Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Need help deciding on receiver

Aaand that's why it's odd. It seems that the goal on this amplifier is to modify the sound, as opposed to amplifying the existing signal without modification. Not that there's anything wrong with that, per se, but it's different than most solid state amps.

If you have the money to get the speakers first, get the speakers first... they will do more for your enjoyment than the receiver and M60s can be driven with pretty much any receiver.

If you buy less than 5 speakers at a time you give up a 5% discount so breaking up the speaker purchase probably isn't a good idea. Leaving out the sub (for example) would cost you 5% of the sub's price but you would still get discount on everything else.

re: the spade lugs, are the measurements "inside" between the fingers ?

Yes, that is verbatium, from the manuel. my only point was, and is, I wired it in 2 different formats. Sometimes your ear will play tricks with your head (this is what I at least have found for me) The initial sound was so impressive in the bi-wired/bi-amped whatever you want to call it.

I took several weeks so I was not in the pre-conceived listening impression. I auditioned this both ways with many "musical" friends. That is people that love good music, play it, live it. I am not one of them, I just know what sounds good, or real good to me. I am however very descriminating, and there is a clear cut - significant smooth detailed difference. If you came by and had a beer, and listened, really listened, you would agree. You can't dismiss it, it's that clear. BTW thank you pmbuko, and a good read on the article. Thanks again.

Yes Peter, that's an informative article, illustrating how an excessively high output impedance on an amplifier(regardless of whether it's tube or solid state)can cause response variations as the impedance of a speaker changes at various frequencies. A real-life illustration of this can be found in the lab test for the SoundStage review of the Song 5 watt amplifiers selling for merely $4,000 a pair. Note especially the response fluctuations when driving a dummy speaker load with varying impedance, the damping factor of about 1.5, and the high distortion. Naturally, the amp has been praised for its "sound quality".

Tube amps can and have been designed which are competitive in performance(i.e. they don't have a "tube sound") with solid state designs, but high output impedance single-ended units can't do it.

In reply to:

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It seems that the goal on this amplifier is to modify the sound, as opposed to amplifying the existing signal without modification. Not that there's anything wrong with that, per se, but it's different than most solid state amps.

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Wow, is it 1988 again? "Loudness" buttons and the "EQ hump" that my right index finger still naturally conforms to when I walk up to anything above a 5-band graphic EQ.

Bren R.

Do you need identical amps to bi-amp? Can you use receiver for high end and amp for low end?
I always tell people there is no such thing as a stupid question. (Hope mines not.)

Yes you could, but would need the SAME processor or pre-amp so they are accepting the same signal. You could you could use the receivers pre-outs for example.

Use the speaker connections on the receiver for one set of posts on the speaker. Preouts from same receiver to amp and then speakers connection on amp to other posts. Would it make a difference which drive highs which drives bass?

that is exactly how you would do it, or a seperate pre-amp that both amps would use. In general you would want the more powerful amp driving the lower posts (the woofer or woofers) and the more "refined" amp driving the mids/highs. As an example I used a very powerful crown amp with the 60s. The amp is used to drive (2) big SVS passive subs. The sound on the 60s was quite harsh, I mean I hated it. It's not that it's a bad amp. The amp is great at raw power ie: pushing big drivers - BASS!! but lacked detail in the mids/highs. When I used the crown on the bottom woofers only, and my sunfire to drive the mids/highs It made for great bass, and warm detail. I don't use it that way, I was just experimenting. I use a 600 wpc 2 channel sunfire wired voltage source to lows, current source to mid/highs.

if we can get back to the subjest for a second, call me crazy but im considering going with the m80's, even though this is all going in my small bedroom (im only 17) i want to not have to worry about upgrading in the future no matter how big the room is. also i like the fact that the 80's are 400watt @ 4ohm, vs the 60's 250watt @ 8ohm. imo the 80's would be alot better cause the 4ohm would pull more power than 8ohm from the receiver.. am i correct when i say this? also i dont see the point in getting all 400 watt (vp150, QS8) then having lesser power mains. lest say one day i want to hook it all up to a 400watt /channel amp, then i can do it with the 80's. the real question now to me is, is it worth the extra $500 (cdn)....suggestions? hope i wasnt too confusing lol