I admit I didn't re-read this thread all the way back up so this may have been stated earlier but you may just be suffering from what oh so many of us have discovered when you switch to a high quality speaker.
You described the M100s as having more clarity, more realism than the Paradigm Studios. This is a very good thing. This is what gives you that "I'm blown away feeling" when you play a quality music source.
The downside of clarity (although its not its fault) is that you are now hearing just how HORRIBLE many recordings have been made over the last few decades. For a huge number of recordings, studios moved to something called dynamic compression in order to make thier albums sound 'louder' than everyone else's. People tend to like 'loud' so this worked back in the 80s when everybody was using cheaply designed boom boxes. Then we had the iPod revolution which also made popular what may be some of the worst headphones ever made and encouraged over compressed music (size vs. dynamic) as well..
So Ya, I went through the same thing. Some of my once favorite CDs do indeed sound terrible on my M60 but it's the recording studio's fault, not the speaker's. I've found better mixed, replacement recordings of some but you can't count on the word "remastered" meaning better every time either. Others, have moved from favorite to 'I'll occasionally suffer through them' or I only play them on my iPod where I can't tell what a horrible job the producer did to them.
However, when you do get a well produced album, it is an amazing thing. I'm not saying the M100 is the right speaker for you. However, I'm just adding the variable of the music source to your considerations.
Last edited by Murph; 09/19/14 12:52 PM.
