The M100s are 5dB more sensitive than the M5HP. That means my Onk has to deliver almost 4 times less power to achieve the same SPL as the M5s. As you might imagine, the images from the M100 are much larger than the M5. The M100s are also more articulate and unveil more details (microdynamics) than the M5. Soundstage is much taller and enveloping. The jury is out on depth of the soundstage compared to the M5. They can handle everything my Onk throws at them without any hint of strain. There is no way I can bring them to their limits in my 4200 cu. ft. room without evaporating my eyeballs and melting my brain. My Onk would certainly run out of steam.

Set-up was very difficult and took me more than 8 hours to optimize their location. If I wasn't such a manly-man I'd be all sore and kinked up from moving these behemoths...lol! I tried right up against the front wall with various combos of ports plugged and open and calibrated with Audyssey and no dice - the bass was completely overwhelming. Audyssey XT32 gave up. Their optimum location is 10 feet apart with the MLP 14 feet away. Their backs are 3 feet from my front wall. Their sides are 5.5 feet away from the side walls. All 6 ports are wide open. They point straight forward. They are crossed to the 800v4 at 80Hz and Audyssey is engaged. Without Audyssey, the bass is out of control in my room even with ports plugged. In this location and configuration, their dispersive properties shine and they disappear. Jean Michel Jarre's Oxygene is simply astounding for example. The MLP is wrapped in the front, above and on the sides with an immersive bath of sound. At various times throughout the song, you are very easily fooled into believing sound is coming from and disappearing into both of the entire side walls. This is not just a small portion of the side walls as with the M5s but an entire section of my side walls from top to bottom! It's as if there is a sound circuit between my walls and the M100s; sound is sourced from the M100s, sinks into the walls, comes back out of the walls and into the 100s. I can hear the same effect from the M5s but the magnitude is nowhere near the same. The circuit is "thinner". There is also a myriad of detail in this song (as others) that I can't hear through the M5s. Another example of this microdynamics capability is Unsquare Dance. With the M5, you know two pairs of hands are clapping but the "real hands" are missing. Not so with the M100 - the hands are so very clear and you can hear exactly what you'd hear if those hands were in the room. In fact, if you close your eyes, you'd never know they are not real. With the M5s, they are small hands. With the M100, they are the correct size. On that same track, there are nuances in the drumsticks that are simply not heard with the M5s...and the drumsticks are as large as real life.

I'm unsure at this time whether I like the M100s better than the M5s in my room. While the M5 carefully paints images at or behind the plane of the drivers, the M100's plethora of drivers spray images that are large and overwhelming not only on the soundstage but also "into the room". My 21 foot room width is completely immersed to the point where I can't see the space between images. This blackness between images is something I cherish in the M5s. Two of my friends love the M100s though. I am very unsure about it and my son is on the fence. Since hearing them, one of my friends has been hounding me the last 2 days to buy my M100s which I find very surprising because he doesn't have the room and isn't in the market for speakers.

The M100 is better than the M5 as the M5 is to the M3. But I feel as if the M100 is too big even for my large space. I feel as if I want the carefully painted images on the soundstage with the sense of space in between them like the M5s but the microdynamics of the M100 and larger images. I'd also like the sensitivity of the M100s. Maybe I just need M100s with a larger room. smile Or maybe fully active M5HPs will be more practical and further improve on an already amazing large bookshelf design.

Build quality BTW is excellent and very solid. I was surprised to see they are filled with poly to the point where you can't see through the ports and into the cabinet. I suppose that's not too surprising when one thinks of the acoustic activity in that large cabinet and the need to suppress it. BTW, Fed Ex grossly mishandled them to the point where the packaging was punctured and badly ripped up. They were lying crossed on top of each other and on top of other smaller boxes and it's a good thing I met the driver as he opened the door. He was trying to kick them off the truck with absolutely no thought of what was in them. Fortunately the build quality and packaging protected them and even if it didn't, you can count on Axiom to take care if problems.

A great big "Thank you" goes out to Ian and Andrew for taking time out of their very busy day to autograph each one.