D.D. and werd, your experience listening to speakers that work well at low volumes is certainly beng borne out with me and the M80s. However, unlike werd, I don't have to listen for bass instruments playing the M80s at wife-sleeping volume levels. In fact, I've been finding that wife-listening levels work fine even when she's wide awake and I have the option of blasting away.
I'm still getting use to the different kind of sound which I understand is often typical of very linear speakers and ones with high resolution. It is very different than the relaxed and, by comparison, mellow sound of the MB2is. But unlike human relationships, familiarity with speakers doesn't breed contempt, but rather preference.
Yesterday, I tried my MB2is, again, and compared to the M80s with which I am growing much more familiar, I have to confess that the MB2is, although enjoyable, now seem a little veiled, and lacking in definition and in imaging.
In an important way, I am the poorest possible judge of audio in general and speakers in particular because I seldom hear live music. So for example, I can't say with any confidence that the fuller and fatter tenor sax on the MB2is or the leaner more defined tenor sax on the M80s is closer to a live tenor sax.
My suspiction, not knowledge, is that the M80 just might be closer to the mark. If I were to have this verfied, then what? It may be that I might not want to have these two different "sound flavours" from which to choose, but rather the more accurate, all the time.
Dave