Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Questions about the M80's

Hi Spoiler,

It's possible to overdrive any woofer--especially if you have any electronic bass boost engaged, like a +3 dB or +6 dB boost of the bass control on your AV receiver or preamp. But you say you were using the direct mode and bypassing any tone-control circuitry, right?

It's extremely unlikely to exceed the excursion limits with the M80s' woofers, or at least I've never heard it happen. And I've been present when several Axiom colleagues of mine shut down three of five 350-watt per channel monoblocks driving M80s (plus two subs, an EP500 and EP600). The SPL levels were insanely high and I had to go out on the deck outside the house after a couple of minutes.

Once you near the output limits of an amplifier running at very high SPLs, remember that only a 3-dB increase in output (subjectively, that sounds just "slightly louder") will require twice as much power from what the amp is producing. So if your amplifier was hitting 200 watts per channel on peaks, and you turned it up just 3 dB, you'd need 400 watts to prevent the thing from clipping.

In your case, I suspect it was occasional clipping of the Outlaw mono amps. If anyone is into clean, undistorted, extremely high sound levels, I recommend power amplifiers of 300 watts per channel or higher. We routinely test the M80s at 700 watts per channel and more.

Regards,

Hi Allan, I am cerrtainly into clean power! My Emo MPS1 delivers amazingly detailed power and authority with 300wpc into 4ohms.

I would also like to thank you and your team for delivering an outstanding product at a reasonable price point. I recently purchased your M80's and drive them with the EMO "Big Dogs" and the sound experience that I have achieved wether for music or movies is simply superb in all areas, the soundstage is huge with imaging I have only dreamed of(check out any of Poncho Sanchez recordings). Sounds like Poncho is playing the congas in my HT and that is no joke!

Once again , thank you!

Chris in Waterloo, On

Hi KlipschGuy (isn't it time to change your name?),

Thanks and that's great news that your Emo cranks out enough power for realistic sounding congas from your M80s.

You're in the town (Waterloo, Ont) where I went to college way back when (Wilfred Laurier University). There used to be a hotel there (Waterloo Hotel?) with a pub called The Circus Room, where everyone would go drinking. I'm talking the 1960s and draft (draught) beer was 15 cents a glass. . .

Enough nostalgia.

I'll pass your comments on to my colleagues.

Regards,