Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Value Reciever for Amps

I think what's happening here is he's (she's?) gone from 800 cu ft to 7000+. He's gone from a standing wave jungle to almost no standing waves. He was used to the walls bending and now there's no boom. Like Doug Schneider. I read his reviews and his walls are always bending. If his walls aren't bending, the speakers under review must suck...lol! When I listen to the same tunes, all I get is lovely smooth bass and no boom!

Regarding buying a receiver with pre-outs and adding external amplification, not all pre-amps are the same. I don't know if any of the big name receivers have quality pre-amps. I recently discovered this and now I am on the hunt for more pristine electronics. The electronics have become the limiting factor in both of my v4 systems.

So here's my upgrade plan. Because really, I think 90 watts just isn't enough for 7,500 cubic feet.

Step 1, new PrePro and 5 channel amp. For the PrePro I'm leaning toward Emotiva. Maybe Marantz.

For the amp Axiom ADA-1000... or maybe Emotiva to be matchy-matchy with the pre-pro.

Step 2, (maybe next year) replace the M22s with a set of M60s or maybe M80s.

Ian, if you're reading this, Axiom needs a PrePro. Even if you were simply a vendor for, or re-branded, someone else's... If you had one I simply would have ordered it with the ADA and been done with it. Because I know and trust Axiom.

But as it stands I've had to leave the Axiom eco-system for a component and now I'm looking at other vendors. They have amps too... and wouldn't it be nice if the Amp and the PP matched?

Thanks all
Byron Armstrong

They used to sell another company's receivers back in the day. Was it Sherwood? This was before they offered their own amps, so there was no matching to worry about, and it was just a way to--like you want--keep it one simple transaction. I was personally never tempted because I was looking at other features at the time.

I'm considering getting an Anthem AV processor, but I could never justify the cost of their amplifiers. So much more bang for the buck with Axiom. I can't see that their black box is that much more attractive than Axiom's.

Years back, I did consider Emotiva. I owned an amp by them, but I didn't feel like I was getting that much more than I was getting out of my receiver. When I was looking at a pre-pro, I entertained the idea, but it seemed like their product was ever fully-baked, so I gave up on the idea. I'm not sure where they stand now. I'm a little wary of smaller, less-established companies trying to do sophisticated electronics. Even Oppo, which had a stellar name, fell short of my expectations. I regularly had issues playing Blu-rays, as they weren't nearly as fast updating their code as Sony with their PS3, so I would invariably need to use that as my player.

I wouldn't want to see Axiom get into that space, at least not without a sizable team dedicated just to that product line.

One thing I would like to see for the industry is speaker profiles that can be loaded onto your receiver that could take the place of any outboard DSP control. It would be cool to have an open standard that allows every loudspeaker manufacturer to tailor the performance of each of their speakers electronically, without them having to release their own product to do it.

Back in the 80's, I liked my gear to match and be all "cool" looking. The more lights the better. Now, my gear mostly sits in a media closet or behind dark tinted glass doors so looks are of a tertiary concern!

I also believe in the adage of "you get what you pay for" and agree about the Emotiva sentiment which is why I have never pulled the trigger. Judging from their forums, it takes a while for their products to be fully baked which is why I don't have a problem recommending their v2 or v3 offerings that aren't on the bleeding edge of new standards and tech.

When it comes to their amps, you need to look beyond their RMS ratings and take a closer look at their total dynamic headroom and the size/weight of the toroidal transformer as an indication of true power. For example, a $499USD A-500 5-channel amp is "rated" at 110wpc but weighs only 29 lbs. The ADA-1000 cost 2x as much but weighs 44lbs! You would need to move up to the Emotiva XPA-5 (at $1599USD/$2100CAD) to probably get similar performance as the ADA-1000...

Good luck with your upgrade :-)

This reminds me of a story from a snooty British audio mag in the 1980's - an integrated amp was reviewed and viciously panned as being horrible, one area the reviewers focused on was the lack of weight of the unit. The manufacturer then changed the model number slightly, did not change any of the electronics, bolted a brick inside and resubmitted for review. The magazine had nothing but glowing praise for how great the unit was and how the mfg'er had learned and built a better amp!

Needless to say when the truth was revealed the magazine suffered incredibly and disappeared within a year!

You're right about the brick (size of toroid). Is that toroid reflective of the power delivered to the speakers? You have to look at the toroid in conjunction with the output components and how they are biased. And it's not about the size of the output caps either. Most don't understand that too much capacitance is not a good thing.

But it's not all about average or dynamic output power. It's about having enough technical knowledge of the audio domain to know how to build those things into the design that will evoke emotion from the listener. Some stuff is very basic that most designers get wrong anyway. Stuff like noise-free design for example. Other stuff is gained by experience - like the use of certain kinds of component materials. It's also about having the time to iterate through research and testing.

It boils down to who do you trust because we really don't have good specs to guide us and anyone can put out a spec sheet in this industry that may not reflect reality.

Snazzed, smart man! For you I really recommend M100v4. I have them as well as M5s and M3s and love them.

I agree Axiom ought to offer pre/pros but they have to be at the same price point as a mid-grade receiver. And they have to be pristine.