Tonight was the first time I sat back to enjoy the M100s alone. I made some layout changes. They're now 9.5 feet apart from center to center, backs 34.5" from the front wall and the MLP is 12.5' away. So I am now receiving more of the direct sound.

Wow, wow, wow! The imaging is now very clear yet still big. The images in Oxygene are now the same as the M5 but fuller, larger, more present and on three different front to back layers. One layer is about 3 feet in front of the drivers, another just behind and the third almost at the front wall. The one ahead of the drivers is thick and is the wall effect I described in my last post. I can hear effects leaving one layer and entering another. The soundstage depth is at least equal to the M5s. In Belkis Queen of Sheba war dance, the drum appears to the immediate outside of the left M5 at the plane of the front wall. With the M100, that same drum is 5.5' to the left of the speaker and behind my front wall! On St. Louis Blues by Wycliffe Gordon, that trumpet is waaaaaay over to the left and just as airy as the M5. All these effects are bigger than the M5 and this is at -20dB on the dial so it's nowhere close to loud. Even though there's a space of more than 5.5' to the sidewalls, that space fills with sound when called for.

I would have never believed greater clarity and detail over the M5 was possible. I can easily push them to 0dB (reference level) with no compression which I can't do with the M3v4, M5 or M80v2. While that sounds amazing, my ears can't take it for more than a minute. This is no word of a lie or exaggeration, on some tracks I hear sound behind me. And the highs with the multiple drivers are even better than the M5 which again I thought wouldn't be possible.

There is simply no reason now to entertain the M5s any longer for my main room. The M5s will replace the M3v4 in my living room. The M3s will be traded in for either an EP400 or 500 to replace the yammie sub in the living room for 2.1 music duty only.