Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater decisions about m80's / vp150 or qs8's with m80's

For quite some time now I have been trying to decide between m80's, m60's or m22's. My room is only 13x17 with a 8 foot ceiling. But, within the next 3 to 5 years I will be moving into a new house and building a dedicated home theater room unless an existing room would work. I was thinking of 2 rows of 5 for seating. So while I know that the m22's would be fine in my current room I know that I will want the m80's eventually so why not get them now.

However, the frequency response graph for the m80's looks the worst of the 3 from 80Hz to 20kHz. If I had to rate them 1 to 3 (1 being the best), it would be: 1 = m60, 2 = m22, and 3 = m80. Look at 100Hz to 300Hz and past 15kHz on the m80 graph. I don't even know how Axiom can claim +/- 3dB from 35Hz to 20kHz for the m80's since it takes a huge nosedive -20dB a little after 15kHz. The m60's are nearly ruler flat from 100Hz to 15kHz and go down only about 8dB at that point, but are still not +/- 3dB from 35Hz to 20kHz. I understand that above 15kHz is probably not audible but many reviewers mention how great the m80's highs are. If I was choosing based only on the frequency response I would definitely choose the m60's. But, the m80's have more drivers so they would be better in a larger room than the m60's.

So my first question is: (a) How large of a room are we talking about where the m80's would fill the room better than the m60's?

The 250 Watt rating of the m60's is sufficient since on a 15 Amp household plug, from what I've read, most recivers can't put out more than 125 to 150 Watts anyway no matter how high they are rated. So the fact that the m80's are rated at 400 Watts seems almost meaningless. Maybe I'm just being a little to picky, and I will probably go with the m80's but this stuff got me thinking.

If I do go with the m80's I could only get either the qs8's or the vp150 right now based on my budget constraints. I have the Bose acoustimass double cubes that I am upgrading from. So, I could use the double cubes as surround speakers and go with the vp150 up front. Or, just have a 4.1 system missing a center channel, since I don't think that the Bose double cubes could even keep up with the m80's in front, it would just sound strange.

Second question: (b) Which would be sound better for now until I can save up to add either the missing qs8's or vp150?

Finally, I only have the Onkyo tx-sr503 reciever the $300 entry level 7.1 reciever. I was going to go with monoblocks to drive the m80's. But a few weeks ago when asking around in the forums about if this was necessary, several people said that my reciever might be okay due to the high sensitiviy of the m80's if I don't go overboard with the voluem. However, if that doesn't work I have a Kenwood kr-v8060 reciever that I could preout from the Onkyo to. This Kenwood (was about $550 at the time) is a 12 year old dolby prologic reciever and has 100 Watts across the front and 25 Watts for the surround speakers. Remember these dinosaurs. If the m80's are giving my Onkyo the problem I was thinking the Kenwood would be able to handle it and even if the Kenwood was having problems it has an impedence switch that I could use as a last resort until I can save up for some monoblocks.

Last question: (c) Has anyone sent preouts to a reciever before? Will it work okay?

I was going to just send the preout from the Onkyo to the cd player input on the Kenwood and use the volume on the Kenwood to set the speaker levels up initially and then leave it alone only using the Onkyo volume after that.

Thanks in advance for any replies. I am getting very close to a purchase now.

- Nick

Nick, in my view (a) is pretty much impossible to answer with any precision. There're factors besides just the size of the room, and besides, the only spot that necessarily has to be "filled" adequately is the one where your ears are. Maybe just leave it that the M80s can play a little more loudly with low distortion if other factors remain equal.

On (b), if you mean would you get more benefit from surround speakers or a center speaker if you couldn't get both immediately, in my view go with the QSs. The main speakers can do a good job forming a "phantom" center image if no real speaker is there. Real surround speakers are needed for a good surround effect, so they do add something extra.

On (c), that should work, although it's unclear if there's enough difference to bother. The gain of the 8060 amplifier section is probably different from that of the amplifiers in the 503, but could presumably be equalized when calibrating speaker levels.

I agree with John on a) and b). For c), I believe another complication would be trying to get your phase right when running your fronts through 2 receivers in series. The extra receiver is bound to add at least a little delay. This can be fixed, but I've never tried adjusting two receivers for phase/speaker distance at the same time before.

Always a tuff decision, but it biols down the following IMHO:

1)Likelyhood of moving your system to a bigger room at some point. (some consider this a once in 20 year purchase some change every couple of years).

Most people will move and often upgrade their living condictions which may include a bigger room for your home theater. This is a good argument for for M80s.

M60's with VP150, Q8s and an EP500 is going to work extremely well in about any room short of huge. You'll also have more and cheaper options for quality receivers.

M22s I personally don't see as that great an option except in perhaps a bedroom system or if you are on a really tight budget. Even then I would probably go with M3's, VP100, Q4s and a rocket 10'.

That is my take anyway.

Regarding the graph of the M80s this thread might help.