I guess it depends on who "they" are...lol.

Have you looked at the reviews on AudioReview.com?

There are over 30 consumer reviews there on this thing, and if you can sort out the morons from the rest, there might be some information there...lol. For what it is worth, there seem to be a couple of highly negative reviews and a bunch of very good ones; check it out if you haven't yet.

I know that Musical Fidelity's reputation is that their stuff will usually err just a tiny bit on the "soft" side compared to gear that is absolutely pure and 100% accurate...but not by very damn much.

And of course you must have read the 2001 review in the Stereophile archives here?

By the way; you ARE talking about the M3...which has been discontinued...right?