I look for three qualities in a recording when I devote time to just listen and do nothing else: soundstage, imaging and fidelity.

I should point out that when I'm listening as I graze around the house or yard, I don't care about any of these qualities. I am in no position then to listen to "stereo" and so I'm perfectly content to listen to my Air or $40 transistor radio to recordings of all kinds.

Out of these qualities, the most offensive one for me is imaging. I'm fine with just a centre image. I'm also fine with just three images: centre, inside left and inside right. What I can't stomach however is left and right images that are mixed just into the left and right speakers and sound like they're coming from the speakers themselves.

I don't know how some recordings do it but they have hard left and right images yet they are diffuse and sound like a right or left mist or cloud surrounding the speaker. Many go well beyond the speaker boundaries. I think these might be recorded on a stage where reflected sounds are also picked up or maybe they are studio-recorded and the engineer had tricks up his sleeve. I think the bad ones, Iike a lot of AC/DC, are so bad they are missing wide swaths of higher frequencies. It's the higher frequencies that add dispersion and the highest that add air.

I find the bad ones are less offensive on the M3 and M50. I think it's that dedicated mid-range that really brings out the worst in bad recordings. I therefore can't absolutely say that 3-way is better than 2-way. Technically, yes; practically, no.