troyd:
The M22 is already a "high-end" bookshelf speaker -- at a bargain price. The different versions over the years -- v1, v2, v3-- represent small refinements in design and slightly greater linearity (smoothness in frequency response). In my rounds of listening tests at audio shows, I've come across bookshelf speakers I've liked, then been flabbergasted to learn the price. The most recent was a pair of stand-mounted bookshelf designs from a Scandinavian manufacturer that also builds drivers. At the time I auditioned them, I thought to myself, "hmmm, very nice, quite similar in neutrality to the M22 or the M3". I wandered over to the rep in the listening room and inquired about the retail price -- $5,000 per pair!!!
If you placed these speakers in a sighted comparison A/B test with the M22s, where listeners knew the brand and price of each, most listeners would pick the $5,000 pair because of the psychological bias. This has been demonstrated for decades in Dr. Floyd Toole's research at the NRC, and later at Harman in California. (I was part of the listening panel for many years of the NRC tests.) If you then make the test double-blind, listeners with normal hearing will agree on the best-sounding speaker, regardless of price and design.
Manufacturers of overpriced bookshelf models will rarely agree to submit their speakers to well-controlled double-blind tests, as they know full-well that their models may well be equaled or bested by excellent smaller bookshelf speakers from makers like Axiom and PSB, which sell for a fraction of the expensive models' price.
Regards,
Alan
