Hi Sam, I’ve had my M80s placed up on stands before and found it greatly improved the ambience and depth of the soundstage in rooms where I’ve had lots of heavy sound absorbing furniture.
I think the improvement comes from several things:
Elevating the tweeters and midranges above the furniture means less of those frequencies are getting absorbed before hitting the back and back side walls and being reflected.
Having the midranges rather than the tweeters at ear level makes for a much better presentation especially for vocals IMO.
A little “tighter” bass probably from getting the woofers away from the floor.
I’ve also found that angling the speaker back so that the midranges are pointed at ear level also helps a little but not as much as elevating the whole speaker. Also works just as good if not better hanging them upside down and aimed down at the seating.
