A friend at work was nice enough to lend me his M3s for a couple of days. Took them home this evening and set them up next to the M2s on the bedroom system, hooked to an HK 3270 stereo receiver and Sony NS-315 player.
First impressions :
- M3s look the right size, M2s look too small
- the most noticeable difference is mid-bass... like the Atoms, some instruments are emphasized a surprising amount... but not as much difference as the Atoms
- switching back and forth requires a small adjustment in volume, M3s more efficient than M2s (duh)
- M2s sound very thin by comparison on most music, bigger difference than I expected
- with Atoms you could almost hear (imagine) the resonance around the port tuning, nothing like that with the M3s so far
- difference with vocals seemed comparable to M2 vs. M60, need to do more testing and haul out the Diana Krall CDs
- only listened to a couple of FM stations plus Genesis "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" so far but initial impression is that the M3 is MUCH more satisfying as a standalone speaker, again more than I expected
- speakers are along the long wall of a ~13 x 18 room, not much in the way of reflections off the side, first guess is that is a pretty good near-field environment and minimizes the midrange differences between M2 and M3... or maybe my ears aren't good enough to hear the difference yet
I'm going to do some random listening tonight, think about it tomorrow, and do some more intensive testing tomorrow night.
BTW, I think my friend owns some real classics here. Serial #s M3SE...66. Knurled binding posts instead of 5-way requiring a wrench. Maple/Black finish, seems identical to my M2s except for the size.
