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Hey Oz, how are your M60s going? Have you found a final spot to place them? Let us know your impressions now after several days from having them.

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Hey Oz, how are your M60s going? Have you found a final spot to place them? Let us know your impressions now after several days from having them.

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Well this Saturday morning I changed things around. I set up the 60's in the
large room which is where I'm hoping to keep them after we get renevated and the new office furniture in place. This puts the speakers flanking either side of a stacked stone fireplace. It also places the speakers right in front of two windows. Below the windows are two floor vents. Since I do not want the speakers too close to the vents they have to be about 14 to 18 inches off the wall. I was a little concerned about not getting enough bass being so far off the wall. Actually this was not the case at all. There are medium weight full length drapes on the windows. These are usually left open because our lot is very private and we like to let as much light in as possible. The speakers sit about 8.5 ft apart from each other. When the room is final I will be able to get them 10 to 11 feet apart. But I figure 10 will probably be fine. Right now I cannot achieve that because the entertainment center is in the way. Sitting about 10 ft away from the speakers I felt the sound stage was pretty good. I just would like to be able to pick up that extra foot or foot and a half. With my old HK 150 watt rms 2 channel amp driving them they are plenty loud when the dial is set about 50% or 12:00. The sound was clear and much to my surprise there was plenty of bass support even at 18 inches from the wall. The bass was full and not the least bit boomy. I tried listening both with the drapes opened and closed. I felt like I liked the sound better with them closed but that could just be what my expectation was because I can't say I was actually hearing any difference. One problem I found was if I put the amp up to 60% or around 1:00 position I got some kind of distortion. It sounded like a clacking sound. I suspect that would be from exceeding the drivers maximum excursion. I not sure about this. If anyone has any ideas I'd like to hear them.
It might have been some extreme lows in the source material I'm not sure but I quickly lowered back to 50% and the speakers sounded clear as a bell again. I do not think this was the amp clipping. I don't think that would happen at 60 or 65% but I'm new to this kind of thing. I know with the old Bose 901's I used to turn the amp up to 75 percent somtimes because they were so inefficient and I would not notice any clipping. The other thing I found strange about this is when I did my first weekend of testing in the smaller room I'm almost positive I turned the amp to that level and did not hear that clacking sound. If anyone can shed some light please do. Don't get me wrong the speakers sounded great. I can't really see going up to that level I just had to try and see. I now know what everyone meant by the fact that in a room that size I could probably go with the 80's but I think the 60's will do the job and if I should ever decide to add a sub I think the sound will be killer. I could go with the 80's just to have a little more head room, but right now I'm leaning towards keeping the 60's. I really like the way they look better than the 80's anyway.(irrational I know)

I tested plenty of classical this weekend I was especially blown away by the CD "Message" by Peteris Vasks
also
some Trad. jazz
accoustic, folk, reggae and of course plenty of rock
Oh did I mention I didn't get much else done this weekend

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What I think he might have meant was that their would not be "that much" difference between the two in your particular application.

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I agree.

I can switch back and forth between my 60s and 80s that are parked right next to one another other using the exact same gear and can certainly tell a difference, and it's not *just* how loud they go either. The 60s are certainly great speakers but to me the 80s have that little bit of 'whoa!' factor that sets them apart, making them really awesome speakers....this is only *my* humble opinion though.

Congrats Oz....you'll be darn happy with your choice!

Great post Oz as always, glad that you find your M60s to your liking. I wish I would know the answer to your problem though. I have never noticed such with my system. I usually keep my volume level at my Rotel RC-1070 at 9-10 o'clock, as it already so loud. I have tried at 12" and it is sooooo loud without any distortion of any kind. I can only keep it there for up to ten seconds, as it painfully loud, and my nighbors would start calling the police.

I have my speakers exactely 18" from the wall. I have experienced a lot, and this is where the bass level seems to optimal for me. However, I have them only 6.5' apart, because of space limitations (a couch is in the way).

One more thing Oz: PICTURES!!!!

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I can switch back and forth between my 60s and 80s that are parked right next to one another

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Rick

this begs the question why do you have both the 60's and 80's right next to each other? I assume this was just during a testing phase?
oz

No I believe it was Bugbitten who did the test between the two whenever he was upgrading. I upgraded not too long after I bought my 60s and decided to keep them rather than send them back. Right now I'm not using the 60s, I have a Rotel RB 1080 2 ch amp connected to my H/K 635 to run the 4 ohm 80s as the front mains in a 5.1 setup and *had* the plans of using the 60s as rears in 7.1 whenever I finished my room addition...I don't have the room right now for a 7.1 system. I did play around with the 60s and the 80's using both the Rotel as power and straight through the H/K awhile back just to see the difference.

Whenever the room gets finished here soon I'm actually going to get another set of 80s for the 7.1 along with some more power and another processor using the 60s in another part of the house (bedroom) and will use the H/K.

Yep, I'm just as wishy washy now as I was the day I recieved my 50s that I never unboxed because I immediately upgraded to the 60s!

With everything going on at my place pictures would probably create more questions than answers. This weekend I am putting hard wood floors in my dining room. I had to empty the room this past weekend to pull up the carpeting and foam to get ready. I will try to get all the prep work done little by little each night after work so we are ready to go on Saturday. All of my furniture is all over the place to make room to do the work. Once the floor is in we will start changing the other tree rooms around. The office furniture is supposed to be here in 3 or 4 weeks. Then we can get serious and see if this plan is gonna fly.
I will try to get some decent pictures in the meantime.
oz

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Then we can get serious and see if this plan is gonna fly.

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Believe me, once the bug bites....it's gonna fly!

Are you still testing your 60's or have you made your choice? I was also curious to know how many watts your Rotel is delivering to the 60's?
oz

No actually I'm going to keep the 60s, I believe they will make for an awesome stereo package in either the bedroom or another room in the house. I've had the 60s and 80s for several months now, I got them sometime back in the winter.

With the 8 ohm load the Rotel RB 1080 will put out 200 wpc, the 80s and their 4 ohm load increases the wpc to 300. Both the 60s and the 80s sounds real sweet with this amp.