Alrighty, time for me to give this a shot. Both Peter and Ken put down their thoughts quite well, so I'll just add a few comments.
I think the consensus we all came away with is that there is no clear winner between the two speakers. As Ken and Peter said, on some material we preferred the M22s, on some the M50s. On some tracks (Alison Krauss), we clearly preferred the vocals on the M50s, but then on others (Ozzy & Alice In Chains) we preferred the M22s. On more instrumental tracks, it was much harder to pick out differences (besides bass, of course). In fact, I walked out of the room to take a quick bathroom break, and when I came back in I assumed the M50s were playing because I heard some nice bass coming out - but it was the M22s (goes to show you how accurate memory can be!). Overall the M22's had more precise imaging and a wider soundstage, but the differences were hardly dramatic.
That said, I get the feeling that with the inclusion of a subwoofer I might prefer the M22s overall for there more precise and wider soundstage, and the overall airyness (new word!). In this setup they were obviously lacking bass and were missing quite a lot of the low material that the M50s covered with ease (easily apparent on the Rush drum solo). At home with the SVS I don't find myself wanting anything more from the sound (other than maybe a
tiny bit more midrange warmth). Maybe we should do a second round down the road where we compare the two with a sub - if we can somehow rig it together.
I get the feeling that the tracks where the M22 sounded a bit thin or bright might come across differently if there was a sub filling in the lower end for it.
Anyway, both are fine speakers. I'd actually really like to hear the M60s now, as I think my ideal speaker might be somewhere in between the M50 and M22, and the M60 might be close to (or better than) that speaker. Although, as Ken noted when Peter set up the M22s on the M50s, we had the same driver complement as an M80, for $100 less than the real deal.
