Agree. It's hard to take subjective anecdotes from people that spent that much money on speakers too seriously. At most there should be a small difference in tone from the M106s, which have no real audible distortion. "Better" would be a stretch. I mean no disrespect, but that amount of money spent can lodge itself into an opinion.
If it matters, I have M16s, M106s, and F226Bes (the step above the M126Bes). I can easily EQ the M16s in a way that would make me very happy with them should I lose the F226Bes. The latter is tuned to have a little more highs (see Erin's PIR measurements), but that's the design and not the tweeter or its intrinsic qualities. Curiously, I don't see the beryllium tweeter doing anything special that the lower priced options don't, FR-wise, in my best "acoustic" room, before DSP:
I'd say this is shocking, except the measurements say the M16s are great speakers. And *I* don't believe that the M126Bes offer the the major benefit of the F226Bes (besides some more low end and no audible distortion), which is the super valuable bass between 100-200Hz, which is above any crossover I would ever consider. My money is on the possibility that this is the result of the front bass port and two woofers that the bookshelves don't have. (This is why I jumped to another level altogether and why I consider this the true upgrade.)
Let's also not forget that the room makes a difference. I got the M106s to replace a pair of M16s in my basement because at the time I didn't have DSP there and Amir's measurements clearly show that the M16s are more sensitive to low ceilings than the M106s. (Plus, that big store in California had them priced incorrectly so I got them at a crazy good deal.) More, the M106s' bass works better in the room without DSP. If you look at Amir's M106 measurements you can see that the room may influence 3-6kHz a little. Perhaps, depending on the room, and
if the M126Bes are less sensitive there, that can make a small enough difference should you not want to use DSP. (I will say that they can benefit from a tiny bump at around 300Hz, that always made them "better.") This kind of stuff also matters and is another good reason to have the M126Bes professionally reviewed.
The following shows how hard it is for us to compare measurements right now. The measurements are not apples to apples as has been mentioned. Would the M126Bes curve down the same way--and thus line up better with the M106s--if measured by Amir?
In an almost ironic way, the F226Bes are so good (especially with subs) and I am so comfortable with great sound now that they have allowed me to fetishize speakers less.
