Were you using the M/M stack in your profile for all of these comparisons?

I don't own them (yet) but my impression was that the $299 version is the same tuning as the balanced, so they're both ver. 3.2. This is based on the fact that the 3.2 has been out for a month or so and the balanced setup just started shipping in the past few days.

Ah, that would make a lot more sense, I didn't realize it was planned to be two seasons.

Yeah I'm beginning to wonder if they are going to end this season with the end of the third book? If so the last two episodes are going to have a lot going on..