Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Receiver for M80's

Since I ordered my M80's I've been doing some reading on receivers and am a little concerned my Yamaha 6080B may not be enough for the M80's and VP150. How do I know? It's definitely not rated to 4ohms. The manual only refers to 6 or 8ohms.

Just curious as to what receiver is recommended that won't break the bank? I could get an amp I guess but not sure what plus there's the room issue for an amp.

How big is your room? What kind of volume do you usually listen to?
If your receiver can't handle them, you should start hearing some clipping at high volume due to the lack of power . It might also shut down when listening at loud level after a certain period of time.
I suspect you'll be fine, at least when listening at not crazy loud volume, just give it a try first before investing money on something you might not need.
If your room is big and you listen at loud level, you might need an external amp. For the average receivers, Denons handle the M80s very well, mine never shut down and it only starts clipping at levels that are ridiculously loud.

Try the Yamaha first with the M80's and if you notice clipping or that the receiver shuts down than go with another form of amplification. If not, stick with the receiver. If your current Yamaha receiver has pre-outs and the features you like than I would suggest going with a 2 channel amplifier for the M80's.

If you do set up the M80's with the Yamaha, keep the impedance switch at its highest setting possible (if it has one) which will be either 6ohms or 8ohms.

Another point would be whether you're driving two, five or seven channels...

I definitely don't crank them up that loud. The volumen level is usually at about 30 when watching a movie.

my receiver does have an impedance switch. it says to keep it at 8 for a mix of 6 and 8.

Just wondering if something like the Denon 3803, 3808 or 3810 would be good? I've seen some used/refurbished ones at a decent price that I could pick up. Wouldn't mind something that decodes DTS Master HD and Dolby TrueHD rather than having TMT do the decoding.

Regardless of what the nominal rating of all the speakers that are hooked up to the AVR, keep the switch at 8 ohms. DTS Master HD and Dolby TrueHD decoding along with improved bass management I would consider an important upgrade. Denon makes excellent receivers.

Just curious if a Denon 2311CI would be an ok receiver? I see some on eBay for $550. Not bad if I sell my Yamaha. The one thing I noticed though it has a bit less power than my Yamaha.

Unless your Yamaha is shutting down, there is no sonic advantage to changing receivers. Does the 3311 have any new features you really want?

The 3311 will certainly drive the M80s without trouble. My 2808 performs superbly with the M80s.

There are some features I've been lookimg at HDMI 1.3, DTS Master, Dolby True HD, Audessy EQ etc.

The only reason I'm thinking of doing it now is the longer I wait the less I can get for my current receiver. Right now I think I could get maybe $350.

Dan, at this point being even "a little concerned" would be premature. None of the receivers which you might consider carry an "official" 4 ohm rating. To do so they have to comply with FTC regulations which require, among other things, that they would supply the full rated power into 4 ohms for at least five continuous minutes. None could pass this laboratory test, which would have no significance for real-world listening.

Your 6080 or similar receivers(if you get a different one because of better features, not an imagined 4 ohm problem)should power M80s with no difficulty to all safe listening levels.

As was said, the 4 ohm impedance setting should never be used. It limits output voltage(and consequently current and power)for the purpose of reducing the risk of overheating. Tests show that this cuts the maximum power available roughly in half, so this cure is worse than the disease.