Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners What components for an M3 stereo system?

Did you read the description?

As long as it hums along with the left, it might not be so bad.

I wasn't intending on buying it right now, so I didn't read about it.

I got an extra paycheck this month (since I get paid once every 2 weeks, there's 2 months a year with 3 paydays), and I already spent it, then my car decided to break down. There seems to be a law about used cars and extra paychecks....

It's like, I spent about $1200 on it last summer to get the air conditioner working again. So, this year, it's jealous because I wasn't spending any money on it, so, it blew out the radiator and fans on a really hot day, when I was almost broke, just to get even....

No, but I looked at the pretty pictures.

Here's a thought. Buy this one, and an ugly one (same model), that works, then perform major surgery and combine the 2.

Old guts out. New guts in!

I found this on the Marantz M-CR603 receiver/cd player. I'm not sure what the difference is between rated and effective output is, but isn't 10% harmonic distortion a little much, or is this normal?

Rated output
(1 kHz, total harmonic distortion 0.7 %, 8 Ohms) 40 W + 40 W
(1 kHz, total harmonic distortion 0.7 %, 6 Ohms) 50 W + 50 W

Effective maximum output
(1 kHz, total harmonic distortion 10 %, 8 Ohms) 50 W + 50 W
(1 kHz, total harmonic distortion 10 %, 6 Ohms) 60 W + 60 W

Wow. That's really horrible.

Hi Cat,

That's what manufacturers did (and continue to do) to inflate the power output ratings--measure the output at very high distortion levels. I'm surprised that Marantz was honest enough to actually specify 10% distortion ratings; of course that's totally unacceptable for hi-fi purposes. Those sorts of specs were quite common on the power output ratings for after-market car audio in-dash receivers, whose real power output was about 3.2 watts per channel. Car audio builders would advertise the power output as 15 or 20 watts per channel (not quoting the distortion at those levels which would be at least 10% or more) to inflate the power output ratings.

Even now, some manufacturers of AV receivers (Onkyo and Yamaha, to mention two) continue to quote the bogus "dynamic power output" specs, which will yield huge power output levels because they don't state the distortion. The latter may be as high as 20% or more.

Regards,
Alan

That's pretty much what happens when you push any amp too far. When a waveform's shape is changed (like with the onset of clipping) it causes harmonic distortion.

Also note that the power output is measured at only a single frequency, 1 kHz, instead of across the audible spectrum, 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Measuring power output at a single frequency is another ruse to inflate power output.

As to the "effective power output" it's not a term that was in common usage. It seems to mean, "just crank up the sucker into the region of highly audible distortion, and measure what it puts out."

Our hearing is generally able to detect distortion with musical programming once it reaches the level 1% to 3%.

Alan

So, given all of the above ^^^, I take it I should stay away from this particular Marantz unit, if I want crisp, clear, undistorted sound at higher volume. (Amazing what $700 won't buy you.) I'm almost thinking about 2 outlaw mono-blocks instead, along with a pre-amp and a CD player, yada, yada, yada. Surely life gets easier than this.