I've been listening to the M16s since January 2022. Vinyl, Hi-Res streaming (Qobuz, Radioparadise), and CDs. All through the same system in which they were replaced by the R3Ms:
(Analog) U-Turn Orbit Theory/Ortofon 2m Bronze + Cambridge Audio Alva Duo - Schiit Freya S - Buckeye Purifi 1ET400A - KEF R3 Meta + Emotiva SE12 ; (Digital) Bluesound Node 2i/Audiolab 6000CDT - Topping D70s - Schiit Freya S - Buckeye Amps Purifi 1ET400A - KEF R3 Meta + Emotiva SE12.
Arguably a very clean and highly transparent system, at least on the digital side
.
I still love and respect my M16s, enough so, that they are now a valued part of my desktop system. I'm not letting them go.
The M16s are nearly flat, clear, punchy, detailed, yet smooth without sounding like the highs are rolled off. No listening fatigue, as in zero. They have good directivity, so it doesn't seem to matter where you sit or if you're standing. Obviously the sweet spot remains the sweet spot, but outside of it you're not suffering for tonality or imaging. They will play as loudly as you can stand (using some BS app on my android phone, I've measured sustained output >95dB before I felt like I was going to damage my hearing) and they continue to crank out the music undistorted. I've listened to all genres of music through them, I'm sort of a musical omnivore. As stated before, I love these guys.
That said, their general "sonic envlope"
TM is modest. in a small/medium room they punch well above their weight class, expecially with a sub. In a medium/large room they sound great when you're within 10-15 feet of them. As you might predict, as you move away from that distance, both volume and coherence drop markedly.
The Kef R3 Metas are "larger." They sound more full, richer, and output a much bigger "sonic envlope"
TM. Their highs seem to me to be more detailed, but not like someone jacked up the treble. Just more high frequency information available to hear. Midrange is a bit better, female vocals a bit more full and balanced. Bass is punchy without being boomy, and might even blend better with the sub.
I want to repeat that EVERYTHING I'm writing is
completely subjective. No instrumented testing, no double blind anything (unless of course you want to include the results of some Don Julio 1942 testing which I thought had left me blind, but that's off topic...)
It appears to me that the R3Ms need slightly more amplifier power to drive them than the M16s. I had the gain on the Freya S set to 6dB for the 6Ω M16s. I have it set to 12dB for the 4Ω R3Ms when playing digital sources. The Buckeye Purify gain was set to "High" (25.5dB/2.17Vrms) for all scenarios.
The bottom line for me is that my musical listening experience is better. As a lover of music, I'm grateful for this. This next bit might be a bold and foolish statement, but these might be the endgame speakers for that system.