Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Looking for a 5.1 system (speakers + receiver)

Do you mind explaining why the XPA-5 doesn't work well with the M80's? And what 2-channel amp would you recommend that would go well with the M80's?

Escaron, you appear to be paying too much attention to relatively small differences in maximum power capability rather than what is actually used in home listening(1 watt for a comfortably loud level and rarely if ever more than around 100 watts even for split-second peaks on the most dynamic listening material). Any of the typical home receivers rated anywhere in the 100-150 watt area(e.g. the 3808 or Onkyo 876)will "really drive" any of the Axioms, including the M80s which are a little more sensitive and require less power than the others.

Escaron,

Some Emotiva models have been known to shut down and go into protect mode with the M80's, I am not sure if the xpa-5 is one of those models. I know there are happy Emotiva/Axiom owners out there.

Alright, well I finally ordered my system. I decided to go with the two M80s in the end, along with the EP500, QS8 and the VP150. It's not often that I buy new speakers so I felt that it might be a long time before I upgrade to 7.1 and even longer before I will get different speakers period, might as well get something now that I will be proud to own and listen to.

Thnx for all the help and advice I received in this thread thus far. Unfortunately I'm still all over the place in terms of receiver + amp selection. I was dead set on the Emotiva XPA-5 until people mentioned that Emotiva and Axiom don't play well together which I'm having a hard time understanding since I get nothing but praise from just about every other speaker owner about their Emotiva amps. Unless something major changes I'll probably end up buying the Denon 2809 from FS - for use as a pre/pro - (they have it for $200 off for the next week which puts it at $999CAD). I know this is expensive for you US guys (this is what you usually pay for the 3808) but I couldn't find a better deal anywhere else, most places I called just told me that it's a discontinued model and they no longer carry it. Odly enough, I was able to find a 3808 demo model but it's $300 + the software update for Dynamic EQ more than the 2809, which although not totally out of my price range is a little much considering I don't really need the extra power for a pre/pro.

As for the amp, I'm still really strongly leaning towards the XPA-5, I just can't see why it would have any issues with the 4ohm M80's. Just about everything else that's 5 channels (NAD or Outlaw) is out of my price range. Unless I go with a 2 channel amp or monoblocks just for the fronts there's no way I can fit into my budget.

I did a quick search and I came up with these 3 threads that talk about the xpa-5. You might find some of this information useful.

http://www.axiomaudio.com/boards/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=207493

http://www.axiomaudio.com/boards/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=223727

http://www.axiomaudio.com/boards/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=207398&fpart=1

Cheers!

Congrats Escaron. You certainly won't be dissapointed with your choice. Even after a year of listening to my M80 system I am still amazed by the sound.

Go ahead and pick up that Dennon, but hold off on the prepro. Try cranking the Dennon and see if you can actually hear any distortion.

Right on, good to hear about the order. What finish did you end up going with?

For the finish I just went with regular black oak, finish and speaker aesthetics aren't really a big priority for me.

I did do a lot of reading last night, both here and on the Emotiva forums regarding the whole M80v2 and Emotiva amps debate. It's weird how this has been reported for almost several years now and no one still has a definitive answer as to what is going on. It seems like most if not all of the cases of powering down occur with either the older MPS-1/2 or the newer XPA-2. I don't believe it has been reported with an XPA-3/5 yet or the older LPA-1, which of course doesn't mean that it won't happen. It seems like all the new amplifiers, starting with the MPS-2 don't have a current limiter in them and will try to draw as much as they can. From what I understood (and I'm not even close to an electrical expert) is that the reason the issue is more prevalent with the XPA-2 is that it has higher voltage rails compared to the other XPA amps, and when the M80's do dip below 4 ohms it actually tries to draw the current whereas other models would just run out of power. And of course the reason that other amps, even low quality receivers manage to run the M80s fine is that supposedly they all feature a current limiter that helps when the M80s dip to low impedance (which, to add to the confusion, different people and impedance curves contest whether this does or doesn't happen)

I've also seen posts of people suggesting that if you set your crossover to 50hz or higher you shouldn't have issues because the impedance dips occur below that however it seems as if different curves the show the dips at different areas and no one has been able confirm any of it.

All in all, it seems like I'm basically at the mercy of the chance as to weather my system will or will not exhibit these issues.

I don't pretend to know who is right and who is wrong in the long standing discussion of Emotiva vs. Axiom M80s. However, just to make sure you are reading both sides of the story, there are some who would provide evidence that the M80 design does not drop below 4 Ohm at any frequency.



http://www.soundstagemagazine.com/measurements/axiom_m80v2/

I'm not saying that there's something wrong with the design of the M80s or whether they do actually drop below 4ohm. It's just clear that for some reason the Emotivas have problems with them. I have no clue as to why since according to both sides they should work perfectly fine together. The problem is I'm not sure I want to risk the money to find out if the XPA-5 will work well with the M80s. If I lived in the US then maybe yes, but it's so expensive to get the XPA-5 shipped to Canada to begin with and then to have to ship it back to Emotiva for a refund I would lose probably like $300 just doing that.

I was considering ditching the Axioms and just going with Emotiva's offering for speakers but with a decent sub from SVS it just becomes too expensive. I figure I'll stick with the Axioms and look for another amp from Outlaw or NAD that can power the M80s. What do people think of the Outlaw 2200 Monoblocks (one for each tower) and then letting a Denon 2809 handle the center and surrounds?