My original plan (that fit my budget) was to order the Epic 80-600 system in the standard boston cherry vinyl finish.

In order to get my wife's approval, her one requirement was that the speakers had to match our existing furniture. Turns out that the only match was the most expensive custom finish (Rosewood).
Therefore, I had to downgrade my speaker selection to the Epic Grand Master 500 in order to stay within my original budget.

Have I just committed the ultimate sin?...choosing "looks" over sound?

Life is full of compromises, you did what ya had to do. If you're not in a huge room I think you will be quite pleased with you're order, as will your wife.

Wlcome to the forum akirac. Thats going to be one nice looking setup!!

You are trading a small difference in sound for a HUGE difference in looks. Considering that is important to your wife, I thing you win big time.

Don't forget to come back and post your impressions and pics.

How big is your room? There is a huge difference between the 80's and the grand master bookshelfs, not really in the same league. The 500 and 600 are pretty close for the subs.

Looks are important, but sound is our goal in audio.

I think a lot of people really love the m22's. However, I do think room size is important... how large is your room?

Welcome to the forum akirac,

Decisions are all about tradeoffs based on preferences so there is no "sin" committed . Unfortunetly WAF plays a huge role in some cases. What bookshelves did you choose. Many have noted here that the M22+sub sounds very similar to the M80's.

The biggest tradeoff IMO will be sacrifing power handling going from the towers to bookshelves. How large is your room? BTW if I had a choice between the EP500 and the EP600 I would go with the EP500 myself.

BTW your system is going to look gorgeous with the rosewood finish.

Congrats!

I'd probably aim for the 60-350 myself.

I am thinking like Ken for this one, I would have dropped the 500 sub and went for the M60s and EP350. But the M22s and EP500 will be a great system as long as the listening room isn't too large.

Thanks for the encouraging words...

My total room volume is about 2000 cubic feet and I will be using a 115W x 7 AVR (Denon 2809).

Reading all the reviews and this forum, I'm certain the M22's paired with the EP500 will sound really good. It's just that in the back of my mind, I'll always be thinking "As good as this sounds, I could've had something that sounded EVEN BETTER"...

I agree akirac. The Denon 2809 + M22 + EP500 will sound amazing and with the rosewood veneer finish it will look spectacular as well. That is a terrific system.

Don't worry-you'll be really happy with the sound and they will be beautiful. I had my M22's set up with an HSU sub powered by an HK AVR 630 in a room bigger than yours and the system sounded great.

Yep, those will work great for that room, and make the wife happy.

Ak, welcome. Sometimes compromises for the sake of aesthetics are necessary. From my experience with the M22s plus EP500 in various size rooms, I'd think that you'll be very happy with both the sonic and aesthetic results. Enjoy.

"boo hoo, I had to get the rosewood finish"

You forgot this avenue:
- receive the box and mutters "curious why these boxes are so big when I ordered the smaller speakers, you remember honey, I had to downgrade it to match the colors?"

- "OMG, they screwed up and sent the M80's GEESH"

- "It's going to cost us a fortune to mail them back..."

- " really, just keep them? you're sure...?"

Would Epic60-500 or Epic80-500 have done the trick in terms of the budget?

So get used to this set up for the time being. And next promotion you get, upgrade... it'll be like christmas all over again!

Okay, I finally got my Rosewood speakers in last week but didn't have a chance to install them until the weekend. They are as beautiful as I imagined they would be. The sound is amazing and the EP500 is FRICKEN AWESOME! My two-year old son's favorite movie is Finding Nemo. That was the first movie we watched and the bass was unbelievable. My wife was in the shower at the time(located in the furthest point from where our family room is located - about 50 ft. away)and she felt the walls shaking in the shower, no kidding. At first, I thought it might be overkill to have such a powerful sub in a relatively small room, but I think I made the right choice.

I also noticed that my neighbor, who is very friendly and would always say hello to us, has suddenly given us the cold shoulder recently...I wonder why?

Anyways, these speakers exceeded my expectations, and after a 1 hour trial, I've decided to keep the speakers. I don't need 30 days to decide. I am very happy with my order.

I will post pictures shortly.

You may be running the sub to "hot", meaning you have the volume (gain) to high. Nemo is a great movie and has plenty of scenes with lowww bass. My favorite is the whale scene when they are inside the whale and it is "time to let go"... Or, when Darla "tapsss" on the aquirium, "Booom BOOM BOOOM"

have you calibrated all your speakers/sub to the same SPL or run auto setup on a receiver?

One hour. That didn't take long. What did your son think of all the rumble?

This isn't making waiting any easier! How do you like the VP150?

And I am ridiculously jealous of the rosewood.