I am completely new to this, so bear with me. I just bought a pair of M3s, and so far I really love them, but I'm using them as mains in a fairly large and open room and am wondering if there's any advantage to trading up to the M50s -- which are about the most I can afford at the moment. The reviews of the M3s are stellar, and I'm wondering what I'd gain from moving up -- if anything. (I'm using the M3s with a sub.)

Thanks

When Peter, Adam, and I compared the M3s, M50s, and M80s, we found that the M3s outshined the M50s. For further details, go to the Water Cooler thread, first post, and then search for "M3 M50 incompetent"

I think that will bring up the review thread.

Interesting -- I hadn't seen your comparison post. Dang that's a lot of speakers in one room

Is there any chance that the "extra punchiness" in the M3 bass output was the result of the response peak around 100 Hz ?

EDIT - never mind, there's a second page. Looks like Rich ended up EQ'ing his M50s to have the same response bump as the M3s and was quite a bit happier with the overall results.

I imagine that would work with M60s and M80s as well

That was our best guess (I just reread the thread).

Friendly neighborhood link!

I was just thinking about doing that, now that at least 3 of us have been looking at the post.

That was a lot of fun, although I can't imagine that it would be easy to do again. We're pretty strict about our son's bedtime.

Yeah, the first time I read the post I didn't feel like using the search function. I'm sure I'm not the only lazy forum browser!

Coffee to the rescue.

Besides, I like to do something useful on the forums every now and then.

Like Ken said, the M3s pretty clearly outshone the M50s in our comparison, and that was without a sub (which model do you have, btw?). I think you'd have to step up to the M60s to make it worth your while. Which is something I've been considering, actually.

Also, have you factored the trade-in program into your budget?

Hey Adam, are your M3s Tis or v2s? The M80s are v2s, and the M50s are Tis. I wonder if that plays into it.

They're Tis.

Well we know Ian has been tweaking the xovers, so I would guess the v2's sound a little different now but most likely not by much.