Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Which Power Source for M60ti? Newbie.

Kodiak, seeing as you enjoy Clapton and Gilmour maybe give Jeff Beck
“Live at Ronnie Scott’s “ a listen. It’s a relatively (2008) new performance/recording on Blu-ray.
So many excellent tracks to choose from, #s 7,5,4 and 16 come to mind.
These tracks will help your system just shine!
cheers, Jeff

Yep... M60ti's are pretty impressive speakers. Mine are in a loft that opens to pretty much the whole house, so roughly the same size room area as you have depending on how you do the math.

If you ever end up with more power (is the "Yamaha" you mentioned the A-S801 ?) your neighbors are *really* not going to like you

Congrats on the new speakers !

Hey guys thanks for the track recommendations. I’ll be listening to those soon. Tomorrow is another empty house for a few hours. Can’t wait.

Yes bridgman the Yamaha I’ve got my eyes on is the Yamaha 801. It’s got everything I want for inputs, a quality I think that would match well with m60ti and a reasonable amount of power. I’m tempted to do separates but the integrated option is nice and convenient. The only thing the 801 doesn’t have that I want is pre out. And the subwoofer line out is filtered at 90hz. ( I have visions of a couple axiom ep350 or 500 joining the m60’s at some point. ). The filter is a minor point but no pre out might be a deal breaker. I’d would be nice to not have to buy a pre amp as well. I’ve seen some adcom outboard amps for sale as well some older anthem and others. What I really want is an ADA-1500 2 channel. But I’m getting ahead of myself. First a DAC , ( Schiit M3) then a new CD / Bluray player then some new power.

I’ve just dove into “craigsubs “ post on his lfr1100. I’m only a few pages in. But it’s got me dreaming........

Bridgman , do you have the Yamaha 801?

If yes, what’s your personal opinion on it?

Thanks.

Integra 9.8, 7.1 channel processor, used, $300. Canuck Audio Mart. A bunch of Anthem processors, used, low prices.

Used multi channel amps are plentiful and relatively inexpensive. Go with a quality brand - Anthem, Parasound, Rotel, Yamaha, Marantz ...

You can get a nice component system for less than a new receiver.

Good luck!

Kodiak, I think ultimately, in order to enjoy "loud", you will need an amp capable of 1000 peak Watts per side. That will get you to 100+ dB per side at your 20 foot listening position.

At that point, you will also need new speakers. Your M60s will start compressing at around that level...maybe even before.

It's really important though to spend some time with what you have before making any changes. Get to know the system to understand what you may be missing. Admittedly it's hard to know unless you've heard it before. Even with a great system, it's only as good as the recording. With good recordings, you should be hearing a soundstage at least as wide as the speaker width, depth equal to the distance to your front wall and the vast majority of images on the stage. The degree to which those images are separated on the soundstage, and their definition, depends largely on the accuracy of the speakers. With more accurate speakers, it's like your ears put on eye glasses.

Good advice on the used market for sure. I think id steer away from multi channel receivers in search of a dedicated 2 channel integrated. Maybe i've drank the kool-aid in terms of believing in uncomplicated internals and short signal paths. But i think there's some truth to it. I'm happy waiting for the right thing to come along or wait until i can afford what i want or think is appropriate.

Mojo, yes i'm with ya on the idea of taking my time for sure and getting to know my system. There's other upgrades to make before a new power source happens. I am quite impressed with my " ancient" 2 channel receiver from 1995! ( Yamaha RX- 595).
It does a respectable job ( in my limited experience.) It seems to match well with the axioms, although im in a bit of a bubble with nothing to compare it too. But the idea that m60ti was bright or harsh in the high ranges doesn't seem to be a problem upto the limits of my amplifier, it's not fatiguing. In fact it's quite good. ( again, not a ton of things to compare too. But compared to my dads old Paradigm Monitor 9's the m60's are superior in many ways, including the the high range. ( Monitors 9 are bright for sure, alittle harsh.)

I got the tape measure out and my distance to listening spot is 17 feet away in a possible 13.5 foot wide set up. Or set up on another wall i'm 10 feet wide and up to 16 feet away. ( currently setup this way for daily life ) I've been playing with wall boundary's in the current configuration. ( 10 feet wide.) I've tried playing with tone controls too but the pure direct mode is really the best. Been experimenting with the ports too with stuffing socks in there, not a proper port plug but it's a start to be able to see what makes the difference.

With your advice in mind i keep playing music and dialing things in. As for getting it loud it sounds like i need to optimize and enjoy what i have here and in the mean time research ( i enjoy that part, reading and videos etc) another future system that can play very loud and clear. ( M100 maybe? Klipsch RF-7 3?)

But as for 1000 watts peak and compression limits in my m60s that sounds like a need to move up into a larger system. So that won't be anytime soon. I'll focus on getting what i have as loud as possible with quality sound with good components over time. I may have to settle for"medium loud" but aim at quality and clarity for now.

Just wait until you get upgraditis and get M80s or better

Shh your not supposed to let people know most of us suffer that condition. Exactly how I ended up M80\M22/M3 in my collection.

I don't have one, although I have a nagging feeling that one of my friends had one of its predecessors and was very happy with it.

If I believed in electronics from different vendors having different "sounds" I would put Yamaha in the "brighter" category and so maybe not the best match for your M60's, but to this day I don't know if I believe that. My experience with Yamaha electronics has mostly been paired with Yamaha speakers, and while I do believe the speakers have characteristic sounds I have a tough time extending that to electronics.

All that said, it's not clear to me that the Yamaha integrated amp would get you much benefit over the RX 595 you have today.

For what it's worth, my stereo electronics progression was:

SWTPC pre-amp with SWTPC power amp (yeah, 40 yrs ago)
Advent receiver with SWTPC power amp
Advent receiver with Marantz power amp
Advent receiver (I got domesticated and downsized)
HK 3470 receiver
HK 3470 receiver with Adcom GFA 555 II
TubeDAC with Adcom GFA 555 II
TubeDAC with 2x ADA 1500 (hope to finish setup this weekend)

I ended up not using the tube stage, but did find that using the optical out from my old Kenwood CD carousel via TubeDAC significantly improved imaging compared with the RCA outs and internal-to-carousel DAC I was using previously.

Just noticed your notes about testing positions etc..., so a few more comments:

#1 - agree that even the older Axioms are not what I would call "bright"... but what they do seem to be is flat in the 2-3 KHz range where many other speakers have a slight dip (sometimes referred to as "the BBC dip". There are some recordings floating around that seem to have been optimized for speakers with a 2-3 KHz dip (eg the studio monitors had it) and those seem to be the ones most likely to be responsible for the "bright" label.

The upside of the flat response is the very nice open-ness / crispness / transparency / whatever that you are probably enjoying right now.

#2 - the closest thing to a quirk that the bigger Axioms have is that they usually work best a few feet out from the wall, although port plugs can sometimes help there. If you have the options for placement the one with the longer listener-to-speaker distance is probably worth trying first.