Hi folks,

I am heavily leaning toward an Outlaw 7 channel AMP (770 or 7700) for my Epic 80 System I will be purchasing in October. Can anyone here please tell me their experience using the Outlaw gear with the Axioms? I guess I just need some reassurance my new black beauties will be getting the "love" they deserve to sound their best. Thanks!

Chris

I believe there are a good bunch of folks around here that have Outlaw products and love them. I'm sure they will chime in soon. I'm looking at the 2200 monoblocks just to drive the mains and my AVR can drive the rest fine.

I just picked up a pair of 2200's for my mains and I'm very happy with them. Cleaner output at high volumes, which is what I was looking for. Also an unexpected result.. more bass output at lower volumes. After all the reading I've done, that's one result I wasn't planning for at all. We're not talking a great amount here, but it's noticeable.

Chris, saw this post and decided to register. Too often people only complain about things on Bulletin Boards so I figured I'd share the good.

I've had an Epic 80 - 600 now for roughly 3 weeks in combination with the Outlaw 990 / 7700 and am very pleased with all. In the past I have owned B&W’s, M&K’s, Infinity and others. Still use a pair of B&W 700 series but blew a midrange and decided it was time to try something different. As not being able to afford a new pair of 800’s I thought it time to try something new. My dream system is a pair of 800 D’s with a McIntosh 602. Incredible sound but closing in on 50 grand. For now I truly believe that this system (80-600 / 990-7700) is 95-97% of that. At 1/7th the price. The last 3% is VERY spendy if you know what I mean.

Overall thoughts: Epic 80's are very clean, neutral and balanced with an outstanding horizontal sound stage. I did however raise them 8” off the floor on stands to create a better seated sound. (For me, could be personal preference.) The vertical sound is noticeably better this way. Though they do fill a very large room quite nicely. 32x28x16. Just had to find a sweet spot for theater viewing. There is a bit of brightness in mine but I mainly contribute that to my room environment. All hardwood floors with out much absorption of standing waves. I give them 8.5 out of 10. B&W’s a bit “warmer”. But that’s after years of use too. The Axioms might mellow a bit with age.

Overall thoughts Outlaws: 990 is a great pre amp with easy to follow and navigate on screen programming. Once set up you basically leave it alone short of selection and volume. Took all of 10 minutes to program. If that. It has a few quirks operation wise such as the remote Power Button only shuts it off. In order to turn it on you need to press what ever Input you want to listen too such as CD, DVD, etc. It then comes right on to your pre programmed settings. The remote also takes a bit of getting used to. Nothing that a couple of days using it won’t cure. Honestly now that I have everything set up I use a universal remote and about 3 or 4 functions. It’s all you need once it’s programmed. Great decoding, has handled everything that I’ve thrown at it flawlessly. I use just plain old 2 channel stereo a lot and it has wonderful sound with these Axiom 80’s. I ‘m running balanced cables through out and it’s great. There has been some talk about bass management issues in some of the forums that I have read. I don’t know what those people are smoking but the 990 has more bells and whistles, maybe too many, then a person could ever need. I had originally set the cross over (on the 990) at 60 mhz and found the EP 600 to be a bit “boomy” no matter how I set things. Then I set it to 40 mhz and things improved dramatically! The M80’s clearly handled everything down that far. Bottom line it’s a great pre / pro at an affordable price probably the best thing going.

Overall thoughts 7700: Fantastic! Clean, plenty of power, great sound. Absolutely nothing bad to say about it. It will rock your world or subtlety put you to sleep and still power everything at equal volumes. Unless you need to power a stadium this thing is wonderful. Go for it.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Axiom (and Outlaw) for a GREAT affordable product!

Robert

Welcome, Robert. Sounds like you have a nice set up. Glad you enjoy it.

Hey Robert:
Welcome and thanks for taking the time to post a review. You really, really make me want to go spend some money!

Welcome Robert! One heck of a helpful first post. Bravo. Hope you'll stick around, and continue to participate.

Thanks folks. I've lurked for a while. Did a ton of research before deciding to buy. Just thought it would be helpful to post for some one that was looking for exactly what I have.

I really do find myself "re-discovering" CD's that I've had for years. And DVD's with a 55" plasma are not too shaby either. But quality source material is the key. I know it's been said before but the better the system the more that you notice. And these products will bring out the best, or worst as the case may be.

Shugs...

I had my LCR on M200s for over a year and enjoyed them thoroughly. I recently acquired a Monster 3 channel and find it to be more responsive than the M200s, but only slightly.

What I have found is how little power the 80s take to run to very loud levels. The most seen so far is 28 watts on the mains.

You might try the 7125 first. If it's not enough, upgrade to the 7700.

i came across this thread and thought i would put in my 2 cents
currently i have the outlaw 990 and 7125 amp with axiom m60 vp150 qs8 and ep500, im very happy with this set up, in fact so happy i find myself not lokking at the latest and greatest in home theater anymore ( im sure that will change in time)
Outlaw just provided a software update for the 990 which took care of a few issues with bass management and they improved dolby prologic IIX processing, i dont know how they did it but the 990 now sounds even better.
I can confidently say Outlaw and Axiom sound great togethor

Robert - welcome to the mayhem!

Your post was informative and helpful. Interesting that you mention the B&W 700 series. When I was auditioning, I was quite taken with the 703s, until I turned the price tag over. A couple of the longer term members here said that the M60s and 703s sounded almost identical, I ended up buying the M60s and made a couple of trips back to the 703 store. I also believe the M60s and 703s are identical. The fascinating thing is the significant pric edifference in favor of the M60s.

Anyhow, welcome again and please chime in often.

Ray

Hi Robert,

Thanks for the very informative review and taking the time to write it. It is amazing what a little bit of homework and some very friendly and helpful folks can do for you. I am thrilled to hear that my "dream" system rocks in your house. For years I was happy with my Polk RTi setup until one day I took a trip to a Hi Fi dealer near my hometown of Collegeville PA. They had a B&W 803 setup running...I was shocked at how much I was missing in films and music!! When I got home that night I watched the same movie (Spiderman 2)and was so disappointed that my gear was missing so much detail and finesse. I was also dismayed that I would have to rob a bank or something to ever afford that quality of sound.....then as luck would have it, I stumbled across a review of the Axiom Epic 80 600 system on Audioholics website. My dismay turned to sheer joy as I researched more and learned that the Axioms were darn near close to those awesome B&Ws I coveted. To add even more happiness to the mix a nice fellow at Tweeter told me about Outlaw gear...huge bang for the buck equipment that would rival stuff costing 3 to 4 times as much (ok maybe 2 or 3 but who's counting?)

Anyway, because of guys like you I was able to construct a killer system without becoming a felon. And to boot, I learned some tricks on getting my current system maximized before I have the real deal in my home.

Let me give a little back to anyone reading this....if you have a decent sub, set that puppy to 40hz crossover and never look back. Set all your speakers to small except the mains unless you have smallish speakers that can't go very deep. Now, do some listening with both music and movies. Set the crossovers for the mains and the rest of your system at the point where you feel the speakers are giving you the most w/out straining. In my case, I ran the RTi8's full range and set the others (RTi6s and RTi4s) to 80 hz. My fiancee commented just tonight that my speakers sounded different which translated into they sounded better. Honestly, part of the fun of having this gear is experimenting with what sounds good to you. I am a pig in s^%$ right now cause my Polks sound great and all it took was some extra tweeking. But what is even better is that I have speakers coming to me in October that will make this gear seem like childs play!! (My wedding is in October so after the ceremony and honeymoon I'll be ordering up the system I have listed below). Oh, and if you are wondering about whether to go with the EP600 or the 500. I got a 2 out of 3 vote from Axiom experts to get the 600... Alan Loft liked the EP 500, while JC and Brent whole-heartly recommended the mighty 600. If I had to guess, I would say JC and Brent are a bit younger than Alan. In my experience with most folks, the younger guys and gals prefer rock the house, balls to the walls intensity (myself included) while the fellas and gals at or over 40 liked the less in your face sound..moving more toward the midrange sound.Of course I do not mean to categorize anyone here...just pointing out my own personal observations..below are my "stats"...thanks again to all who have helped me on my 2 year journey to Nirvana!!!

Current Gear:
2 Polk RTi 8s (Mains)
1 Polk Csi 5 - (Center)
2 Polk RTi 6s - Surround L and R
2 Polk Rti 4s - Surround back L and R
Mirage Omni12 Sub (By the way, this sub kicks serious a%$ for how cheap it is)

Harman Kardon AVR 435 (also performs very well for the price)

Future system (all with the help of awesome people in this forum and the Outlaw forum)and of course the experts here at Axiom and Steve from Outlaw.

2 Axiom 80s
1 VP150
4 QS 8s
1 EP600

My room is 3700 cubic feet (finished basement)

Other gear used in the past.....Rotel RSX 1067, Various Rotel Amps. Many HK AVRS, Yamaha receivers, Sony everything including a 53 inch CRT that still looks great after all these years.

Well I could go on and on...probably already did go too long but I hope this helps at least one person....I will certainly post a review of my Axiom/Outlaw gear once I get it all in the fall/winter. Oh and one more thing...get the outlet speakers....save 10% and get your loved one a nice present for letting you buy all this cool s&^%...:-)

Ciao

Chris

Chris, interesting reading and congratulations on the upcoming wedding. One suggestion, since your HK435 can set separate crossover frequencies, would be to set the RTi8s "small" with a crossover not lower than 60Hz. They should be able to play a bit cleaner higher up and your fine Omni 12 needs more work to do in that range that it can handle better than the RTi8s.

Hi John,

Looks like you were up late last night too...thanks for the advice. I did in fact try the exact setting you described but maybe because the HK only gives 65 watts per channel, the sound seems lacking (not as full) and unbalanced with the sub. I suppose it is because I am asking the Omni to do too much with them all set to small and requiring it to produce 60hz frequencies. When I moved the crossover to 40hz, it blended a whole lot better. It could be also that my ear is used to the warmer sound the RTi8s produce when set to Large. This area is so vast when it comes to options and opinions as there is no real cookie cutter approach. With each room there comes unique challenges etc. I have a slight advantage to some because my "lair" is wall to wall carpenting with heavy cloth furniture and bookshelves.

That is the real fun and beauty of this hobby, you can never tinker enough! I will definitely mess around even more once I get the Outlaw 7700 amp and 990 prepro. And, after I do all that, it will be back to step 1 when the Axioms arrive! So much to do so little time...he he he.

I heard Ian from Axiom has all his speakers set to Large and has 3 EP 600s going!!! So it just goes to show, there is no wrong way to set things up. Each person has an ear for what they like. I still highly, highly recommend experimenting for different locations and settings for the speakers. Just moving the crossover on my sub and making all but the mains set to small, it now sounds like I spent more money than I actually did for my current setup. I really enjoy getting the most out of my purchases.

Well that's it for now, enjoy what is left of the holiday weekend!

Chris