Hi buckcrazy,
I'll try to be as specific as I can ... guys, if this is excessively lengthy, my apologies in advance
First concern: When I initially heard these speakers, my room in wall wiring was not fully functional. I have a 7.1 setup, and 3 speaker ports did not work at all. I somehow made it work by running 16 guage cables directly from the receiver to surround speakers (25-30 feet). Don't know if that impacted the sound or not ...
Second concern: I have a few CDs of John Rutter's English gospel music. I really like the sonorous sound in 'Faire is the heaven', 'Stillness and sweet harmony', etc. But one of those CDs did not appear to have been mastered well, or that's my impression. The mid range was not full bodied -- it sounded thin. I listened to a Fleetwood Mac live recording (forget the title). Nothing exceptional was my personal feeling.
A week later, the in wall wiring guys were able to run two 16 guage pairs (equivalent of 12 guage) to the surround speaker ports. I connected the fronts/center to the receiver using original Monster cable (12 guage). I tried to position the M80s as well as I could. I finally played a CD that my wife had bought -- a best of Shania Twain title I think. Her voice sound very natural through the M80s. I also watched two movies (Kill Bill p1, and U571). David Carradine's voice sounded a little deeper than normal, and seemed more anchored to the center speaker, than to the TV -- but that went away when I set the sound equalization to 'normal'. Don't know how setting the equalization to 'normal' moves his voice from the center speaker (positioned above the TV) to the center of the TV, but it does
I don't know if my appreciation of the M80's stems from a) better wiring b) better positioning of the speakers c) 'break in' period d) recordings that are mixed better
I suspect the main cause of the change in my perception is (d) -- better recordings. The 'break in' period appears to be a subject for controversy, so I'm not going in that direction
Don't know if that helps you buckcrazy ...
BTW, I believe that Alan Loftis recommends Denon (and two other receiver brands) for the M80s, so I think you should be Ok. Alan, if you want to add anything here, please feel free to do so, thanks.
Ananth
