You won't find anyone here that says the M22 is difficult to listen to for long stretches. I listened to the M22 with ep350 combination and it sounded very good to me; very similar to the M60. I was up around 80-85db by the time I got to that combination so it was fairly loud.
I often wonder what kind of room people who found them hard to listen to were in. If you were in a room with a lot of bare/reflective surfaces that could have a strong negative impact on the sound.
The best thing is to order a set and compare them to your current Energy speakers. If you don't like the M22, I doubt the return shipping would be that much.
