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Upgrade My 15 Year Old M80's?
#435655 02/11/20 06:42 PM
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About 15 years ago, I purchased my first Axiom speakers to begin my home theater journey: 1 pair of M80v2s, 1 pair of QS8 side surrounds and a VP150 center channel. A few year later I build a dedicated theater in the basement with an acoustically transparent screen that allowed me to replace the VP150 with another M80v2 to act as my center channel. I also added a pair of QS8's as I went from 5.1 to 7.1 channel configuration. My last Axiom transaction was to upgrade my QS8 side surrounds to QS10's.

The Axiom marketing blitz for the new LFR1100 actives has got me to thinking again. I will be retiring in April after 47 years of work, and contemplating treating myself to some new gear as a reward. As much as I'd love to pull the trigger on the new LF's with related amps, etc. for 2-channel listening in our living room, I'm not sure how I'd sell that to my wife. Then I started thinking about upgrading the 3 M80's to M100's but not sure if that makes sense in a dedicated surround sound theater with subwoofer. So now I'm thinking about just upgrading the 3 M80v2's to new v4's and maybe including a new amp. I've been powering them with an Outlaw 7500 (200wpc into 8ohms and 300wpc into 4ohms) over the years. Is that a worthy upgrade? The room is 13x18 with only a 7' ceiling. Not sure if that would be a noticeable upgrade.

Re: Upgrade My 15 Year Old M80's?
korkster #435656 02/11/20 07:19 PM
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Congrats on making it to retirement...
My understanding is the v4 is quiet the upgrade over the v2.
I really like the idea about going active.



Re: Upgrade My 15 Year Old M80's?
korkster #435658 02/12/20 01:06 AM
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Korkster - The Actives are an astonishingly good speaker - so here is an idea:

Go get a couple of Porsche brochures for a 911 at $140,000. Talk to the missus about this wonderful car. Then, after the bruises heal, get the $10,000 active package as a consolation prize. laugh

Re: Upgrade My 15 Year Old M80's?
korkster #435659 02/12/20 02:04 PM
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Yeah, have to agree with Craig here. In my case I realized that if I gave up on the idea of flying my own plane then pretty much everything else I would ever want to do would be less expensive.

It's not like I actually had the money to fly my own plane, but it's easy to skim past that if you keep the discussion moving quickly.

I have M60ti's in the home theater (older than your M80s I think) and IMO they are still as close to perfect as I will ever need or want in the HT role. Music is a different story - Axiom has been making steady improvements and the new speakers *do* sound better as a result.

This is a long winded way of saying that if what you really want is an awesome 2-channel system I would figure out how to get that rather than spending the $$ on upgrading a perfectly good HT system.

Last edited by bridgman; 02/12/20 02:08 PM.

M60ti, VP180, QS8, M2ti, EP500, PC-Plus 20-39
M5HP, M40ti, Sierra-1
LFR1100 active, ADA1500-4 and -8
Re: Upgrade My 15 Year Old M80's?
craigsub #435660 02/12/20 02:34 PM
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Love it!! You sound like you've had some experience in this area.

Re: Upgrade My 15 Year Old M80's?
bridgman #435661 02/12/20 02:43 PM
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I think you're right. Upgrading my perfectly good M80's would be a consolation prize. And I've found myself doing a lot more listening to 2-channel music recently. I did a search on youtube for "audiophile music" one day, and there are a couple of sites that have been posting some really good quality recordings that I play from my iPad through my system via airplay. I don't know how they've done it, but the quality is outstanding. I currently have a pair of Ascend Acoustics Sierra 2's for my 2-channel listening; they are no slouches either, btw.

Re: Upgrade My 15 Year Old M80's?
korkster #435662 02/12/20 05:24 PM
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The Sierras are an excellent speaker - the Actives are, to most listeners, a bit more neutral and much more capable in macro dynamics. I have had the Sierras, and they are a very intimate speaker. My current intimate speakers are the new Magnepan LRS - similar dynamics to the Sierra's, with the Sierra's have better bass depth but losing a bit in soundstage depth.

The actives just plain present a HUGE soundstage and seem to have no dynamic limits. I originally ran mine with the ADA-1000's and could never clip the amps.

Word has it that Ian might have a pair of semi/low gloss Rosewoods that might be a deal, too.

Re: Upgrade My 15 Year Old M80's?
craigsub #435665 02/13/20 12:35 AM
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Originally Posted By craigsub


Word has it that Ian might have a pair of semi/low gloss Rosewoods that might be a deal, too.
Yes, I believe I saw that someone received a pair of LFR1100 actives with the wrong finish. Hmmm....

Re: Upgrade My 15 Year Old M80's?
korkster #435666 02/13/20 06:42 AM
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Yes, I received a pair of beautiful LFR1100 Actives in satin finished rosewood. Was supposed to be high gloss rosewood. I have not received the high gloss, nor returned the satin finished speakers. I am in southern California. I used to live in River Vale, Bergen County, NJ, many years ago.


Enjoy the Music. Trust your ears. Laugh at Folks Who Claim to Know it All.
Re: Upgrade My 15 Year Old M80's?
korkster #435667 02/13/20 06:43 AM
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I think mine are semi-gloss.


Enjoy the Music. Trust your ears. Laugh at Folks Who Claim to Know it All.
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