Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners 2 times better

Ok, I'll give that track a shot on my active system.

I'd shy away from getting the Transformer built into the amp. The only reason is, if you get it separate, you can move it around to another system. But if you don't have that need, an integrated Transformer can de-clutter your environment. You'll want to talk to Axiom about that because I don't know if you'd be giving up any access to buttons and connectors.

The ADA-1000-2 will give you 125 clean continuous Watts and 375 peak Watts per side. That sounds like a lot but as the following two examples show, it may not be enough if you are sitting 20 feet back.

At 20 feet back, when 1 Watt is fed into the M60s, they'll put out 70dB in sound pressure level. 70dB is a "quiet flute in the background" territory. To get to 24dB above that quiet level, you would need 256 peak Watts per side.

When listening to say Fleetwood Mac, the nominal sound pressure level may be about 80dB for moderate listening. That level requires about 10 Watts at 20 feet. When Mick smacks the drums, that's a 12dB rise in sound pressure demand - maybe more depending on how well-mastered that production is. To get from 80dB and 10W to 92dB, you need 150 additional peak Watts for a total of 160W peak per channel.

The ADA-1000-2 will be OK for the above two examples. But you may not be satisfied with 92 to 94dB. If you move up to the M100, you can squeeze out another 6dB from the 1000-2 via a combination of improved sensitivity and higher power due to their 4 Ohm load. But 100dB may still not rock your boat. Adding subwoofers though, may get you there.

Of course this all depends on how live your room is. You could always move closer than the 20 feet in the example.

I'd go with the 1000-2 and subs. If you need to, you could always trade up.

Awesome. Thanks for the insight. I understand the math on it. I guess I’m having a hard time imagining the end result with very little repertoire of listening to different systems and having not experimented with different amps and power systems.

I think I’m just skirting the inevitable realization that to get what I want in terms of SPL and quality I’ve gotta put my $$$ whereas my mouth is. There’s no way around it.

I’ll keep dragging my feet and searching for the “ solution “. I don’t like the za1000 for not having tone controls. I enjoy having the ability to tweak. So a separate pre might be better in that regard too. Hmmmmmm.

Thanks again for listening to my broken record upgraditis. Appreciated.

I just listened to that track on the actives. It showed me just how bad the subbage in my living room is. 20 year-old 100W sub that I modified and a used 150W down-firing Yammy.

I had my Onk pre-amp set to -25 and it nearly brought down the whole house. I have about 35 dB of headroom in my active system.

I think you must have some really good bass support in your room. You still can't hear what I hear though...or feel. just sayin' you know...not poking fun or anything. It's good you're starting off with a somewhat humble system so you can see how much better things can get.

For all we know, the new Air software Axiom is working on may introduce tone controls. Then you'd have them in the Transformer. Likely via an app rather than physical controls.

BTW, you can connect a Transformer to your old Yammy.

I think my room does support the bass fairly well. Like I said it’s close to being enough but just not quite tickling the right spot. Which is why I think a pair of ep125 or 175 would fit the bill.

I’ve considered the transformer for sure as a stand alone product for sure. I was hoping to win the contest of naming the air rebreather!! But alas....... I did not.

I think it’s time to pull the trigger on a transformer. It’s a good next step. I’ll have a reasonably good DAC then and a nice central place to run my hobby from. My music is all over the place. It’s frustrating.

I’ve always liked what you said a ways back about starting off with something humble and working up into more of a system.

Almost brought the house down eh? That’s more like it!!! It’s a cool track! 35 dB of head room?! Ummmmm that sounds dreamy. !

Which Onkyo Pre Amp unit is it?

It's an Onkyo receiver but now with the actives, I use the pre-amp only. It's the tx-nr818. One of my buddies and I got a deal on two of them in 2012 from the great folks at Visions. Brought my v2 system to a whole different level. It works nicely on the v4 too.

Sorry about stealing the Transformer from you in the naming contest. I don't have it yet but when I get it, I'll let you know about it. You may get yours before me.

You! That was supposed to be my transformer!! Ha ha. Too funny!!! Well that’s another good piece for your axiom archive.