That natural walnut sure looks different than mine. Maybe it's the lighting in the room that makes it appear different.
When you set up the M5s, listen to them with your ears 6" above the tweeters. Let's see if you hear what I hear.
It's interesting what you say about pin-point accuracy vs. unnaturally wide instruments. It really depends on the acoustics of the venue, number of microphones and how they were mixed.
The video I posted of the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra playing Peter Gunn for example, was recorded in an acoustically live venue. The instruments sound very large as a result. I recall only three microphones. One was in the center where the drummer and tuba player were seated, another on the right where brass instruments were lined up behind it and the other similarly on the left. The result was some interesting acoustics. The drums fill up a spot right of center, the tuba sounds like its coming from center but diffuses across the front somewhat. Right after the tuba starts playing, a trombone starts playing right of center off stage but the sound is coming from the far left and echoing across center towards the back of the soundstage. If you watch the video, what's happening is the sound travels along the back wall and to the far left mic but some reflections are also being picked up by the right mic. As that same player starts approaching the right mic, the sound slowly moves across the front from the left to the right. There are three distinct yet diffuse images for most of the performance: left, center and right.
The above performance is in real contrast with The Menacing Tiger by Hok-man Yim (link below). In that performance, every sound is pin-point accurate across the width and depth of the soundstage. I surmise there were a lot more microphones on that stage and the mixing between left and right speakers was painstakingly implemented to get that kind of imaging.
Interestingly enough, the soundstage and imaging is very similar on my M2OW in the living room. The difference with the OW is that, believe it or not, the images come from greater depth and width. The images are also "softer" which is actually very easy to listen to. This is due to my room and the bow window between the M2s. I had similar depth in the living room with the actives but no matter what I did, I could not achieve the wall-to-wall width the M2OW do.
BTW, I have two crappy subs I use with the M2OW - one for each channel fed off the pre-amp of my Pioneer. Peter Gunn sounds much better on the M2OW with the subs off. It sounds like nothing is missing.
https://open.spotify.com/track/44iKEH3unzldjOrJefyLiv?si=5kDUauTPQCSBevjyTZSR6g
