Good points about the M3s and M50!!
As a happy owner of both the M3s and the M50s I gotta agree with every point you made!!
...uh, ceptin' one.(sorta
)
My M3s worked fine til we moved into a larger room and had to "really crank it up."
Then we went to M50s. Luv 'em!
But yup, I didn't need to upgrade receivers til we got in a much larger room. Even then we just went from 55WPC to 85WPC.
The surprising thing is in the "Laid-back" moniker. The M3s seemed to me in the old(and new)room, to give a presentation almost exactly at the plane of the speakers. The M50s on the other hand plop their presentation just foreward of that produced by the M3s!!
Perhaps the M3s and M50s are only "Laid-back" in relation to the M22s and M60s!! And in fact may be considered neutral to just slightly foreward!
Now this is in my house only; a statistical analysis with a population of just "one". But it is what I am finding, at any rate!