Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions AV receivers for music?

Zimm. You should give This article in Axiom's archive a read. Our ears are not equally sensitive to all frequencies.

I've heard some multichannel receivers which are terrific for 2 channel music. Perhaps the most surprising was a dirt cheap ($150 at Fry's) Technics SADX 940. Sounded great. Onkyo tx ds 898 also had great sound quality. My friend has an old Outlaw 1050, wonderful sound quality in 2 channel.

The older Technics got high marks and either were right on with their power rating or surpassed it. I had one that my brother now uses.

My old Sony ES1000 does a fantastic job in 2 channel listening. I've given my m80's several high decibel workouts without any shutdown issues or distortion problems.

Okay, I read it. Very interesting. But still, 1% is noticeable at many frequencies. And here, am I correct to assume that the 1% figure will increase sharply as the he begs for more watts? 37 watts in an average room at 12 feet gives _____ db (I don't know, fill it in for me).

Sorry, I just can't buy it. Hitting audible distortion, even in a small frequency range, at less than 40 watts does not cause me to blame the B&W 600 series speakers, or the architect. I can buy that 100 watts is good enough for most listening, and 50 will do fine for background music. But come on Fred, there has to be some point at which you no longer say any amp will do when the guy is having problems generating acceptable bass on decent speakers? Right? Come on, work with me here. It's the amp Fred, say it, its the amp.

Here is what I'm trying to describe. Possibly off base here, but here it is:



and:



It's your amp buddy - Alan says so.

Well, if you're (note punctuation) THE deaf monk, I think you have it exactly right.

You can always search out an online calculator to give you a number. I know at 8' I can play at 90db and will require around 65w for those 12db peaks Alan talks about.

I actually agree with you on that 1% distortion at 37w. I have no idea what the relationship between power increase and distortion is, but it can only go up. I bet it varies depending on the specs of the components involved.

I posted the link when you wrote about distorted bass.

Charles? The 918 has to output over 120 watts(pursuant to the rating)at 1.0% distortion.

You might also check what EQ setting the amp is using. Try turning any EQ off to hear the music in it's unmodified state. I am referring to any auto-eq adjustments done during setup and to any preset EQ settings like [Statium], [Jazz] or [Rock]. Not saying you won't find an EQ setting that you actually prefer, but it's a worthy experiment.

Mine accidentally got set to [Flat] one time and even my wife commented on how horrible everything sounded. Movies automatically switched back to [None] so movies still seemed great. Puzzled me until I found the discrepancy.

Of course the ultimate experiment is the simplest. Borrow another amp to swap in and out. Make sure both have all EQ settings off so it is an equal comparison and that both are calibrated to the same sound levels with a db meter so you don't automatically prefer the louder one. Ignore minor nuances unless you can do a true, double blind, test but if one is actually as bad as you suspect because it is broken or what have you, then such a major difference should be apparent.

I went from an entry level RX-V461 (that I still use in another room)@ 100 watts per channel and weighed about 18 lbs total, to the RX-V2700 @ 140 watts per channel and weighs around 40 lbs.

The difference in performance is significant. The 2700 sounds much more powerful. More robust and full through the whole sound stage. The little 461 is very good though and for its price a very nice reciever. Maybe the old "you get what you pay for?"

Still sounds like the individual recordings are at fault for lack of bass.