Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Out with the old and in with the new

Andrew, you're the MAN! I reported the LED on the ADA-1000 was performing LASIK on my cornea. The LED is now a soothing blue like my Pioneer. Very agile, my remote audio friend. Thank you, thank you!

Bman, there is a fuse on the ADA. It's integrated into the AC socket...on the bottom.

Nice. Looking forward to your thoughts on the 1500 driving M5s!

On the 1500 driving M5s, I am seriously concerned about cranking any more than I have because the M5s might come unglued. Recall my M5 set-up is 2-channel only. That HP woofer, as amazing as it is, might vaporize if I pump more into it. I will say this: Renee Olstead's Hit The Road Jack on the M5s is not shutting down the 1500 but it does shut down the 1000. By that time, the HP woofer is working too hard and could use a sub. My ears wouldn't be able to take that too long either. Now with a sub, the 1000/M5 combo could certainly go further. I haven't tried that yet.

Bman, you should be very happy with the 1000/M5 combo. I very much doubt you need more SPL but if you did, you'd also need more speaker than the M5.

I've come to a rapid conclusion with my living room 2-channel system. My mid-grade audiophile Pioneer is very capable of reaching the SPL I need. Now, if I wanted to open the windows and get the neighborhood rocking, I'd have to use a sub with the M5/1000 combo. Perhaps the M5/sub combo can take even more amp than the 1000 but I don't know that at this point.

One thought I had would be the ADA mated to a Chromecast Audio. Those two alone may be enough for some people. No bass, treble or balance controls but maybe those aren't needed for certain applications.

As for the M100s, I ran them 2-channel with the 1000 and shut it down quite easily long before the Onk's pre-amp was at max. It was the bass peaks on Renee's song that shut the 1000 down. The 1500 was a completely different story. I could not shut it down in 2-channel with Renee's song. I put my ear muffs on and drove the M100s to 113dB peaks at 13 feet away. The peak may of course have been higher because my SPL meter's sampling rate is quite limited. At that point my Onk was cranked and I'm pretty darned sure it couldn't reproduce the peaks. I also suspect I may have been reaching the M100's compression limits.

I consider this "test" very extreme. I didn't measure the voltage at the speaker terminals but I'd easily bet peaks over 2000W. The M100 HP driver dust caps got 14 degrees C above ambient (my room was 16 degrees and the dustcaps got up to 30C). This means the voice coils were even hotter. The 1500 was warm during this test and the electronics started to smell from the heat. Recall this is all 2-channel. With the 800 in the mix, this is likely to change but I haven't tried that yet.

BTW, it appears the ADAs come with a spare fuse. I haven't had to use it but it's a good touch. And thank you again Andrew for taming that blue LED.

Movie and more critical listening is up next. I'm curious to see what difference the ADA makes, if any, when it comes to microdynamics, imaging and soundstage.

We watched 30 Days of Night on BR DTS HD MA with the 1500-3 connected to the M100s and 160. My Onk was at -25 and I didn't feel like I was missing anything. The 1500 performed remarkably well. Transients were sharp, sudden and truly startling. Images and soundstage didn't leave me wanting for anything more.

At -25, I have more than 35dB of headroom. The 1500 is too much amp for me in the living room and it may be too much amp for my 4,200 cu.ft. space. I'll have to compare with the 1000 and more A/V sources and material.

Behold! Mojosteins...v2. JT, feel free to copy these too. :p

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1--Wv1h6Yf2KEJPQV8lNXn5hvY31K02tK

P.S. Slim, you need to upgrade to these.

P.P.S. Axiom builds such nice and fun things that bring joy to crappy Canadian winters!

Whoa! Kinda like a mini T-rex.

I'd say there's a middle T+ and a T-Rex Sr. in them there photos I posted.

Whoa... think you've got enough amplification there ?

One 1500 will drive the M100 portion of the T-Rex Sr. and the two 1000s will drive the M5 and M3 portions. It's gonna be a cataclysm!

I just watched Rampage with the M5/160/1500-3 combo in DTS HD MA. This is 13' away from the M5s, 14' from the 160 and 11' from the side QS10s in my 4200 cu. ft. space. My 800 is crossed over at 80Hz. I had my Onk at -5 in the beginning destruction scene. After that, I dialed it back to -15 because it was just too darned loud.

How loud? That initial scene had over 60dB of dynamic range. The lowest SPL I recorded was 42dBC and the peaks were 107dBC. Recall how far away I was.

The M5s lack nothing and I mean absolutely nothing for movies compared to the M100. The 1500 is a great choice for driving them. I could easily have opened up the 1500 more but my ears could not take it.

I then switched to the 1000-3 and achieved 105dBC peaks (2dB lower than the 1500). Then I switched from the M5 to the M100 and got the 107dB peak back. The M100s were also more visceral.

In conclusion, for movies, the M5/160/QS10/800 with the 1000-3 get me 99% (105/107) of the way there. To get to 100%, I need either the 1500 or the M100s. The M100s also add more oomph. Soundstage is the same all around.

Now here's a surprise. I also tried the M3v4 with the 1000. No problem getting to 107dB! In fact, I watched the rest of the movie with the M3 and felt like I missed absolutely nothing. And the M3 was on the floor like one of my pictures in the link above. What's simply amazing is that I can leave the M3s on the floor, listen to music and not much changes with the imaging and soundstage!

Music is a different story however between the M3, M5 and M100 and the 1000 and 1500. More on that later.