HERE ARE THE DETAILS OF MY M2 IMPRESSIONS:
This is a mixed review. At very loud levels (>85 dB) the M2's clearly won the day, as they held their sonic integrity with ease, regardless of the type of music. The CSWs start to get sibilant with flutes, trumpets, and tin whistles above 85 dB.
However, in what most folks would call normal listening levels (65-70 db) the ensembles and the M2s were virtually indistinguishable. Doing A/B testing, my wife could only tell whether I actually switched speakers about 1/2 the time, and the other times, she could tell that _something_ was different, but it wasn't clear that one was better than the other. I, too, in blind A/B testing could never settle on a consistent preference---so long as I was in the "sweet spot" between the speakers. The M2s never created the precise imaging that the CSWs did. The center stage was "smeared out" over the central area, rather than focused. Only if you were EXACTLY in the sweet spot mid-way between the speakers did the illusion of a single center speaker occur. One step to one side or the other and it the imaging ended and it sounded like two speakers again. That was how I could tell the speakers apart.
Finally, in the "how will these speakers actually be used?" test (where the volume was kept at the background 60 dB range) the speakers reversed their roles. The CSWs maintained their sonic integrity while the M2's, I hate to say, just shriveled up and disappeared. They just closed right up. It was almost like the they threw a tantrum and said "If I can't play LOUD, I won't play at all. Phbbbbbt." The details in the highs were gone. The lows lost their clarity. I tried lots of arrangements---further or closer apart, higher or lower, toed in or out. At low levels the M2's just couldn't really produce a sound as clean as that of the CSWs. Examples of things missing from the M2s that were present in the ensembles *at the same dB level* were performers breathing, frets squeaking, string attacks as they were plucked or bowed, and saxophone pads slapping against the horns in quiet passages. Even knowing those details were in the recordings, I had to _struggle_ to hear them with the M2s. If one didn't know the CD, I doubt those details would be noticed at my normal listening volumes. When cranked up above "don't wake the children" levels, the details were there, so the speakers can produce them. It just seems that they won't do it quietly.
Despite this rather negative sounding review, I don't want to give the impression that these were bad speakers. On the contrary, I think they are VERY good for $200. After all, I was comparing them to a system that was more expensive 10 years ago, and they were very close. I think these would be a great starter set of speakers; they just weren't a $200 upgrade from my present setup. Further, if you like loud music or home theater, they would be great, as that seemed to be their forte. They played better the louder/harder they were pushed.
