Wow, wow, wow.
The m80's are out of this world. The m2's also sound great, but the m80s are a different category. I haven't been able to get the subs to run yet, with music. That was OK though ... we enjoyed being astonished by the bass of the towers with no assist for the time being. Comparison of m80s with / without sub and m2's with/without sub will come later. Also will plan on some comparisons to our existing Mirage FRX-1 bookshelves, which have been our main set of speakers for ~15 years.
For now, the Mirage have a bit more bass than the m2s, but the m2s have quite a bit more resolution and separation of the instruments. The m80s are radically set apart from both of the bookshelves by their fullness. Although we both enjoyed both sets of bookshelves, against the m80s it isn't even a fair comparison. It will be interesting later though to compare the bookshelves + sub to the m80s.
All in all, couldn't be happier with the first listen of the m80s. Its hard to imagine what else they could do. First track was Dreamline, by Rush, off Roll The Bones. Then we went through most of Bela Fleck's Tales From the Acoustic Planet. Absolutely wonderful acoustic bass on that disc by Edgar Meyer, and the m80s delivered it with authority. Everything was absolutely tight, resolved, well balanced. We both heard many new subtleties that had escaped attention previously. The "fingers on the strings" element was heightened beyond anything I'd heard before.
Thanks Ian & Andrew!
More later, especially once we can figure out the sub situation ...
