are speakers less suited to heavier music, but damn, I don't want to send them back after waiting so long. The things that are great about them truly are amazing, vocals are just incredible. But the inability to sound dynamic during the heavier parts and the strained sound at higher volumes are intolerable for me. I know speakers this small can sound 'big' (sonus faber), so would it be better to just accept these speakers aren't my cup'o'tea?

Anyone else feel/felt/know/understand my dilemma?

max

You don't know ANYthing, until you've learned SOMEthing.