Hey Jeff,
I'm not familiar at all with Dahlquist's sound qualites. I can tell you however that I enjoyed the M80's tremendously. Monitor Audio S8's and even S10's were on my top list. But after listening to the M80's I went back to listen and to test more rigorously the S8's. To me the S8's don't even come close for clarity and detail. The S10's may come close but from what I remember, the dealer had to fiddle with the foam inserts to tune the bass properly. I didn't have to do this with the M80's regardless of the genre of music I was listening to. The other plus on the M80's side is that it is much lower in price. It's amazing how cheap it is with the quality of sound they give. Needless to say the M80's are at the top of the list. I just have 2 other speaker brands to test (all the while I'm still saving). If you're interested, read my most recent post comparing the M60 & M80 (post name is "M60 & M80"). In the end though you really will have to decide which speakers sound best to you. It doesn't matter what anyone else says. As long as you're happy with your choice and you get enjoyment from listening to them, you can't go wrong. Good luck!!
