Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners M60 vs. M80

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some advice on people with small/mid-sized rooms. I have a room which is 12'9"x18'7" and am trying to figure out if I should run M60 or M80 fronts. I'm leaning towards the M80's but am wondering if they will create to strong of a front mix.

I guess that would depend on how loud you like to listen. A few reviews have said the M80's need to be pushed a little louder to get the sam e detail as the 60's. My vote is for the 60's, I am running M22's in a room 12 X 27' with the listening area at the 16' mark of the longer spec. the 22's work very well also. Just another option.

I owned 60's for two years and just upgraded to 80's, I was very very happy with the 60's. Keep in mind my room is around 900sq ft compared to your 240sq ft room. The 60's did a great job in my large space. I guess you could say peer preasure got the best of me.

About the room size, 15'6" is the exterior dimension of the concrete foundation wall. I had to decrease the dimension to account for sheeting material and concrete within the wall.

The dark side of peer pressure may push me over to the M80's, that and I sometimes just like things loud.

Like I said in your PM, I think 80s with dual M22s would certainly rock the place.

If you can't swing the vertical tower speaker (M60 or M80) I think dual M22s would be the next best thing.

I have looked at using an M60 as a centre channel, my only concern is placement of it until I get an acoustically invisible screen and projector. That's probably a year or so down the road. Because of this I'll probably go with the dual M22's for centres, they'll give me the punch I want and the vocal clarity, plus I will have more options for tweeking the placement on both a front projector and standard television.

Hutz....is that a pic of your setup??? Did you also get some M80's?? Sweet looking setup. I'm jealous.

I need another "energy rebate" from the government right about now

Ctown,

That is mdrews setup (which is basically what my dream setup is, at least I have the M22s to start with!)

My setup can be viewed here

It is my honest belief that the M80's will be a bit too much for that room size. I have M80's in a 22 by 12, and I find that to get them to sound their best, I have to play them quite loud, too loud for the room size, and I have to be very far back from them.

My guess is that M60's would suit you much better.

Also to note: M60's are easier to drive than M80's due to 8 Znom as opposed to 4 Znom of M80's.

Thanks, for the input everyone. From the sounds of things, I will run M22 centes in parallel with M60's for my fronts.

I've I have plenty of power, would the M80's be a better choice due to 4 ohms impedence?

Quote:

---

I've I have plenty of power, would the M80's be a better choice due to 4 ohms impedence?

---

The 80's would not neccesarily be a better choice because you have plenty of power to drive them, Imo the size of your room and use should determine what speaker you choose.

Although I haven't purchased any Axioms yet, I have run through the Home Theater Wizard a couple of times.

On paper my dedicated theater room is 14-8 W x 21-4 L with a ceiling height of 9-2. That's only 313 square feet, but almost 2900 cubic feet of volume. By the HTW, that is barely considered a "large" room, but the recommendation for a 7.1 system is for M60s, a VP150, 4-QS8s, and the EP500. Your type of movie/music listening will change what is recommended, too. And from what I'm reading here, you're probably wasting money by going with the M80 unless you've got a really long room (>25') and an amp that likes 4-ohm loads.

I will be running a pre/pro combo of some sort (in the 200WPC range), so power won't be a problem. But I haven't figured out which one yet. That's a question I need to ask in another thread.

Best of luck in your decision.

It's interesting and yet a little confusing to me what some of you are saying about the M60s vs. the M80s.

One person said that the M60s are "easier to drive" due to their higher impedance. Take note however that the M80s are 2 dB more efficient. If you run the math, you almost need the same amount of current to run the M80s as the M60s for the same SPL. The difference in drive current may matter on a tube amp but the majority of solid state amps should not care unless you are trying to fill a very large room or listen at extremely high SPLs.

Another person said that the M60s are a better bet due to the smaller room size. Now I've never heard the M60s but don't the M80s provide better imaging and greater clarity due to a lower cross-over for the mid-range, a higher cross-over on the tweeter and the dual mid-ranges and tweeters?

Am I missing something on these two points?

Mo, I don't have any worthwhile comments about the relative crossover frequencies, but I've commented several times in the past about the effect of the slightly higher sensitivity of the M80s on the relative current requirements at a given sound level. I just did a brief calculation(details supplied upon unlikely request)using the reported 2dB sensitivity difference. For example, at a sound peak which required 100 watts for the M60s, about 63 watts would be required for the M80s at the same sound level. The calculated current for the M60s would be 3.53 amperes for the peak and 3.97 amperes for the M80s, not a major difference. It can also be noted that if the difference in sensitivities was exactly 3dB that the current requirements for the two speakers would be identical, and if the 4 ohm speaker was more than 3dB higher in sensitivity(not an unknown situation)that it would use less current than the 8 ohm speaker and therefore could be said to be "easier to drive".