I have never ever heard any sibilance on Knopfler's vocals before. Now I hear it. On the one hand everything is much clearer and cleaner sounding now like my old speakers had wet towels covering them. On the other hand everything sounds kind of cold and clinical now.

Fred I completely understand. I do not like every song.

OK, that is just plain strange. The M3s have a very slightly recessed midrange, and I mean very slightly. There should be no sibilance there in vocals.

I almost wonder if there is something wrong with the M3s you have. I was very surprised at how good the midrange in my M2s sounds.

I'm listening to Knopfler's Get Lucky right now. When he hits the S's on some words the sibilance is very noticable. But only on the S's the rest of the vocals are smooth. But of all my recordings Knopfler's were always sibilance free.

Just flipped to Quality Shoe on my iPod/Audiobyte combo. I don't really get extreme sibilance, but if you're used to a recessed treble, I can see it sounding bright to you. I don't have Get Lucky, unfortunately.

To me, it just sounds like he's enunciating. There's naturally a little sibilance when you say Sses and the like.

What volume levels are you listening at?

Very moderate levels.

OK I'm now convinced that something is wrong here. Just for the heck of it I hooked back up a pair of Cambridge Soundworks Model 6 speakers that I had packed away when I got the M3's the other day. The Model Six's cost me $99 per pair a few months ago. They normally sell for $149 per pair. I connected the Six's back up and left the M3's hooked up also. I put in a good sounding cd and A/B the 2 speakers.The Model Six's sound better. Shockingly better. The M3's have a higher sensitivety than the Model Six's do but yet they play much softer? I have to turn the volume up 10 points higher on the M3's to match the volume of the Six's even though the M3's are supposed to be more efficient.

Could be a defect, all right.

I'm listening to "Get Lucky" right now on my M60's and I just don't hear anything close to "sibilant". And I'm really trying to talk myself into it. It's just not there.

That does sound like there is something wrong, I would give Axiom a call and see what they have to say.

I thought I would mention SVS has some highly regarded speakers that you might be interested in as well as Emotiva and Elemental Designs should the M3s not stick around your home.

Are you sure that all 4 drivers are operating? Is it possible that one of the speakers has a woofer that's not playing?