M22ti Setup - 05/16/04 12:43 PM
After years of being away from decent audio, I am attempting to put together a new system I can actually enjoy listening to music on. My last good system was in the mid 80's when I had a pair of Time Windows, but I got too turned off by the snobby dealers and components that worked half the time. Anyway, I purchased a new Onkyo 100 wpc receiver and a pair of speaker stands and, after looking around the web, decided to try a pair of M22s. The M22s get to me in NY faster than my recever and stands from Virginia so I go pick up my old trust Onkyo 50wpc receiver and set the M22s on a pair of snack trays flanking my tv and hook them up with 10 year old speaker wire because my new stuff didn't arrive yet. So - the M22s sound amazingly poor. I'm listening to James Taylor JT and the vocal sounds nasal, the midrange is sucked out and the highs just don't blend with the rest of the music. So - they'll go back. But wait. I just can't believe these speakers are that out of it so I go get my old JBL 2-ways, which are not bad at all and I hook them up and they sound like crap too. What's going on here? I swap the snack trays for a pair of wrought iron tiltback speaker stands about 8" off the floor and i'm astounded. The whole speaker came together to an extent I would have thought impossible. Those snack trays were obviously draining off certain frequencies and leaving the speaker with hugh sonic holes. I have a small listening room and the M22s actually put out too much bass! I had to cut back one notch on the tone controls. I also changed the god knows how old cheap interconnect between the CD and the receiver for a Radio Shack gold connector and the speaker again took on a new personality. It was like you took a sheet off the front of the M22. Vocals opened up, cymbals were brighter and more realistic. I'm not saying those $1000 per meter cables are worth it, but new cables are an absolute improvement over old shot wires. I am now watching The Last Waltz and I am absolutely taken with the great sonics of the M22s. They allow you to get drawn into the performance rather than listening to speakers. I can only imagine how much better they'll sound with proper stands and new speaker wires. So, excuse me for the long post, but there is a message in here. First, the M22s should satisfy most discriminating listeners, second, positioning speakers is crucial and the worst thing you can do is put them on some flimsy platform and third, quality cables are worth the investment. Anyway, that's my story for now.
