Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Is it worth the upgrade from M60 to M80.........

I had the M22's and traded them up for the M60's in the last couple of months. I have another week on my 60's. It looks like at the outlet you can upgrade for 190.00 more. I love the 60's and the upgrade from the 22's was well worth it for me.
If I get time I might post a review of those. I have an Onkyo SR502 with 6ohms and 75 watts. On my 60's I rarely pump my volume above 55. My room size is 16 by 16 and my listening area is 13 feet from my speakers. I have them about a foot from the back wall and further away from the sides. I understand the dimesnsions are similar but for a little taller and two inches in depth between the two speakers. Is this overkill or not? I am not really any expert on this stuff. I do love the highs and am not much of a bass person. I do like the bass in the 60's though. Can you guys help a poor boy out??

for a space that size, unless you are wanting to make your ears bleed, i think the M60's are plenty.. if you are happy with the mids and bass of the 60's, the 80's are gonna be just about the same, but they will do it at a little louder volume.. you already stated that you dont crank the volume that much, so i dont think you will have any real advantage with trading up to the M80's.

use the $190 bucks for some surrounds, or maybe toward a sacd/dvd-a player.. that is, if you have a surround system?

bigjohn

I agree with John. I think the 80s would be overkill in a room that size.

Just realized I didn't like that last sentence. If you like it loud and want it, it's unfair to call ANYTHING overkill. A better way to have put it would have been to say that the 60s are plenty for that room, and I don't think any difference you'd notice with the 80s would be substantial enough for the extra money you'd be spending.

I'm not familiar with your receiver so I can't say if it would handle the 4 ohm load of the 80s. But, that's something you want to be sure of before you go that route.

I gotta remember not to criticize other's desires or preferences. DUH!

Chiming in to buttress the above comments - I hear that the 60s and 80s are tonally very similar, but that the 80s will pump out a lot more volume....So, in a room your size, you may find it to be too much sound.

Also don't forget that the M80s are a 4ohm speaker, and may require you to reconsider your amplification options/needs.

Also, the entry level Onkyo receiver may not be able to handle the 4 ohm load. I'd stick with the 60's.

Mark

The 60's play loud enough for me. I am just using these for
two channel stereo. I'm not much into home theater either.
Brent {fromAXIOM} E-Mailed and said my Onkyo would shut down because of thermal protection? I don't even know what that is. Since he is the expert, I will listen and thank you guys too.

definitely stick with the M60's..

my Onkyo 701 is pushing my M60's with 100watts, and when i crank on it for a while, it gets REAL hot. i imagine brent was referring to the fact that the receiver will shut itself off if it gets too hot trying to push the 4ohm load of the M80's with only 60-70 watts.

BTW- i have considered trying to cook a grilled scheese sandwich on top of my receiver after a good 3 hour crank fest. i will let you know how it turns out.

bigjohn

The Onkyo reciever would not be able to handle the M80's.You would know when you started to smell something burning.I use seperates to push my M80's.

The M80s supposedly sound very similar to the M60s, yet were made for increased power handling.

Ask yourself.. do you have an amp that does over 250 watts? The M60s cazn take 250, and the M80s can take 400. Usually you can go a bit over the max wattage rating, but who has over 250 watts in their amp?

Me 300@ 4 ohm.

That comes out to 150@8 ohms, though, right?

I forgot which review it was but a professional reviewer used the Onkyo 601 to drive M80's, QS8's, and a VP150. Apparently the reciever powered the system just fine. The 502 may be a different story.

Its the Rotel RB1080 200@ 8 ohm.

So you're safe with both the M80s and the M60s! Nice amp, btw.

It (the Rotel) doesn't break a sweat driving the M80's.But it also helps I put in an Outlaw ICBM in between the pre and amp.I have the crossover set at 60hz so the amp doesn't have to reproduce any real low material.And thanks.

Do you mean this one from audioholics player?

jr

I was curious about this amp. Some reviews including stereophile(which I'm skeptical about after reading through some of the reviews) say it's lifeless at low volumes and lacks body.. what do you think of this amp?

Hell man I don't listen to anything stereophile says.I'm sure there are better amps out there but I like it.It was between this and Parasound and I picked this.It has plenty of punch and the sound stage sounds good to me.Try it yourself and see what you think.Lacks body what exactly is that suppose to mean anyway.Do you think it would lack anything more or less than any good ss amp would.They also said there isn't another amp at twice the price they would rather own.

Thanks, makes sense, and as usual, stereophile seems to not make sense.. I've got to find a shop around here that sells stuff but entry level 5.1 yamaha receivers.

No need for the frown face as Yamaha makes pretty good stuff.By the way where is here?

I am guessing by the responses you are getting that volume is the only reason for upgrading.

This does not address any refinement and engineering of the higher line model, or your future plans.

A suburb of NYC. Believe it or not... if I go to a site and put the zip in and look for dealers, the closest one shows up in NJ or something, a bit far away to go just to try an amp. And the store with the other amps and speakers I'd wanna try is, of course, on the other side of NJ. :|

Cheaper Yamaha receivers are ass at pushing 5 channels at once(a few sites've tested them at about 39 watts with all channels pushed). The 1400 and 2400 are different. Best Buy and Circuit City are the suck, no selection at all.

There is a ton of info on these boards about differant recievers.Alot of folks go with the refurbished ones to save a good chunk of money.Its worth a look.