Hey everybody! I'm a new owner of a pair of M3s! I've had them a couple of days now and just love them! They are tight and precise. I can't beleive the detail they produce!

I do have one note to ask about. When I play Rock(Kinks, Clapton, Led Zepplin) loud, something happens to the precision of the music. I seem to lose it.


I have to say that I have never owned quality speakers. I was blown away with the detail and tightness of these M3s. They easily blow away my old speakers. I have never had such detailed sound with R and B, jazz, light rock and easy listening. When i turn on the ROCK it all disappears. Can I expext the detail and presicion to carry through to rock. The speakers sound good-they just don't blow me away when playing rock. Has anybody else expierenced this or have any insight? Thanks!

Aaron
Yamaha HTR 5730
KLH CD Player(don't laugh)

of the cd's you mentioned, i would expect for the kinks and zep to sound bad.. its not the speakers, its the recording.. those old rock recordings on the old analog equipment are not the best in the world. and it depends on which clapton you were listening to. if it is an old recording, then expect much of the same. the speakers are accurate enough to reveal the short comings of bad recordings.

try some newer rock stuff and see what you think. few suggestions...

queens of the stone age(songs for the deaf)
pearl jam(verses album)
AC/DC(back in black)
metallica(black album)

give one of those a spin, and then see what you think..

bigjohn

AG08,

First of all, congrats on your purchase. I'm happy that the M3s please you. Now about your issue. I think you can solve it by adding a subwoofer. It would take the burden of producing low bass off your M3s and result in a cleaner, more effortless sound when you play them loud.

Becuase the M3s already blow your former speakers away as-is, you can continue to enjoy them alone until you've saved up the cash to buy that sub.

Thanks for the comments! I'm in a new delema...

I think I would enjoy a sub. I really have no room for one(I could fit one but don't have alot of options. I read that placing a sub can be tricky). I got alot more money for Xmas than I was expecting and I'm thinking about a pair of floor standing speakers, M40s, 50s, even the M60's.

Will I get better sound with the floor standing campared to the M3 and a Sub? What differences can expect between the 40s and 50s, and 50s-60s.

I realize this is a huge subject. I'm strictly a music listener(2 channel). I might someday convert to home theater-if I ever finish my basement. I would appreciate any insight or suggestions

How large is your listening area...how far away from the speakers do you sit while listening? These are two issues that will determine whether or not towers are the best option for you.

Tough call. For pure music I would say go with floor standing speakers but if you want to cover HT as well then a good sub can beat most floor standing movies for LF effects. You know you're going to end up with big speakers AND a sub one day, the question is just which path will you follow to get there

BTW, it's not that "subs are hard to place" it's that "anything producing lots of bass is hard to place". M3 + sub is probably easier to place than floor standing speakers because you can separate the bass from the mains -- put the sub in the best place for bass and put the mains in the best place for everything else. With regular speakers you always usually have to compromise.

My room size is 32x15x9. It is a kitchen/living room. Currently I have my M3s on built in bookshelves(maple wood). Also, I have hard wood floors(maple) throughout the room.

Generally, I'm about 8-16 feet away from my speakers.

Sounds like a room that's great for towers to me. If you like the M3ti sound, I'd recommend the M50ti towers.

Yep, that's a big room. Not surprised the M3s have trouble playing your rock tunes at a decent volume.

My M2s had the same problem -- they sounded great unless I tried to fill a big room with loud music, then they started to sound "choked". Not a speaker problem, just small speakers in a big room. The M60s fill the room up just fine (with M2-like sound) and the M50s should fill the room up with M3-like sound.

I'm curious, Craig, and I'm not implying anything by this, but have you heard the M3/M40/M50 line? I haven't heard the M3s and M50s myself, so I'm wondering if our usual comparison between the 3 actually holds in real life!

Nope...my recommendation is based soley on the 1000's of other posts on the board over the past 2+ years that say the M3/M40/M50 sound more similar and the M2/M22/M60/M80 sound more similar.

I wish I could hear them though!

So far I've only heard the M2i, M22ti, and M60ti.

Oh, I'm sure they do. I just wonder if it's all based off of Alan! Peter's probably heard the most different kinds, but I'm pretty sure he's only compared the M22s and M50s in one session. Then again, maybe it's NH.

What if I put my m3s in the middle of the room, to either side, up on stands. I could kind of swivle them to which ever end of the room I was in?

As a proud new owner (2 weeks after 1 1/2 years of research) I've found that the best way to listen to Rock albums on the M3s is to turn them to small and set the crossover at 60Hz or higher. I use them without a subwoofer and the albums still sound fine. The M3s do not have a low pass filter (at least from what I've read and observed) and will try to reproduce the entire low end frequency spectrum, which is wonderful for acoustic performances but not that great for hard rock; especially poorly recorded rock albums.

The major benefit of taking M3s over M2s is the ability to have deeper bass extension, so if it sounds too boomy on hard rock albums maybe you should go to the M22 or the M2 and pair it with a subwoofer.