Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Denon 2802 enough power for M80s?

I have a Denon 2802 (90 watts) receiver and am considering purchasing a pair of M80s. Does the 2802 have enough clean power to drive the 4 ohm M80s with "room filling" sound without overheating or clipping? Personal experiences or educated guesses are both welcome.

I've had the M80's hooked-up to my DENON 2802 for a week, and they sound GREAT! Both on 2 channel(175 watts @ 4 ohms)and 5.1 surround. Their definetly AXIOMS best for "room filling" and overall dynamics, have yet to experience any overheating or clipping.

There are several posts addressing your query although you'll need to search for them, including favorable remarks from Ian (pres.& chief engineer)on DENON receivers.
Good Luck.

Imposter

Have you compared the M80's with the M60's?

Let's do some calculations here:

The M80 has an in-room efficiency of 95dB/W @ 1 m.* If your listening position is 3 m (10') from the speakers, it will be like 90dB/W.** So, 10W of power will give you 100dB of sound pressure at the listening position per channel; 100W will do 110dB per channel...

Bottom line: Your ears will likely be injured well before the 2802 starts to show its power limits.


*Sound pressure level is proportional to: 10 to the power of [dB value / 10]. So, a 3dB increase is approximately doubling of the sound pressure; a change of 10dB is a 10-fold change.

**Although in anechoic conditions, the sound pressure from a point source would be inversely proportional to the square of the distance, in a typical living room with lots of reflections it is more like inversely proportional to the distance; of course, YMMV.

Hey Ravi,
No, I've not compared M80's to 60's, although Alan (over the phone) did explain that M60's a comprable to M22's + sub, I was considerably more impressed with the M80's in that comparison, I've also noted previous posts in regard to the lack of depth or "punch" associated with M60's.
By the way I've found many discussions on this board, technical aswell as subjective, to be informative and helpfull in my recent decisions in buying speakers here. Thanks to all that have contributed and best regards.

imposter,

strange about the m60's lacking depth and punch. I can't recall ever hearing that! maybe i'll have to pay more attention to some posts!

Either way I hope you're happy with your speakers.
Remember, if you get the M80's and find them too forward, Axiom will send you resistor clips to put on the tweeters (or midrange, I can't remember) to tone them down a little. I believe Alan uses and prefers the M80's with these.

Hi ravi,

Yes, I do use them on the M80 tweeters because my listening area is only 8 feet from the M80s. It's my experience that the M80s sound their best in a big room or when you can sit about 12 to 20 feet back from them. On the other hand, these things are very room- and taste-dependent.

Another friend of mine in his '20s who has M22ti's heard my M80s and loved them. He was playing current rock/pop CDs at volumes that I've never dared listen at. But I've always used lower listening levels than most of my colleagues.

Regards,