I bought the m3 about 8 months ago after trying out some other speakers (eg. BMW's 602,paradigm's monitor 7,titans,atoms etc).After much testing I finally settled for the m3's.These speakers were the best buy I've ever made.It Sounds fantastic,very accurate,bass is tight,very natural.No regrets buying it!!wise there were 6 stars...the m3s certainly deserves it!

I have refrained from posting a review on this site for quite some time. However, I feel it necessary to point out a particular product that I've owned for the past 2 weeks and has brought me tremendous enjoyment. The Tannoy Mercury M3's, a floor-standing, 2-way speaker with 6.5" woofer, isn't going to be a reference speaker killer. At it's price point of $550 retail, it's not going to break the bank either. It's one of those speakers that just play and play musically well. Not overly detailed like Gallo Nucleus References and Quad ESL's are and not near the bass slam as say a Vandersteen 2CE Sig (I'm pointing out comparisons to speakers I've heard before). They just simply sing.
Soundstaging and imaging are very good, although you won't get the soundstage to go very far outside the speakers. Positioning is a key to getting the best performance out of these. I've got them about 2' from the side walls and 3' from the rear, about 5' apart from each other. In my room, they portray a musical soundscape that just invites you to relax into it. It won't be a "they are here" type listening experience or a "you are there" one. It's more like a "they're almost here and you're almost there" experience. Glimpses of being virtually immersed into the atmosphere of whatever track you are playing are provided to you but they are just that, glimpses. What did you expect for $550 (heavily discounted I've heard as Tannoy has made some "improvements" to the current design. What you do get is a speaker that does a lot of things right from the beginning. Mated with my tube gear, it's smooth as butter. It's a little laid back like my former pair of Vandersteen 1C's but no so much so that you'll be yawning...

If you're looking for a floorstander at this price point, you can't do much better than the Mercury M3's.

Tannoy's specifications for the Mercury M3: Recommended amplifier 10 to 90 watts per channel
Sensitivity 88dB
Nominal impedance 8 ohms
Frequency response 35Hz to 20kHz
LF driver 160mm
HF driver 25mm soft dome
Enclosure type front ported reflex
Dimensions 850h x 203w x 270d
Weight 9.7kg
Finish black ash with cherry or grey bird-eye front baffle

www.tannoy.com

I've owned these speakers for approximately six months, and I never cease to be amazed by their sound. It is very detailed and natural sounding. My listening preferences are classical and jazz (and only occasionally rock). I am a musician (classical and jazz), and I know what these instruments really sound like. The Tannoys sound like real instruments do. I auditioned some other brands when I was looking for new speakers (Paradigm and NHT among others). Frankly, these Tannoys embarassed everything else I listened to (some of them more expensive). No other speaker I listened to was able to reproduce such natural sounding acoustic instruments (voices, too). Also, the listener gets the impression of a very realistic sound stage. I am driving my m3s with an NAD integrated amplifier. These loudspeakers seem to sound fabulous at any listening level--they can certainly be loud, but are also wonderful at soft volumes. Quite modest in price, I cannot imagine finding a better sounding speaker for the money--to be honest, I cannot imagine finding a better sounding speaker for significantly more money. Overall, they provide a very detailed and natural sounding listening experience. Highly recommended.

I love the Tannoy Mercury M3. The cherry finish on the baffle is very nice and I alwoys keep the grills off so I can admire their great looking drivers. I love to listen to music on them and I can just sit there for hours browsing through my whole music collection enjoying myself. I'm not going to describe their sound using some jargon I learned by reading a review in a magazine I just want to simply say they sound great. My $500 dollars was well spent. Five stars!

OK, this is not going to be your average 5-star rave.
Were I to rate these speakers on my own scale, I would give them 3, maybe 3.5 stars. But for the purposes of audioreview.com, it's 5 stars. I'll give you my own 3-star review to start.

For inexpensive (~$450 street price) speakers, the build quality is adequate, but nothing spectacular. The cabinet is rather light for a floor-standing speaker, and not terribly well-braced or damped. A rap on the cabinet indicates that this isn't a particularly low-resonance design. Also, the drivers are decent, but their plastic frames are quite cheap, and i've already cracked two of them slightly by tightening the screws a little too hard. I think that is the one thing about this speaker that annoys me the most - the cheap molded-plastic driver frame and basket, not even stamped steel (forget cast metal in this price range). Also, the quality of the crossover components is quite bad - it appears to be a second or third-order design (i'm not sure and haven't asked Tannoy yet) with lots of gross electrolytic capacitors and generally cheap components. I have the first-generation M3's though, the newer ones have an improved crossover i hear, though i'm not sure how they're improved.

Moving on to the sound, the cheapness of construction manifests itself in the form of some slight upper-bass colorations and a general lack of fine resolution. Compared to my tweaked Tannoy 605's, they have deeper, more powerful bass and a fuller sound (the 605 is a bookshelf design), but distinctly softer treble and less precise imaging and detailing. There is a general veiling of the sound that isn't unpleasant, but makes it hard to analyze fine details in the music. I also feel that the high treble is a bit rolled-off.

Alright, now onto why I gave this speaker 5 stars. Because it's very musical, and for the price I really can't think of too many speakers that are much better. You could try a NHT, which will probably have better detailing, but there is a general hollowness to the midrange of NHT's that bothers me and makes it difficult for me to feel involved in the sound. In this price range, I wouldn't touch a B&W either - too bright, too amusical-sounding. I think the Fried Beta VI's were superior speakers, but they don't seem to be made anymore. But the M3, unlike so many other speakers under $500, is pleasant, easy on the ears, and unobtrusive - its faults are those of omission and not commission. And as such, I find it quite listenable, even enjoyable. It doesn't disappear into the soundstage like a good $2500 mini-monitor, but then the imaging is still quite repsectable, and very natural-sounding for the price range. And given how many other speakers I've seen on audioreview.com with 5 stars that I think are truly horrible, I think the 5 star rating is warranted.

Incidentally, I think this speaker has a lot of potential for tweakers on a budget. I would start by removing a large chunk of internal stuffing behind the woofer - it damps the sound far too much. I removed almost all of the main stuffing (which is rather poor-quality polyester or something in this model) and feel the sound is a bit more open and transparent. I'm also going to replace the atrociously-cheap components in the crossover... hopefully that will all but fix the softness and lack of detail i perceive in the treble. If anyone is interested, write me and i'll let you know how the results are.

Yes the Tannoy's do sound very musical to me. I am using it with an Onkyo 474.

I bought these speakers two weeks ago to replace a pair of Paradigm Atoms.They represent a vast improvement over the Atoms.
The imaging and accuracy are excellent. There is no congestion in the upper bass and lower midrange frequencies. Bass is tight and tuneful.
These speakers are an excellent match for my vintage McIntosh MC275 amplifier.
They also work well with Nordost Flatline Gold speaker cable.
Highly recommended!

Tannoy m3's have beeen o.k. to play with. My room is not in great shape, but it's getting there. I've experimented with various things and the speakers are sounding better. Removing most of the insulation, from my standpoint, makes the music sound bruised. I wonder if changing the insulation type would improve the sound. One thing that I did do, was to pull off a couple of coils from the main bass inductor. This help the speakers improve to my ears, and Heavy Metal never sounded better!

Excellent Speakers if you love the slower kind especially Guitar, and Vocals.

I've owned the M3's for a year now and am very pleased with them. Thesound is warm and layed back, never fatiguing even at higher volumes.
For the price you really can't go wrong and are worth an audition for
anyone looking for a speaker in this price range, definitly worth a 5
star rating.
My system consists of a
Rega Lunar
Marantz CD-46
Audioquest Ruby
Audioquest speaker wire