I am thinking of trying a M22+VP150 for about 40/40/20% music/movies/gaming. My room is 10x15 with 8' ceilings. I have a Marantz 5003 receiver with some Mirage OS3 fronts right now. I am thinking of moving the Mirage speakers to surround duty and going with Axiom on the front.

How are Axiom and Marantz for a pairing? Anyone out there who does use Marantz that could shed light on how they interact?

I've never owned a Marantz, but have had friends that have, for the most part it they are very happy with the brand. It's a good quality manufacturer. The 5003's 90 wpc should be ample power for the room you have.

Who else here remembers the Marantz Gold style in the early and mid eighties.

paul

The Marantz puts out power. The Axioms take that power and reproduce it as sound.

That's about the size of it.

The general feeling around here (there are several exceptions) is that a well made receiver/amp will not (and should not!) alter the sound.

Welcome to the forum mione,

The Marantz 5003 that you own will work fine powering the M22 and the VP150.

I don't think a good amp will alter the sound, but I think the attached from Stereophile is a good example of the opinion often offered by "experts" that leads me to wonder if there may be more to the analysis than just applying any competently made amp to a good speaker:

And we also know they write these articles to help sell product for those that give them the items for review. If a reviewer were to start saying this or that amp sounds the same as the others for a given volume level, they would be out of business.

Jakewash, It's hard to argue with that logic.

paul

Easy to say, and the obvious point, I fully agree. But consider that he mentions two amps by name as not offering the best sound for that speaker. And he effectively says you won't get all of this speaker if you don't have a high end amp. Most buyers without a great amp would look elsewhere at that point. Now, assuming for the sake of argument, that this guy is making an honest comment, I'd have to say he has much better access to information than I do - or, with all due respect, many of those here. He has the opportunity to compare this speaker on three amps, and this speaker to other speakers. That is not a luxury many of us have, and yet, it is the only way to really compare.

I'm not saying they don't push products - I'm sure they must - I just don't think the world is that black and white. I think there is some value to their comparisons. Hence my curiosity on this amp issue.

Having been ticketed by the hi-jack police, I did want to say that I compared Marantz to Denon when I was buying my AVR (almost 10yr ago!) and was very surprised that Marantz (a company I did not know) had a very solid product. The shop I bought my speakers from carried B&K, Marantz, and Pioneer Elite. They always pushed the Marantz as a tank of an amp that would satisfy everyone below the B&K market. Take the sales guy pitch with a truckload of salt, but there it is for whatever it is worth. (Yes, I bought the Denon based on (here we come full circle now) the magazine articles on it. And I love the amp, and am glad it was highly rated so I could find it.)

Did you know Marantz is made by D&M Holdings, the same company that makes Denon.

Damn! They got me. Bastards. That's why I liked the sound. Thanks for not PM'ing me. Would not want to keep my ignorance private.

That's not to say they are built exactly the same, but I am sure they share many internal parts.

We're like family here and we like to take care of our own.

One, welcome. Your proposed set of Axioms should give you excellent sound and the 5003 certainly wouldn't be a problem. There's no need to be concerned with how speakers and amplifiers "interact" or with "pairing" them. As Ken pointed out, the speakers need power, the amplifier gives it to them; that's all there is, there ain't no more, despite the audiophile fantasies that we frequently read about.

Beyond audiophile fantasies, there is the significant issue that several AVRs and some separate amps have trouble "interacting" with M80s. It is not fair to be completely dismissive of this question when so much has been written about the problem. The best way to explain to people that M80 are not going to shut down their AVR is the same way Alan at Axiom does: explain that some amps don't drive 4 ohm loads without shutting down. Marantz is not one of the companies that has this problem.

The op is looking at the M22 so this is a non issue.

It is interesting how every thread turns into an m80's can't be driven by certain receivers. Good catch Fred...

The point is, the M80 issue is "known". That causes potential customers to worry about all speakers from Axiom "interacting" with their speakers, just as the M80/Emotiva issue causes many amp customers to wonder if Emotiva will work with their speakers. I guess my point is treating this daily question as a dumb question is not really the best way to quell the false concern of potential customers. If he had an old Onkyo, I'd point him to Alan's post that they sometimes have problems with M80, but not the M60s and below. Anyway...

I don't have the 5003 with my M80's, but I've had 8001 and 8002 paired with M80s (Epic80/500 combo) with no issues. The 5003 was paired Vienna Acoustics Beethoven Baby Grand and had no issues either. Not that I really played it very loud or anything, but it had no issues.

I didn't think we were treating the question as dumb. I guess we are living in parallel universes today.

Either way, there is no issue. Maranz makes good neutral receivers and the M22s are an 8 Ohm speaker. Time to join the Squirrel in a beer.

I think the interacting the OP was asking about comes from the myth that certain receivers sound better with certain speakers etc. which is propagated on soooo many forums.