Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Strata Mini's -vs- M80's

In the words of Mojo ...1/2 watt.

On that note, for those interested, I talked to him today and he is doing well. He has been having the kitchen/main floor of his house renovated over the summer.

Great, so it sounds like receiver alone should be fine. What about when they talk about some receivers sounding "warmer" etc? Or is that only an issue when it's decoding digital signal? In analog context it's just a straight pass through and power so there's very little difference in receivers?

Considering that I'm already concerned about the 80's being too loud for day to day listening I can't imagine driving them hard enough to tax anything.

Anyone auditioned the 80's and 60's to know the difference? Given that I like the 60's already will I enjoy the 80's even more for 2 channel? Or are they just capable of being louder?

By the way, I realize I'm asking crazy questions and bringing up a lot of possibilities. My ears are the only ones that will know for sure. But I'm always curious about others experiences.

-Nick

May I refer you to this thread re M60 M80 comparison

So far as amp/receivers go I tend to believe more along the lines they all pretty much sound the same from the well known manufacturers, especially as you stated when using analog inputs.

Sweet, thanks for the comparison.

-Nick

Nick, the object of amplification is transparency without the addition of an audible sonic characteristic. Those who make claims of hearing "warmth" or any other such characteristics(with controls set flat)haven't grasped the fact that you(meaning anyone)can't simply "Just trust your ears".

Excuse me being dense...What does that mean? If I think something sounds warm it's actually me hearing things?

Even if you were listening to two speakers or two receivers at once and detected a difference? Weird.

-Nick

Personal taste vs. scientific experimentation maybe? Chalk it up to the fact that we (humans) have a hard time describing things in complete factual ways exactly the same as the next person. We interject emotion (even into audio) as to how we perceive sound. We may even have differences in our own physical abilities to hear things the same... Hearing damage, larger ears, smaller ears, elvish ears.... Oh wait... Familiarity with certain sounds makes us more or less "sensitive" to certain sound frequencies...

If you can take a speaker and set it up in a room that doesn't "color" the sound, and you set all of the controls to be flat, the target goal is to have a perfectly even/flat frequency response out of the speaker. That is the ideal...

However, again, interject that we are human and not a bunch of carbon-based SPL meters with legs running around, and we inject our own human skew or perceptions into the audio. That is where the phrase "you can't always trust your ears" or some variant of that comes in. So no, you aren't dense, but yes, in some case you ARE hearing things... That is your personal interpretation of what something should sound like, or some frequency bias due to your room acoustics, etc... Heck, I know that my room is HORRIBLY injecting and removing frequency ranges from my setup. I have just been to busy (and/or lazy) to figure it all out since I think that my speakers still sound great. Some day I'll make the room stop battling with them and they will sound awesome...

Nick, you can be sure that the "something" that sounds warm isn't the receiver when controls are set flat and the other variables, especially precise sound level, are controlled for. Properly controlled blind listening illustrates that competently designed power units don't add an audible sonic coloring. They simply don't have the substantial deviation from flat frequency response that would have to exist for them to cause sound to be "warm", "bright" or whatever.

JohnK, do you still have that link you posted in the past from the amp shootout in Home Stereo Review (I think was the magazine?) It was an old article but an amazing read and right on topic for this discussion.