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

I have been doing a ridiculous amount of research this past couple of months and have found my self zeroing in Axiom speakers. I am looking for some speakers that are great for music and to impress the friends. I'm not so much into home theatre as much as I really want my music to sound clean, powerful and pristine. I love that feeling of just getting taken away with the music with a few beers on the couch... awww, I'm going to miss college. I listen to alot of classic rock(Pink floyd, beatles, steely dan, etc). I actually have a pretty large vinyl collection and enjoy those as well as digital music(there really is something to that whole analog is better cult. There's just something about putting down that needle.) I want to eventually build this into a surround theatre, but for now just want great stereo speakers. I'm just getting out of college and have bought a house(1800 sq ft). The living room in the house is somewhat connected the kitchen and is pretty open but not that big. It's about 18x12 with hardwood floors and a few big glass windows. Its not really ideal for a home theatre and will require alot of planning of furniture placement. I don't have unlimited money and really am trying to get the best bang for the buck as I need to save for other things.
1)Are the M80's going to be too much for this room and will they be too hard to tame in less than ideal conditions? I have seen other people in these posts say that m60's are easier to work with.
2)I am also considering the Harmon Kardon AVR645 as i like its features. I have read in other posts that this will work fine with M80's. My question is how loud will they go with these? If I went for seperates would there be an audible difference and improvement?

Your situation sounds similar to mine. After 4 months of reading online, I went with an M80 setup. My house is also 1800 sq feet and my living room is like yours except carpeted and one window and vaulted ceiling.

I drove my setup for the first time yesterday with an LMC/LPA combo. I can say it was loud and very clean. I am still playing with the settings on the pre/pro but so far I am totally impressed. One thing I really enjoyed was hearing DD 5.1 effects just watching Discovery HD.

I was able to drive the speakers to insane SPL (hearing was distorting) for about an hour before the thermal kicked in on the amp. The only distortion I noticed was during an explosion scene, it seemed the woofers were overloading. I quickly turned it down. After some more playing around I think this is more related to the very high SPLs and my crossover settings are not correct yet for HT.

Anyway, I am happy with the setup so far and will be doing some more tweaking when I get home from work.

I just checked out the LMC/LPA combo and have to say it looks nice. I'll have to consider this. So this volume that it shut down was when your hearing was distorting? I'm guessing thats pretty loud. I' m wondering though if that might be a volume I might want sometime for a "get together" with some friends? Or is it just ridiculous volume were talking about?

I have had the M80s going on 4 years now. They are a wonderful speaker for a music system, which is how mine are used. They are in a room that is about the same size as yours and they do a fine job. My M80s are powered buy a Rotel RB 1080 amp (never shut it down either) and they can play at insane levels in my room. As a matter of fact my ears give out long before my amp does.

You should be good to go running the HK 635 with the M80s. With it having pre outs you could always add an amp at a later date if needed or desired.

I just don't think that you can go wrong with the 80s. If you buy the 60s, you'll always wonder if you should have gotten the 80s.

Just one man's opinion.

Just got my 80s today. Hooked them up with two monoblocks. Great sound - big sound although couldn't turn up high enough. This will be the weekend ! I couldn't find anything better even at this price point. I did a lot of research and read reviews staying up late nights. Then feeling drowsy through work the next day. Happy searching.

Hi Scuffer... I got a pair of Outlaw mono's to replace the 3805's amp sections and I couldn't be happier. Cleaner output at higher volumes. I've had them for about a year, and have had no issues. I live in a single family home alone (for now)... so I can go nuts with volume levels when I choose to...well, especially after a few drinks with friends over! The amps always handle what I throw at them ... no shutdowns to date. They'll get hot when I push 'em, but they apparently can take it. I'd make sure they have descent ventilation.

The only recommendation I would make with the M80's is to make sure you set your crossover to 60 or 80hz when pumping the amps at high volumes (assuming you have a sub).


I had the M80's set to large when playing at high levels (about 110 db's at 12 feet) and heard the woofers overdriving on 2 different occasions (it's a POP-ing sound...NOT fun to hear).

Using the crossover, however, took care of it.

Thats the kind information I like to hear. If it really makes a difference than I guess I'll go for the amps. "Popping" huh, thats no good. Why was that happening? Was it running out of power? Thats really good too know. Makes sense that you would want to let the receiver know to tell the front speakers "hey, we got somebody to help you out and ease the load in those low spots".
How big is your room? Do you find 110 to be loud enough for you? If I know my db scale right, that should pretty dang loud, right?

110db is PLENTY loud! I heard no distortion at that level either, but on the other hand, more than a few minutes at that level is enough for me. The actual listening area is fairly small: 12 X 15 with the left side opening out about 25 ft.

Why did the woofer overdrive happen? It's not a constant "popping"... only on bass drum beats for instance, when at very high volumes. My OPINION is (and others pls chime in if you disagree) is that the monos are delivering what I asking them to, but that I'm exceeding the excursion limits of this particular 6.5" woofer design below the 60 - 80hz area when set to large(Direct mode, btw). Am I correct in this assumption?