I updated my signature last Tuesday, and no one noticed. But I was waiting to post until after they arrived.
I got a pair of M22s today! (Well, yesterday!)
I've listened to them for about 10 hours (two hour break to go get sushi for my birthday).
The first thing I noticed that the clicks when navigating around the PS3's XMB sounded more like some physical object clicking, rather than the over-hung, echoey response I was getting from my 15 year old Sonys.
The M22s are definitely sharper sounding then the Sonys to which I've grown so accustom. But only after a few hours my ears had broken in, and they sound very natural. The Sony speakers were floor standing models with dual 6.5" woofers and a tweeter (think M50s). So I knew the M22s wouldn't have the bass response, but as long as they could reach 80 Hz, the sub can take over from there. They seem to do so fine (must do some frequency sweeps to see how the transition sounds).
After listening to a LOT of Bjork, and getting my fill of sushi, I put on Resident Evil: Afterlife for friends. The M22s sit on top of my subs, on top of SubDudes (the combination stands a fraction of an inch of the height of the old speakers). The subs used to be closer to the center of my room, between the Sonys and the TV stand, but now I moved them out to where the Sonys were before. Wow, so much more punch from the subs with them there, and I was able to preserve the sound stage that I had with my old floor standers too. Actually, not just preserve, but pans across the front are completely seamless between the M22s and the VP150. I can't tell where one speaker stops and the next one starts.
I paid $350 for the pair of Sonys back in the day, and the $488, does seem like a 40% improvement. So that's value for the money. I had planned on only testing these M22s, and then sending them back if I didn't like them, or upgrading to the piano black finish after a week or two if I continued to like them. That's the down side in this review. While I feel they are definitely worth $500, they are not $900 speakers in my mind. So standard black they stay.
I'll take the upgrade money and get another pair of QS8s.
