I have been trying to get a friend into hifi for a while.

I finally got him to take out his stepdad's ridiculously expensive mcintosh tube setup from the 70s, it still works so he has an amp setup, and a source(computer for now).

I wanted to get him speakers as a present but I wanted to make sure I wasn't sidegrading or downgrading him. I was thinking the M3s or the m50s because he's not worth the cash for the m60s and the m3 from what I have heard sounds good on its own compared to the other bookshelves. I'd like he can either put them on his desk, or put them on the floor behind him without paying for stands which is why I ruled out the m22s(plus the lack of subless playback, I love my m22s but without a sub they're kind of thin without room reinforcement IMO).

he said the kenwoods lose some quality at low volumes, I don't know if this is because of the speakers or because of the tube amp that wasn't used for 30 years. It's a nice setup but he says the tubes have weird stuff inside them, I told him to throw them at the wall to get that stuff off the inside(has worked for me) but like any sane person he decided against doing this.

Thanks in advance for any advice.