I really want towers for my mains but the recommended room sizes are quite a bit larger.
The M22 will suite me just fine but I have to admit I'd rather go big, M80 big.
Can the M80 shine equally well in small spaces or are they over kill?
Our listening distance from our current bookshelf speakers are is 10', and 8' from the center channel.

The M80 will work just fine in that space. I've got them in a 12x20x8 room.

Any regrets or suggestions? toe in/ no toe in etc...

Play with them till they sounds good to you.

My only regret is that I have too much furniture in my living-room and it messes with the sound stage a little. Otherwise, no.

I had a chance to demo the M22, M60 and M80 at Axiom. To me, there was enough of an improvement in sound with the M80 to warrant the price difference.

Thanks.
I should mention these will be used primarily as fronts in a 7.2 setup for movie watching.
We do listen to music, maybe we'll listen to more if they live up to their reviews.

My room is 17X18'...

I use to have M60's + VP-180.. Now i have LFR's + VP-180... I also have dual EP600's... So, keep my perspective in mind when reading my answer below.

I sit 13' away from my speakers, and they are toe'ed in about 10 degrees... Toe in is one of the variables that changes with each situation...

Start reading at about page 17... i think you will find it quite enlightening...
http://www.wilsonaudio.com/pdf/manual_soph3.pdf


Oh and to answer your question....


Would towers be over kill.... Heck no!..

You know, they're BIG speakers, right? I mean DEEP in addition to tall?

Honestly, if you don't have any flexibility about how you place them, you might be better off with something that has a footprint which affords you that option.

Room interactions are terribly important.

Thanks.
I am second guessing towers.
Sounds like a pair of M22's and a VP150 are going to work.
I can always upgrade...

I did and you will lol My room = 14 x 10 with 2 m80's,M2's,QS4's and a center equivelant to the vp160 (homebuilt) 2 yamaha subs and it sounds excellent. I started with M2's and sub and ended up going the distance. QS8's from santa

My m80s sounded awesome in my 12x 21x 8 room at my old house. I like them better in my larger living room at new house, but no problems in the smaller space

Any regrets? Are you running them at 8 ohms?

Only regret is not getting them from the getgo. Not sure what you mean am i running them at 8 ohm. I use a denon 3311 with a emotiva xpa 3. The M80's are rated 4 ohm nominal but really have only a small 4 ohm dip. The impedence of a speaker is constantly changing and the M80's present no real problem for a quality amp even if is only rated at 8 ohm's. You have a small room and i seriously doubt you will have trouble driving the 80's to deafening levels. The emotiva came on sale and i just couldnt resist picking one up. I am very impulsive .)

http://www.axiomaudio.com/gallery_disp.html?image=M80-imp.gif&title=M80

richard

I'm thinking the same thing (buy now instead of later) but I don't want to wreck them at 8 ohms before I use their full potential in a dedicated theater.

You are way too obsessed with ohms. Impedance, measured in ohms, is a property of the speaker itself, not of the amplifier. It is roughly analogous to resistance, and it varies with the frequency a speaker is playing at.

Some receivers and amplifiers have problems with lower (say, 4 ohm) resistances. Some of those (and some that don't have problems at normal settings) have a switch between 4 and 8 ohms or 4 and 6 ohms. Setting that switch to 4 ohms severely limits the power of the amplifier, which can actually damage the speaker. Therefore, you should never set the amplifier to the lower (non-normal) setting.

I have run my M80s just fine on a 75wpc receiver set to 8 ohms and now with a 140 wpc receiver set to 6 ohms.

You won't wreck the speakers unless you force the receiver into clipping by playing it at a higher level than it can handle. Fortunately, you are extremely unlikely to approach this level.

To add to Ken's advice re ohms....your sub will be picking up the lower freq's as well, where some of the "dipping to 4 ohms" occurs. You should leave your receiver at 8 ohms, Denons, HK's and Onkyo's should have NO trouble driving the M80s at reasonable levels. M80s are actually easier to power than the M22's, btw.

Thanks for confirming.

Ken, as a side note I would be very interested in knowing the difference in the sound you had experienced going from the lesser receiver to the more formidable receiver; especially for movies.

I ask because in my future set-up I was going with separates along with a pre/pro. Financial reasons, along with doing the video side as well (at, or maybe just after completing the audio set-up) has got me re-thinking. I'm now going with a receiver that puts out 145w per channel with two channels driven. I also will be incorporating M80's into my 9.2 set-up.

Gary, I honestly don't stress my system enough to give you a good estimate. In other words, I haven't really noticed a difference. Probably more of a difference in the auto calibration than doing it by hand.