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.
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?
