Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Buying M60's - can I keep my cheapo receiver?

I've decided to buy M60's now rather than buy cheaper speakers and trade up later, but it's waaay more than I expected to spend on speakers (part of that money was originally going to buy a new receiver). If I buy M60's, I'll be stuck with my old receiver for several months - it's an old JVC RX-205 from the early 90's.

Right now I have no sub, no home theatre - I just want to listen to stereo music at a reasonable volume. Can my receiver drive the M60's, provided I don't crank the volume? I don't care about the receiver, I'm just afraid of damaging the speakers if the receiver amp clips.

The JVC RX-205 manual gives the following specs:

- 40W per channel, min., RMS, both channels driven to 8 ohms, from 20Hz to 20kHz, with no more than 0.3% harmonic distortion
- 40W per channel, min., RMS, both channels driven into 8 ohms at 1kHz (DIN).

Any help would be appreciated. I'm obviously a neophyte when it comes to audio components. Hopefully I'll be selling my JVC in a garage sale this summer and trading up to something worthy of the speakers...

Wow. It should work, as long as you keep the volume pretty low. That .3% harmonic distortion is the worst (Sorry!) I've ever seen on a modern receiver or amp (of the non-tube variety). Just be careful...

I am in the process of finishing my basement, so I have an old POS receiver (JVC or Technics) that my wife had driving my M60s. This is just temporary until I get my new receiver for the theater. It drives the 60s just fine and I'm sure the specs are comparable. You'll survive until summertime.

Enjoy your 60s....They are a great set of speakers.

Before I got my Denon 2805, I used my older JVC Pro Logic receiver I bought at Best Buy back in the mid-early 90's. I think it was rated at 100 watts/channel, I"m sure this was not full bandwidth ratings, just 1khz, anyway it never sounded so good as it did my my M60's. However, my Denon 2805 blows it out of the water...

Is your plan to build a 5.1 system, or are you sticking with 2 channel?

If 2 channel is your goal, don't waste your money on a 7.1 reciever with a thousand bells and whistles you'll never use. Find yourself a nice 2 channel integrated amp, or amp/pre-amp combo. I just bought a Rotel RA-1062 for a bedroom system and paid less than $500 for a used unit. I've seen Rotel RC-1070/RB-1050 combos available on audiogon for under $700.

If you are planning a full 5.1 or 7.1 system ignore everything I just said.

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Can my receiver drive the M60's, provided I don't crank the volume?

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M60s are very efficient. Power is logarithmic. IOW it takes 10x the power to make 2x the loudness.

That also means 1/10th the power reduces loudness only 1/2. That's why 0.1 watts on M60s sounds OK, and 1 watt is very loud.

A better receiver would be nice, but your current receiver can likely safely provide quite loud levels.

Thanks for all of your replies - they were very informative. For now, I'll be running in stereo mode. After I've got a new receiver, I'll pick up a sub. It's all going to be in baby steps, as money allows. The first order of business is to get rid of those horrible JVC speakers!

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The first order of business is to get rid of those horrible JVC speakers!

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thats a great decision.. that exact topic has been discussed on here several times. the general train of thought is.... the first thing you should do to improve your stereo/HT, is get better speakers. you can worry about amps, receivers, cd players, speaker wire, interconnectors, etc., at a later date.. but get the speakers FIRST!!

bigjohn

You lucky bastard. I love Rotel. Every piece of equipment they produce is gorgeous. If they made a woman, she'd be mine.

Hey man,

I recently did the same thing. I got my m60's and used them for about a week on my '86 Mitsubishi receiver my parents got me when I was a kid. I immediately noticed the improvement over my even older 3-way floor-standing Pioneer speakers (with real wood cabinets). Then I got a Denon integrated amp and a Denon AVR3805 to audition. So far I'm still on the integrated, because I'm most interested in 2-channel. The 3805 will get hooked up for a test drive this weekend.

Anyway, the difference is night and day. My old receiver just wasn't doing the m60's the justice the new amp is. Oh, it would drive them alright, but the new amp makes them sound like there is a band in my house. Everything is crisp and tight. At this moment, it sounds like Jeff Beck is performing Constipated Duck in my living room.

Enjoy your new gear!