Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Adding an Amplifier to the M80

I feel that my pioneer receiver does a pretty good job considering that is pumping out 120W at 6-ohms. However, I feel that I need more power to kick more bass. The Highs and Mids sound perfect, but its lacking a bit of the lows. Now, I dont want to get more volume, I want to get performance and moderate levels.
With the addition of the NAD 218THX amplifier, will I get more authorative sonds live drums, guitars, etc with the addition of base? Again, Im not looking for alot of volume, but quality.
Thanks

Hello Galo,

I always tell folks to buy as much power as they can afford, so you needn't ever worry about pushing your amp into incipient clipping, or higher distortion levels that occur as an amplifier approaches its output limits.

I don't know the size of your room, what sort of levels you like and all the other variables that intersect when you talk of power demands and Sound Pressure Levels in a room, but another approach would be to add a subwoofer. That way, you'll get dedicated low-frequency oomph and an extra 175 or 200 watts for deep bass, which is where most of the amplifier power is used. Then your Pioneer can easily handle any upper bass, midrange and high-frequency power output demands, which, compared to low bass, are fairly modest.

Regards,

Hi Galo,
Just a quick question. I've been looking at the Pioneer Elite receivers, (more for a "dream system" setup than for actual purchase; depends on $) . What model do you have? Are you happy with it? Did you compare it to other receivers prior to your purchase, and how do you think it compared?

Thanks

Galo, your Pioneer receiver provides ample quantity and quality of power for your M80s. More power won't give you more bass, only the woofers or a subwoofer control that. Since the M80 is already notable for its strong bass, it may be that you're looking for an unnaturally inflated level of bass.

Chris
The model that I have is a Pioneer Elite VSX-27TX. Its a two year old model. The quality of receiver is very good, but then again this is my first receiver. Pioneer's line of Elite is excellent and never fails (actually, I had a problem with a board in the receiver..my DTS was not working..but waranty took care of that). The new line of receivers look very nice since it has more power, is THX Ultra certified and allows you to run your components video through the receiver. Prior to my purchase, I did not test out other receivers cause I got a good deal on the pioneer (I use to work in electronics retail while I was in college). Now Im contemplating the fact to get a NAD 218THX amplifier and using my pioneer elite as a sub-amp so that I can give more power to my baby's (M80's). But so far Im very happy and people say...you must be crazy to put more power. If you ahve any questions, let me know.

By the way, these speakers are night and day different than my Polk RT800's!!

Thanks for the reply.
I was looking at the 49TX (I think) which is THX Ultra 2, and has a neat auto-calibrationfeature to measure speaker distances, SPLs etc. It looks nice, but I won't be able to try it unless I actually buy it. List price is $4000! So, I'll probably keep saving.

I guess if the processing is good, I could start off with a good receiver (like you did) and buy extra amps later if I could afford to.

How about those nOrh monoblocks everyone's been talking about?