Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Do Axiom M80's have a fuse?

Just curious if they have any sort of protection?

I don't think speakers without amplifiers would usually have that sort of thing.

Hi,
They don't have a fuse or other sort of protection. The less components in the audio signal the better.

I had a pair of Fisher speaker that had auto-resetting circuit breakers in them (probably a bi-metallic compound that would flex and break the connection if it got too hot, and then bend back when it cooled down). They were not amplified, it was there supposedly for the speaker's protection.

FINE.

my cerwin vega d8's have a fuse and thank god they do...

...last halloween I sure pushed them to their limits for a solid 8 hours straight. Woke up in the morning and had no sound out of my right channel...the fuse had blown.

hmm, in the faq section of the site under technical questions it mentioned something about a fuse.

jc...a fuse can affect sound/signal quality?

So another question I pose...how hard is it to abuse a m80 system to the point of damaging any of the speakers? I have never damaged a speaker yet(though I may have with the cerwin vegas if they didn't have that fuse), but I have been known to push speakers to ear damaging levels. lol. Sometimes I get into party mode and want the speaker to come with me

also the brand new cerwin vega xls 215 speakers that my dad has are fuse protected as well.

My previous speakers, Energy 22's had fuses in the back "to protect them against overdriving".

it is quite something to hear when they're playing at max level
and then the fuses blow and it's "instant sound vacuum".

i don't think the M80s need fuses, as long as they are not used with 10 W/ch amps with the gain at max (hard clipping).

JC: can you hear the difference, with or without?

Hi Mad,

It's almost impossible to "protect" speakers with a fuse arrangement because of the highly dynamic audio signals from some types of music and movie soundtracks, the problem being the fuse blowing on dynamic peaks when you the last thing you want is a cessation of the musical peak.

Besides, a fuse will not protect the drivers from dirty clipped amplifier signals. The M80s are capable of handling many hundreds of clean, unclipped amplifier watts on peak dynamic signals without damage or distortion. We've tested the M80s to beyond 700 watts per channel with no damage.

I suppose some speakers with poor peak power-handling characteristics might benefit from fusing, but the vast majority of high-quality speakers do not have fuses.
If Ian sees this post, he may want to weigh in on the issue of speaker fuses.

Regards,
Alan

This is a question for PS Audio . . . If I remember correctly, a few years back, they were selling gold plated fuses for electronic audio components (I think that they were originating from Germany). Again, if I remember correctly they had received a cryogenic treatment as well. PS claimed that they were making a big difference. I never tested them.

I have some vintage Cerwin Vegas, their first Sat/Sub system. From what I recall from the product literature, they also had fuse protection on the tweeter.

According to the CV product literature, my understanding is that it has an internal self resetting circuit breaker on the crossover network to protect the HF driver/tweeter from excessive distortion and transients.

The larger CV models have fuse protection for the entire speaker system.

Charles is fuse-protected?

k, that's good enough for me I'll be feeding them power from a Rotel RMB-1095 to start and then eventually was looking at getting a Emotiva XPA-5. I'm quite amazed the price point they hit with 600 watts per channel, at 4 ohm, all 5 channels driven simultaneously.

I still find it interesting that some manufacturers feel it's helpful to have a fuse(ex: cerwin vega). But I plan to feed my axioms clean power and won't be feeding them more then 700 ever, so I would agree, they aren't very necessary.

Check this out, it should put to rest all of your concerns.

http://www.axiomaudio.com/research_PowerTestRoom

hey thanks, very cool

::puts on best Ian voice::

Fuses? We don't need no stinkin fuses!

The XPA-5 is rated 200W @ 8ohm and 300W @ 4 ohm all channels driven. That being said, with a gain of 32 dB and the high sensitivity of the M80s you will never need to reach that power.
The max I ever reached was with the volume at about 6 out of 10 (music) on my pre/pro in a 5000 cubic ft room and it was almost unbearable loud. Very clean sound though; you'll be very happy with the XPA-5 in terms of power.

Sorry, I meant xpr-5.

Im looking forward to hearing them tho. Order should be placed im 3 or 4 weeks

Even better!!