Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Help me choose the right amp (M60)

If you want separates, Outlaw is a very similar company to Axiom in that they are a high quality boutique shop. I have the 970 with the 7075 amp and run M60's for my mains and although I have had some issues with the pre-pro, they make the 60's rock with DVD audio loud and clear. If I had to do it again, I would go with the 990 and maybe a 7125 for a little more power, but they all deliver very clean wattage and don't distort either literally or figuratively.

Sounds even more intreguing now Zoe.

We all have out biases. Mine is very much towards price/performance. The risk is trading off too much quality.

I happen to have a very nice Yamaha guitar (FG360 12 string) sitting in the corner of my room which I really love so maybe I have a bias towards them as well.

Dave. I looked at companies like Outlaw and Emotiva. In the end, buying separates puts a fairly large premium on the components even for productslike the above. Heck, the new Axiom amp is considered a real bargoon at $500/channel, yet I am looking at a $300 receiver that will deliver all the power I will need for a pair of M60s and is unlikely to colour the sound. Thats $60 per channel for 5.1.

Its not really fair to compare the two as the Axiom amp delivers a LOT more for that $500/channel. Its just not stuff I need. If I were looking at the M80 it would be a different story.

Yet another factor I forgot is that this is to be part of a long term solution for HD movie viewing and as such I need to be able to decode HD audio formats like True-HD. That probably eliminates a lot of current receivers and most certainly anything used.

Another option has occured to me. The Pioneer sterio amp at my brothers is not currently being used. At 40w/channel its probably enough to drive the M60 at reasonable volumes. I happen to have good audio on my pc so I could send analog out from it to the amp.

Not an ideal solution I admit, but would get me listening to music a little sooner. It would also buy me a little time to better sort out exactly what I want/need in a receiver.

[quote=fredk]Interesting you should mention Yamaha in your list of decent avr's as they tend to get a rough ride on this forum.

I recently read a review of the RX-V659 on Audioholics where it received a glowing review. If Audioholics is to be believed, this receiver has lots of oompf and can put out more than the rated 100wpc nice and clean. The kicker is that it is listed at $399 msrp, which is a lot less than anything else I have seen in this performance category.


You can slip this in the For What It's Worth file, but I was having trouble with my refurbed HK, so I picked up the Yamaha RXV-659 thinking this will hold me until something better comes along, but I don't think I'll be looking for something else. I am quite impressed with this extremely affordable receiver.

Thanks Littleb. If this is the one with the full review, I read it last night as well. Sounds like a very impressive receiver.

I finally got my head around power requirements and the 659 delivers what I need at a very attractive price. The only thing it dosn't do is decode the two new Bluray HD audio formats, something I want my receiver to do.

If I really want this feature I am very limited in which receivers I look at. From what I have read on Audioholics, the soon to be released RX-V663 probably has the same amp/power supply as the 659, but it decodes the two new formats. I have this receiver on my shortlist.

I hope Audioholics looks under the hood of the 663 as soon as it is released.