Hey everyone. I'm a proud new owner of a pair of M3 bookshelves, and an EP175 sub. Due to budget constraints, I'm upgrading my home theater one piece at a time. I listen to music/movies about 50/50. Some music I like to listen to in surround, but usually in stereo.
Anyways, I am getting ready to pull the trigger on another M3 for my center channel. My thoughts are that the M3 will be better timbre-matched to my M3 mains. The axiom center channels have smaller woofers than the M3's, so I think all M3's up front would be best, particularly for music in surround.
What do you guys think about this plan? Would an M3 laying on it's side be alright?
-steele

An M3 would be idea, but is there any way you can avoid laying it on its side, like be elevating the screen a little? I haven't personally tried vertical speakers on their side, so I'll let others chime in with their opinions on that.

Yep, 3 identical speakers up front will give you the best soundstage, however, I would not rule out a VP100 or 150. As CV mentioned, you really don't want to lay a vertical bookshelf down. it is designed to have good horizontal dispersion, but if you turn it on its side, that changes things.

I use an M3 for my center channel and in many respects I found that it actually has a little better wide angle dispersion than the VP150 and the voices sound a little more natural. That is why my VP150 is sitting in a box in my basement.

For that reason, I would recommend that depending on the positioning of it related to your monitor and L/R speakers, you leave it upright and tilt it(if necessary) toward the listening position.

Thanks for all of the replies. I'm sure I can find a way to keep the M3 vertical and still have it look nice. I'll experiment with it sideways as well, just to hear the difference. Time to go place another order!

I’ve been looking at using mine for a trade-up. Looks like it will give me 40% off any non-factory outlet items I buy up to $867.00 and it looks like the 5% HT discount still applies.

I’m already in the market for 2 surround back speakers and possibly a couple of ceiling brackets and possibly something to relieve the M22s from the mundane duty as wide speakers.

Works well for me! I have 3 M3's serving as L/C/R channels. I tried them in various setups including placing them on their sides. While they don't sound bad on their sides, I did have a weird null that was just outside of my listening area. I ended up turning them all upright, and getting them as level to each other as possible.