Acoustic Energy speakers anyone?

[kokoshka]

I wandered into a reputable independent hi-fi shop on saturday accompanied by my audiophile chum with whom I've traded very anorak anecdotes for 25 years. He had his ipod with him, and was invited to plug it into the Acoustic Energy M3 system which was on display. Although it wasn't a line out audition, just headphone socket, we were both bowled over by the quality of the sound reproduction, and by the power of speakers that were no bigger than coffee mugs. So much so that I'm tempted to sell my hi fi system, which frankly has been a bit much since I relocated into a smaller room, and buy the AE system with a good ipod dock, and use the extra cash to buy the 80 gb ipod so that I can record at higher bitrates, and a load of new cd's too.

Has anyone any experience of the AE, or any other similar system? Hearing stuff in a shop on a rainy Saturday afternoon, with something of a hangover, is probably not the best recommendation for such a dramatic course of action, but I could use the space, and the cash...

Also, any advice on ipod docks? They suggested Onkyo in the shop.