bdpf,
Welcome to the forum. Your M80s are capable of handling 1100-1200W continously as tested by Axiom, and I can tell you first hand that they can produce prodigious SPLs without distortion (I run them with the A1400-8). It sounds to me that your are getting clipping distortion when turning up your receiver too high. You can damage the tweeters in the M80s that way so I would not recommend doing this. Your receiver should be able to provide measured spl of 75-85dB in your room without distortion.Remember that each 3dB increase in volume will require twice more power from your receiver even though the difference you hear may be small. If you are getting distortion at 85dB as well, unloading some of the power requirement to sub(s) will help the internal amps of your receiver to better reproduce transient dynamic peaks. Wid, JohnK, and Murph have also made excellent points (some of which should be a sticky but there is no provison for this here, unfortunately).
Last edited by ihifi; 01/28/10 04:47 PM.
