Hi txaglt

Before you spend the bucks I would get to know some of the listeners here and maybe on some other forums and get their take based on their real life experiences. There's some great seasoned listeners here that can take you a little further than just brands to buy. For example either what works well with what products on a plug and play basis (as a system), or if you wish to have your room brought into the equation visit us on http://tuneland.techno-zone.net/ and we'll give you a whole system approach with the viewpoint of your own listening/living room.

The trick to all of this is knowing that what you hear in the stores are not what you will experience at home necessarily, so make a game plan based on you, your wife, your room and your goals. Pics of your room and potential setup is always a big help for those giving advice and is almost a requirement for us on TuneLand cause we don't want to give advice blind.

good luck and check out what others have done

michael green
MGA/RoomTune
http://tuneland.techno-zone.net/

I haven't heard the B&W CM Series 2 line and can't say how it sounds. That being said I liked the CM9 series 1s very much when I heard them. The CM line has historically been superb and is generally mentioned alongside the Revel Performa3 and Dynaudio Excite lines as a peer.

What I am not sure of is whether or not the Marantz receiver will be adequate to drive those speakers. B&W is notorious for producing speakers that are difficult to drive. Many of their speakers have variable impedances that drop below 4 ohms which would that Marantz receiver is not able to handle. At higher volumes, best case scenario the sound will break up a little, worst case scenario you can damage the speakers, the amp and/or blow fuses.

That being said I have no idea if these CM series 2 speakers suffer from that issue as I have yet to see a review, much less one with measurements. You may want to e-mail B&W and ask them if it is okay to drive your preferred speaker with a receiver that is not 4 ohm stable. As an alternative, you might consider a Denon AVR4100 which is 4 ohm stable. They say it explicitly on the web site that the Denon can handle it. Denon lacks the warmth of Marantz but is very good sounding and very neutral.

I own a pair of M-1s and agree that they would make nice surrounds. They perform extremely well off axis and I find that to be one of the few speakers from B&W that is a superb value.

Assuming B&W says you are good driving that with a Marantz receiver or you opt to go with a Denon, I would be shocked If you could find anything in the $3500 range that will come close to the performance you would get out of B&W, but again this is based on reputation, not actual experience.