I hear you on the calibration thing.
I did not specifically use a sound meter, i only used my ears for calibration.
However, within the review i noted several times that placement is really the issue with the m22s as surrounds. I simply did not have the room to move the m22s more than 5 feet away from my listening position (the right was actually 4 feet and the left was 5 feet as measured). Don't let the picture of the couch fool you, the darn thing is about 9 feet long.
I originally placed the m22s aiming directly at the listening position at those same distances and i found the strong surround effect to be even more prominent. The surround improved greatly when they were moved to behind the listening position and then toed in a bit.
So again, it is taking alot of tweaking to set up the sweet spot either physically or using the calibrations with the receiver which was not something i had to do with the QS8s. Keep in mind this has nothing to do with the quality of the sound from the m22s. The issue is with getting the right acoustical dynamics for my room sorted out.
I'm working on my opinion of the vp150 and the ep350. Unfortunately with my less than adequate placement of the vp150, i'm not too sure how easy it may be to evaluate.
