Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo M80 vs M60 and sub woofer

Some Yamaha receivers have had trouble driving the 4 ohm load of M80 speakers. I think the 2600 is OK but hopefully others will chime in.

For any given receiver and power rating the M80s will give you more sound than the 60s, due to slightly higher sensitivity and the 4-ohm design usually pulling a bit more power from the amp than you would get at 8 ohms. You definitely don't *need* more power to drive M80s, it's just that if you have a big room or want high SPLs the M80s will handle more power better than the 60s.

Most people run M60s very happily with less than 120W/chan, although receiver power ratings are kind of a "hint" at best these days. The Denon 380x is very popular with M60s and will also drive M80s, so no worries there.

General consensus seems to be that the EP350 is a good sub and typical for that size and power but the EP500 is a monster by comparison, ie the difference is significant. Main differences are (a) the 500 extends noticeably deeper into the low bass (sub 20 Hz) and (b) the 500 can play typical movie content at higher levels without distress.