Good day Gentlemen,

It was a customary obligation of mine to visit this forum every year to post about my M3s. But life has its own way of taking us places and that is exactly what happened to me. Traveling on work has been a blessing. Meeting new people and having new experiences has been a meditative affair. Through it all, when I come home, there are some constants that serve as a reminder on what time is all about. The M3s sit there waiting for me along with my family.

As much as I have aged over 17 years, so have the M3s. Their sound has mellowed as well, perhaps just a perception of mine that lends a certain acceptance to all that serves us, organic and inorganic. They still sound clear, no damage or vibrations from the drivers. I have removed the subwoofer from the setup as my tastes have moved towards easy listening, spiritual, the occasional pop, my daughter’s girly music. Gone are the days of turning my brain to mush with Metallica and Judas Priest.

As I sit right now listening to the M3s, I am a little surprised to see them on a new leash in life. I made the simple fix of adding a FiiO Q1 DAC and FLAC music routed to the aging Onkyo receiver. The sound is certainly better and my quest for high quality recordings is the new interest. The M3 v1s are a fine piece of equipment, impeccably made during their time and robust in construction to manage cyclical periods of the extreme 43 degree Celsius heat followed by cool winters down to 12 degrees. This is Hyderabad, India, not Canada. 12 degrees is winter. The drivers still work just fine.

I guess we can always want more. Who doesn’t? But at the end of the day, I consider myself a very lucky person to have what is necessary for happiness in life. A great family, good work, food, shelter, clothing and then a few comforts. Destressing and joy is achieved through music for me. Listening to these trusty little gems for nearly 2 decades is a reminder that though there are always better sounding speakers out there, I have what I need and never had the itch to “upgrade”. This forum has always been a very supportive one and I am happy to see the stalwarts like JohnK, pmbuko and 2x6spds still playing admin and anchor roles.

Take care everyone and thank you for reading.

Shankar

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Good to hear the speakers are still working well. I was also surprised by the improvement in sound quality when I started using a better DAC - for me it was the imaging that improved the most.

I am always pleasantly surprised each time I listen to M3's and have the same "why would I need anything more ?" reaction.

Welcome back, Shankar! Good to hear that your M3s are still going strong after 17 years. My M22s are now past 16 years and over 50,000 hours(still waiting for speaker "break-in" to occur)of classical music listening. Hope that some of your "easy listening" includes some of the beautiful quieter classical compositions.

Hopefully the project you were undertaking 4 years ago which we discussed by PM worked out.

Be well. John

True, the imaging, soundstage and low frequency improved for me. There are DACs that go all the way to $5,000 but this little $80 one was sufficient for my room.



Great to hear from you and you have a superb memory John! The project did work out well. Thank you for your inputs. My listening these last few years includes plenty of Western Classical and Fusion Classical as well. Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and Vivaldi are sweeter on the ears. With the DAC separating the instruments well, I have understood what the M3s are capable of. I must also admit that Bagpipes too sound good now.

Haven't you had the upgrade itch yet? I would have thought that with all the wonderful equipment available there, you would have built up some Brontosaurus-sized HT in your home. Take care.

Hi JohnK,

Nice testimonial from Aquashankar.

Like you, I still do 98% of my listening to my M22s and EP500 sub. I have M80s but rarely use them, as the M22s image better in my small apt setup.
I was much amused by your funny reference to your M22s "breaking in". That old myth is still active out there among the hi-end enthusiasts.

Cheers,
Alan Lofft

M22s sound even better in HG Rosewood flanked by a couple of EP800s similarly finished, ha!

Mojo may not agree...

TAM

Very nice write-up. M3's also sound better with a nice chilled glass of stout.

My M80s are bigger so I have 2 or 3.

You nailed that one!

My experience is pretty much the same as aquashankar with my M3TI's purchased in Sept 2001. I originally replaced giant full sized speakers to accommodate a 700 sq foot cottage. At the time I didn't think they were equal to the giant speakers but I understood that physics played a big part in speaker design and the trade off was worth it for reclaimed floor space.

My next house was bigger but the living room was a rectangle with the listening area on the short side so I just added a Axiom sub to the speakers and was happy there.

After that I moved to a loft and added Axiom center and rears to finally have a full fledged surround system. The Axiom's sounded great in the living area of a 1100 sq foot loft.

3 years ago I moved to a house with a cavernous living room that has 17' ceilings. I upgraded everything to an all white set consisting of M22's, EP350 and a VP150 (no rear speakers due to wiring issues). The M3ti's went into the closet mostly because in the latest move the tweeter was dinged.

I decided to order a replacement tweeter from Axiom (which they matched for me) and put them into service on my desktop with my Peachtree MusicBox Integrated amp. Wow! I couldn't believe how great they sounded near field. I could also sit in a chair across the room and they still sounded great. I made some speaker risers/stands out of a reclaimed red oak mantle by sending it through a planer then cutting to size with a radial arm saw followed by sanding and sealing. I also added thick cork to help with resonance on the desktop and blutac to the speaker bottoms for stability. Raising the M3ti's tweeters to ear height really made them shine. A much bigger sound improvement than I thought would happen.

Next update was a Schiit Eitr with Modi Multibit DAC (finally getting around the to OP's topic of using M3 with new dac). Another big leap in the quality of sound coming out of the M3ti's. The musicality through iTunes/bitperfect or Roon is so engaging that I don't have upgradeitis and I can be happy with what I have. I might be able to do a fraction better with a higher end speaker, amp/dac but I'm sure the point of diminishing returns will come into play because I bet I'd have to spend 10 times as much as on this combo. Especially considering I'm using 17 year old speakers dug out of my closet.

I just posted a shot of this setup on Head-fi: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/pictures...5#post-14342412

One thing i will say about Axioms, they dont exagerate anything, garbage in garbage out.The better the source the better they sound. Quite amazing speakers imho, yet they did get some unwanted attention for a while those retards have moved on to other people to bother.

A cold glass of stout? Obviously you don't have a Lucas fridge.

Hi Shankar

It was a pair of M3tis, a little Velodyne sub and a 5 wpc tube amp that started me down the road of audio obsession in search of audio bliss!

I used a $29 Fiio DAC and it sure made my cable box sound good!

I've been on a DAC tear this year. Picked up a Bryston BDA 2 for my main system. I still use an old coax only Theta Pro for the CD player. Got a Jadis JPL preamp (audio porn) for the Conrad Johnson MV60SE amp. Grabbed a pair of Montana pbn speakers. That system is done. (Never done really)
True high end sound!

I moved the Schiit Bifrost multibit DAC upstairs to the Klipsch Forte Harman Kardon TA5000x tube system. Sounds incredible.

Here's the deal of the bunch. I grabbed a Topping D50 512DSD DAC for my Integra M504/P304 Dahlquist DQM905 system. Great sounding solid state system. I highly recommend the $250 Topping DAC. This is the work out room system. Doesn't get as much play as it should.

DACs may be the most significant component after speakers for a system.

All you folks with the non-v4 M3s have no idea what you're missing. And Ian, because he cares so much about all of our ear-brains and enjoyment, has made it so darned easy to upgrade to M3v4.