Well Griff, I for one will be very interested in hearing your comparison between the two speakers since you've lived with the 60's for so long and will now finally have the speakers you've been dreaming about the whole time. I must admit, I purchased the 80's for the very same reason you stated... I didn't want to sit there listening to my speakers everyday thinking, "wow, as good as these are, I wonder what the 80's would have sounded like"?
However, I must admit now that I've had my 80's for the last year, I am ubber curious as to how the 60's sound! I'm probably going to get a pair in the next 6 months or so. Here is how I envision it playing out, I hook them up to my system as it stands now, and they sound so similar to the M80's that I have no problem taking my 80's out to the studio and keep the 60's in my HT. I'm thinking the 80's would do a better job as a stand alone speaker in the studio. In other words, I don't have a subwoofer or any surrounds out there, so they'd be responsible to fill the entire studio with pleasant sounding music during shoots. We rarely crank the tunes out there, perhaps during a really crazy senior shoot, but besides that the music is usually playing fairly low. I don't know how the 60's play without much volume pushing them, but I know the M80's play excellent all the way to next to nothing. So during either scenario, crazy senior shoot or soft baby shoot, the M80's seem like a great choice.
On the other hand in my HT/sales room I often have the volume up fairly loud. Plus I have 3 other speakers playing, the center and surrounds (I know, I know... bbigwyrs will never approve) and subwoofer to help out with any difficiencies that the M60's might have in comparison to the M80's. But I'm thinking there really won't be much at all left to be desired when I hear the 60's for the first time. I am curious about the tip that the 80's put out more bass though. Using the same woofers I would have thought they would have put out the same amount of bass. Looking at the supplied graphs Quackie is right though, they show the 80's going 3 hz lower than the 60's... who'd a thunk it?
So anyway, congrats on your purchase... I hope they're everything you ever dreamed they'd be. May I enquire what you're brother bought to replace his $8000 dollar B&W's btw? And did you ever have the opportunity to put your 60's up against them? Just wondering how they faired.
Looking forward to your review!
