hows the bass

Depends on who you ask, the room acoustics play a part, placement, etc... In laymans terms, the 60's and 80's have killer bass, just look at the graphs.

I never heard the m60s but I did once hear the m80s. t's better than the Athena AS-F2 speakers I heard(not lower but more detailed) and the whole Klipsch Synergy line(SF-1, SF-2, and SF-3), but not as deep or as defined as the Thiel CS 3.6s I have that cost 4 times as much(big surprise!)

even the thiels that are - 0.5 dB at 27 hz in my room don't satisfy me when I feel like I want to feel what I'm hearing. That's what tone control switches are for. But what I've come to realize, is that a lot of music made in the last ten years has no low end. the cool thing about a sub is that you separate the bass from everything else, so you can turn up the low end that is left out of modern music without having the bloated mid bass that comes from turning up the tone controls that are behind the amp going to your speakers.

When loud low frequency effects are present in a movie, the thiels did resonate the room in a way i never heard the m80s or ANY OTHER FLOORSTANDER EVER do. but I've never seen a floorstander go below 28 hz and still have no rolloff. Again, they cost 4x as much. They're the only speakers I could recommend to someone to be used in a home theater with no sub if they want things shaking and scaring you.

For music, the m80s have more than adequate bass.

I don't know, I had pictures rattling and shaking as if I had my PB13 Ultra turned on when I was in 2 channel and playing the M80s while connected to the A1400 and this was at ~80-85db. With the right amp I think the M80s could easily be used for HT with out a sub

For music I agree, for movies, a sub is a great addition. They really deliver a lot of bass but in WallE, I've made a few test and some sounds were totally inaudible when the sub was turned off. When you don't have one, you think there is nothing missing but when you compare some specific action scene it helps having deeper notes

thing is i mostly have only specs and the m80s drop to 34hz and thats about average for klipsch,polks,and most other speakers in that price range so isit the m80s are just better design and quality?

For movies you are now dealing with the seperate LFE channel, you would have to have the receiver set for no sub so the LFE is redirected to your mains and not just have the sub turned off.

You really need to hear speakers as, at least I've found, charts can be helpfull but don't really tell you enough about the actual sound. I auditioned a lot of speakers, including Klipsh RFs, Polk, Energy, Paradigm, Monitor Audio, Mission ect., and I can tell you that many of these speakers look similar on paper...but sound very different. I'm sure one of the experts here can give you a good explanation for this, as there are different crossovers/settings involved, driver configurations/types and box designs to consider.

It also depends on how those other manufacturers spec and measure that 34Hz. Do they all list it as the -3db point? Do they list how it was measured and was it anechoic? Can you verify it with 3rd party measurements.

Lots of manufacturers fudge the numbers one way or another.

The M80s reach low with authority.