Well, it's been 8 months of living with and learning about the M3's and learning how to bring the best out of them after many years with Quad (Electrostatic Solutions) total rebuild speakers. I built my system around bringing out the best in the Quads and they were just wonderful. Throwing the M3's in and thinking that all I have to do for good results was way off base. 1st was the long burn-in I say 2 months of my use, which I put less time in daily as many I am sure so the break-in was longer. During this time I played with positioning, spikes or no spikes and cables, but as the speakers settled down the bass really improved, better balance then I inserted the spikes and the bass was better defined and dynamic, the highs were not as forward as when new now fully integrated. So I pulled them out into the room more and the bass remained full without the loss I heard when new. I finally have the speakers 36" from the front way, toed-in to when the tweeter hits I say the center of each shoulder perhaps a bit more in than that. I like a good center imaging, and focus, plus I have to work with my room, as the room is a big part of the final sound we hear.
So to this past month. my 1st thing was to change out my cables and power cords to all one brand. I tried an AQ Blizzard on the amp and it really made the speaker coherent, more natural with tight bass and slam. I was surprised, seems to be a blacker background also. I knew this was not the ideal cord for a 400 watt McIntosh amp so, over many weeks, I purchased 2 Tornados, 1 Thunder, and the Blizzard, Fire interconnects and William Tell speaker wires. So in they went bit by bit, and on each addition, the speaker sounded better and better. My final decision on the power cords was where to use them for my best outcome. I spoke with AQ and they said to use the best on the front end gear and then the amps, it starts at the front end. I use a PS Audio P-12 regeneration for the front end gear only, so they draw little current so they suggest using the blizzard on the P-12, so I wounded up with one Tornado on the McIntosh amp, one of the Luxman preamp, and the Thunder on the Marantz SA-10 SACD player which replaced the Esoteric k-01.
The sound became all that I was so used to with the Quads, but now even more so, vocals had good definition and body to them, highs clear with no glare or being out front, bass could really put out some pressure into the room now, a 1st to feel it in my chest on a test track with the bass burn. I will tell you these speakers' in-room bass response is really low and good. You don't need a sub. So from 8 months of use, these speakers are so pure that they become what your system and recordings feed them, they change their personality, by even one power cord change stands out clearly, so this tells you these speakers do add it's coloration to the sound. They give you what the system before them brings to them. This speaker though is not about hyper detail or analytical.
From early Jazz, Big Bands, the '40s, 50's, '60s, and on and on, to classical, each ERA has its own sound, and the speaker brings that forth. From thin think 1920s-1930s. The golden age of recording quality made 40's, 50's through the early '60s. Audiophile Labels like Opus 3, and others sound sublime. If the recording quality truly sucks you will hear it, at times I say where is the bottom end, then I put a recording that has it in spades and you think you changed your system, it is a night and day difference, this speaker speaks the truth. The one thing this speaker does is make you feel like the vocalist/group/band is right in the room, it gives a real presence to the music.
So May was the month I finally got the sound out of these speakers that they were capable of and for my enjoyment of my vast recordings collection, and my system. Then a few weeks ago I remember with my Dynaudio speakers the output of the 4-ohm tap on my McIntosh amp really brought them to life. I had tried the 8 & 4-ohms taps on my Quads and the 8-ohm was easily the best. BUT I had never thought about this with my M3's, so I switch the speaker wire from the 8-ohm taps to the 4-ohm outputs and everything became more of what it had been before, bass, focus, high's, slam all improved to where my wife even said does that sound good. So for 2 weeks, I've been pulling recordings that I played back in September, and I sit and marvel at how far this system has come and how much better the M3's sound today as when new. So if you have tube amps and they all will have 4-8 ohm taps try the 4-ohm taps, even McIntosh Solid State amps have these options to match the amp to the speaker properly. You take the M3's and 5's I would guess to another level of quality, I even try it on the X series of speakers.
To end, I have a speaker I plan to own for a long time to come, if any upgrades are offered I may go for that, these speakers are easy to upgrade if offered you could send the crossovers in to be upgraded or buy a new crossover box and the tweeter looks like it could be switched out easily. But right now I don't even care, these speakers can compete against the best, and best of all they work well in real rooms that most of us have in our homes, in my case a loft overlooking the family, there is no wall behind me where I sit so the wall that the speaker's faces is 30' away and that really helps, no back wall to deal with.
I am glad I purchased these speakers and anyone who say OB speakers lack bass and such is living in the past, like those who still say class D sucks. Time marches on things improve and designs improve, even digital of 40 years ago sounds nothing like my SA-10 SACD player, just like recordings from the '20s did not sound like recordings from the '50s or the turntable to play them on. Too much in Audio is generalities, BS passed on and on. OB speakers have come into their own, and Clayton Shaw and a few others have shown the way to better sound and best of all for Audiophiles at least affordable sound.
