Ok, some first impressions in the poorly engineered comparison (consisting of pause button and switching of banana plugs) between the Monitor 11 and M3 in 2.0 and 2.1 configs (with Paradigm PDR10 - 100w, 10"). I've only 'directly' compared two albums so far: Pink Floyd - Animals, and Dire Straits - Love Over Gold.
The M3 is a great speaker, very much in line characteristically with what I have been listening to for the last few months (having jumped up from an RCA HTiB): clear, precise, not really laid back but certainly not forward. Definitely no "brightness" that seems to be everyone's big Axiom fear. The first thing that hit me was the effortless imaging and soundstage of the M3s. The Mon11 has just as good imaging but just tossing the M3s down and plugging them in was all I needed to get the image. Even extremes of toe in/out gives good imaging, although the overall sound is affected as expected.
One thing I had never noticed before was the difference between setting Lg and Sm on the Mon11. In this test I jumped back and forth on the DS album and, if anything, they sounded somewhat better as Lg (ie without the sub). Not terribly surprising as they are, after all, towers (1" tweet, 7.5" mid, 2x 7.5" woof). The M3s (1" tweet, 6.5" woof), on the other hand, were night and day! Although for current pop recordings the M3 is a very capable speaker without the aid of a sub based on my initial listening of the rather different fare of Feist, Tegan and Sara, and The New Pornagraphers. TNP, for instance, were, as with most music on the Mon11, only marginally distinguishable b/n Lg and Sm on the M3s. Even Tool seems to have only a small difference. However on DS tracks like Telegraph Road and Private Investigations the lack of bass was dramatic! The songs were completely different with and w/o the sub (further testament to the dynamic range compression of today's recordings). I had, before today, been somewhat dissappointed in the overall performance of the PDR10 - unheard with music and unimpressive with HT. It does, however, sound fantastic with the M3s! They blend rather seemlessly, actually. This, of course, also helps me better rationalize pairing the M3s off with the PDR10 for the office and getting an EP350 for my main system (I'm still having trouble justifying paying over a grand for the 500).
Overall, I'd say there is no way I'd trade Paradigm tower for Axiom bookshelf+sub. Even with the full range the M3 still lacks the fullness? of the tower. The M3 does, however, beautifully fit the bill for a smaller 2.0 or 2.1 channel environment! Definitely a keeper! I would not hesitate recommending (and, indeed, already have) the M3 to anyone looking for a bookshelf system.
