Quote:

I'll be honest and say that I don't expect the M60 to be the sonic equal to the Thiel, but if I can get to the magic 90th% range, I think I can live with it, given the price difference.



I know exactly what you are facing. Thiel was my first choice for a speaker but the price tag was not reasonable. There are a lot of speakers that follow the "law of diminishing returns". The speakers that I ended up with (granted, before I even knew about Axiom) are the Monitor Audio GR60s. Yes they sound "better" than the Axioms IMO but would I have been happy with the M80s instead? I would have to say yes. The only reason I have the GR60s is because of the deal I got. If I had to buy them new, I would not own a pair.

If, as you say, you can be happy with the 90th percentile then you will definitely be happy with the M80s.

When you get into the class of Thiel, Monitor Audio, Dynaudio, Mirage, etc (their higher end models) they do perform "better". By "better" there is also the human factor where people get used to a type of sound that is not necessarily accurate, rather what they find appealing to their ears. I used to have a pair of Mirage M3si speakers that were amazing performers but sold them becasue they were too big. They handled bass better than the GR60s but that is why I have an accurate subwoofer.

If you can decide between performance or budget, and choose the latter, the M80s would be your choice. Best bang for the buck. If you decide performance and fear that you would be telling yourself "I should have spent the extra $$$" then you will likely choose the Thiels. I spent close to $4000 on my Mirage speakers and while I enjoyed the sound, I regretted the outlay of cash that should have gone into other equipment (or RRSPs!).