Hi,
I may have asked the question in the past but wasn't able to find it. Does anyone went from the m22ti to the m80

I already have QS8 for the surrounds and a kick ass PSB 12" sub but was wondering if it would be worth to upgrade to m80 for the front.

But it's a 1500$ upgrade that I can't judge the value.

anyone did it?

I will probably upgrade my center to the vp150 my current axiom center is more than 8-9 years old.

thanks for reading

Luc,

How big is your room? That is one thing to consider.

Most notably, you'll notice the ability to play louder cleaner, and you'll hear a lot more "fuller" upper bass straight from the speaker.

For movies, you'll get a much bigger sound.

According to Alan, the M22's and a sub sound VERY similar to the M80's. I think I heard him mention in an article or a post that in his home/test room he has m22's and m80's. At one point he didn't know whether he was listening to the M22's or the M80's.

I would say if you have the money, like to listen loud, and want to have beautiful big towers, then go for it.

Dang Luc, you must be going for a Post record lately.

for a 13 x 13 room the 80's would kill you.

would it be stupid to throw in another sub instead of getting a pair of m80? I don't think my system sounds bad, but I allways fear that something is missing and I don't know why.

Many people use 2 subs to achieve smoother response throughout the room and a greater "pressurization." Depending on your tastes that isn't stupid at all

so how does two m22ti + 2 subs compares against a m80+single sub setup?


my setup is mostly 95% for movies/tv/gaming -- 5% music

I can't say as I haven't heard M80's at all, nor M22 with two subs, although I hope to achieve that goal at some point in the not too distant future.

how did you notice?

In Stargate Atlantis they refer to this as Ascension

hope your ceilings aren't 13ft tall, the worst room for peaks and nulls in freq response is where dimensions are the same or divisible easily by each other. The 80's will give you better bass response, but a lot has to do with how you have your bass management setup in the receiver, sub, etc.

Luc, I would suggest getting ahold of one of the M80 owners that migh be near you so you can compare the sound of the M22 and the M80's.

I went from M22s to M60 (briefly) to M80s and I, like you, had felt there was possibly something missing with M22/sub, IMO there is. I feel that the M80s full spectrum ability adds to the overall feel of the sound, the bigger question is, can you justify the extra money for a warmer/richer feel.

Here is a link to an older thread of my experience with M22/M60/M80 comparison.

Only if you're not careful. I have them in a 14x20 (x8.5) room and have managed to walk out alive after listening several times.

With that said, they undoubtedly play much louder than I need for my room, but I think even at low volumes that they offer absolutely incredible detail. (I haven't heard the M22 head to head, so my advice isn't directly relevant to your question, but that never seemed to stop me in the past, and I'm not going to let it now either)

Jason

Well, the difference in form-factor is pretty significant. Jason's room is dedicated to his theatre.

Luc, don't underestimate just how deep the M80's are physically. By the time you move them out from the wall a bit, the effective size of your room is going to be diminished by about a meter in that direction. Same thing with their position relative to the side walls.

If you have other furniture in that room, the M80's could disrupt your aesthetic.

Honestly, given the size of your room and the size of the M80's, I'd just stick with the M22's. Perhaps experiment with their placement a bit. See if you can borrow another sub from a shop or a friend to see if that makes a big difference for you.

Adding a second sub made a big difference for me as far as smoothing out the bass. I didn't need the first sub turned up as loud to compensate for bass loss in certain areas of my room. Also upgrading to the EP400 didn't hurt either.

here is a link to my thoughts eons ago when I first purchased the m22 and then picked up the m60s.
It really comes down to your room size and personal preferences. For movies I would say the floorstanders will not provide much of a benefit over bookshelves and a good sub since most of the material is dialogue.
For music listening which provides a more constant complete range of sound frequencies I have found the floorstanding speakers to provide a full enveloping kind of sound that I just find missing with bookshelf speakers.

As for the sound quality, M22 and m80 and M60's sound very very similar with some obvious differences for their cabinet sizes and driver sizes.

Good point Tom - they do eat up a lot of the real estate, and in my room it's unimportant space as it's the first 3' out from a 100" screen... where no one will ever want to walk/sit/stand, etc. In a multifunctional room, that's a lot more space to chew up.

At 95% movies, I would go for a second sub to smooth out the bass.

I did a/b comparisons of the M22+sub, M60 and M80. They all sound very similar, but the M80 seemed to deliver more detail across the entire frequency range. The m22+ sub had a much more forward sound than the M80.

I was evaluating mainly for music.

What sub do you have right now? I.E. the model

can't tell you THE exact model number but it's a PSB 12". It really delivers a nice bass.

To be honest, I'm listening to Pirates of the carrabean 3 on my newly bought receiver (pio vsx1018). I'm cranking up the volume for the first time. I think I will keep my setup as is.

but if people made the switch, keep the comments coming in.

it's 13x13x8'. I will post pictures after I've installed my projector mount. On my receiver, the bass is configured to be sent to both the speakers and sub. Crossover is set to 80hz.

What you're saying is making sense. I didn't calculate the size of the speakers and their placement. They would fit but would be really noticeable.

I have a 120" screen in there. My seats are not against the opposite walls so the m80 would be really near.

is there a second sub output on pio receivers? I could plug a second sub at the back of the first one but how do I calibrate them properly. Normally the receiver calibrates the phase and volume level but when hooking two different subs it will probably mess them up?

Just got back from Mojo's where we had a nice listening session with the modded M22s, a stock set of M22 v2 and his M80s. I must say that there is a much closer sonic signature between the M22v2s and the M80s than I ever have had with my M22v1's. The 3 of us agreed that the M22v2+sub lost very little in comparison to the M80 or even M80+sub. My v1 M22s+sub never quite sounded as rich, as the M80s, although I felt the combo had more detail.

In light of this new found information, I must say that for your smaller room stick with the M22s and sub.

I feel the same way. The only place the M80s or M80s+sub beat the M22v2+sub in my room was more impact coming from the front. However, though the M22v2+sub didn’t have as much in-your-face impact the bass was tighter, because I could optimize the subwoofer placement.

Wow, and to think I sometimes think my screen is too big for the depth of my first row of seats (92" screen, ~10 foot first row). You must feel like you're inside the movie looking at that 10' diagonal monster! Awesome.

Jason

I bought the optoma hd65 at costco and it camed with a 92" screen. But when I projected on the wall, for a test, the wife told me to forget the 92" screen. So I kept the screen, we may use it later for a second room.

Man, now that the audio gear acquisition side of my home theater is coming to a good resting point, I'm going to have to start looking at projectors. I mean, I won't actually buy anything until I can move it all down into the basement, which will be a while, but it's something to look forward to and plan for. I wonder how big of a screen I'll be able to manage down there. The bad news is the basement is short. I doubt it will even be 7' high with the suspended ceiling. Otherwise, there should be plenty of space to work with. The support beam situation will be something to work around, too, but it shouldn't be too bad. But yeah, hearing people talk about projectors gets me revved up since that's going to be the final piece that makes my system come together.

if you asked me last year if I would ever own a projector, I would have probably said no. Never been so wrong.. The Optoma hd65 is a good starter package. It was at 999$CDN at Costco and came with a screen. I just painted the wall in white and gone for the biggest image possible.

Mine is not in the basement, it's on the first floor and I have really large triple windows. The projector lamp is so bright we can even watch it with lights fully opened in the kitchen.


few pictures of a hd65 picture:

WOW!, nice pics.

Sometimes I find the movies vs. music distinction a little silly, as I can't think of too many movies where the music isn't important.

However, this thread is making me consider some m22s for the bedroom. (think that's a step up from tv speakers? )

Those pictures are great. That's the experience I'm going for.

Also.. interested parties in the HD65.(without the screen) It's much cheaper there...

http://www.us1photo.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=7398

don't forget that the price given was in canadian money and a 92" screen was INCLUDED in the price..

so in an American Costco, it should be around 850-899, screen included. The lamp is good for around 3000-4000 hours but be aware that with the out-of-the-box settings, it takes around 2-3 hours of real use to equal 1h on the lamp. There is a HIGH lamp setting which makes the screen even brighter but for my taste, the default setting is perfect.

It's 999 in US costco's too. Our money is no steal.

Luc - those are amazing pictures. I think my picture looks that good live too, but I've never been able to take a photograph that comes anywhere close to capturing that good of an image. Nice work behind the camera!

Jason

hmm , you should say: nice work, ripping the pics from the optoma hd65 thread (avsforum) :-)

I haven't figured how to get pictures as good as what I've found.
I intend to look at the exif metadata to get me started in the good direction.

At least it's the same projector! :-)

Exif Metadata is a good name for a foreign cyborg.

Aha, well, good work nevertheless.

Jason

Yes, he really rips a good one.

He's trying to keep up with the Bukowinskis.

When Peter and I went to the Jenny Lewis concert last month, I made sure to walk upwind.

Fortunately for you, every direction is upwind. I create my own low pressure weather zone.

Two questions come to mind:

1. Does this mean you have retrograde flatulence?

2. Wasn't "Retrograde Flatulence" the Weird Al cover of Negative Orange's "Sunny Day Violins"?

I don't know, but "Seen on a Bumper Sticker" was Negative Orange's song about vehicular homicide.

Memo for posterity: CV refers to my sig:
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This is not countertransference - I just don't like you.

(seen on a bumper sticker)
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Now there's a title for a country song about jilted love!