"To thine own self be true."
You've got to ask yourself, "Even if these M60's are fantastic, am I going to play the 'what-if' game"?
For me, the answer was yes. I knew that I just had to have the M80's because otherwise I'd always wonder what they were like. I knew that if I bought M60's, that in 6 months or a year I'd be right back on Axiom's site trying to convince myself to order M80's, and then stuck wondering what to do with a pair of M60's. A year later, when the $300 is irrelevant, I'm still absolutely thrilled with my M80's. The M60's are fantastic speakers too, but would I be as happy? Knowning myself, I would not.
This is pretty much where my wife is coming from. She knows me better than anyone, she just knows that when something is bugging me I have a hard time letting it go. I think she would rather me spend $300 now instead of buying new again in 4 or 5 months from now.
That said, are you 100% sure that the Onkyo won't work with 4-ohm speakers? Onkyos usually have very robust amplification sections, and I thought that Onkyo (and Denon) were two of the most recommended brands for driving M80's. I could be wrong. Keep in mind that the M80's may set of an inflamation of upgradeitis. It did for me.
I think it is the opposite, Onkyo is a brand which Axiom does not recommend for use with the M80s. I do not know if that was testing with older models or the new models like my 805. The Onkyo manual does state:
4 ohms:
Select if the impedance of any
speaker is 4 ohms or more but
less than 6.
6 ohms:
Select if the impedances of all
speakers are between 6 and
16 ohms.
So I think it can handle them, just not sure if it would have issues or not. I am not even sure what setting I would use since I would have speakers of each (4ohm,6ohm,8ohm)
But as the other's have said, since your M60's have already shipped, you might as well set them up and listen to them. You've got 30 days to make up your mind. You may decide that they're all you'll ever want.
In my case, I gambled that my c2002 Pioneer Elite AVR would be able to drive them. It could not at 'loud' volumes. Clipping and distortion. Another $500 to Emotiva solved that problem.
I am re-wiring and painting my room, so I will not be able to set up or test much for a few weeks. Part of me wants to hook up the M60s and test, while part of me wants to just upgrade to the M80s so I will be all ready to go once I am up and running again in about two weeks.
Now here is where you started me back on a path I was looking at before. I almost thought about getting the M80s in my original order with the plan of getting a amp later this year around Christmas time. I am pretty much a noobie when it comes to amps so this might be a stupid question so bare with me. Could I have an amp run fronts and centers maybe and let the Onkyo handler the rest. Would this get me away from the issue with the Onkyo, if I do have one. Is this even possible or something people do?
