So just picked up the Boston cherry M80s in B stock. Couldn't stop drooling over here in YVR, they were there the last 2 weeks calling my name.

The question is the same old Will my Integra DTR 30.4, Rebadged as a Teac professional { TASCAM PA-R200} Be adequate enough to drive them. It's rated 4ohms in Europe but only 6 to 16 OHMs north America.
It's 100 WPC at 8 OHMs
The manual says 160 WPC all 7 at 6 ohms and the last page claims 230 watts at 3ohms short term highest power.
So is this my dream system with enough power or am I gonna fall short.

The Integra will do nicely unless you are listening loud in a very large room. The M80s don't really demand that much power.

I once figured it out for my smaller room (3.6 x 7 metres) I would use about 60w to hit 110 db peaks and that was with 10db of headroom.

Thank you
Reading all these posts about avoid Onkyo stuff, is kinda hard to tell if they have enough power.
my room is {4x4.6 meters} I like loud and the wife doesn't of course she wont let me play 60dbs with my current M22s.
So I'm kinda dead when they arrive.

Lol. Good luck with the wife. Its not about avoiding Onkyo stuff, its avoiding high volumes on low power rated gear in general. Your power needs for your space sound fine. Congrats on the M80s!

I do not own an Integra that you have so I have no real experience.

I have owned a Harmon that I managed to blow the power supply up on while under warranty but that was from a different cause.

The receiver has only so much power. Ohms law says that V=I*R. In the receiver, the voltage that it has coming in is for the most part a constant. So the only other two variables is the current (i) and the speaker resistance (r).

Some may say that the speakers resistance is a constant, but look at the chart for the M80 speaker and you will see that depending on what frequency it is producing, it spends a lot of time below the 6ohm mark.



So as your resistance gets lower the amount of current goes up to balance the equation for your constant voltage. Inside your receiver the more current that is going through the circuits generates HEAT. As your receiver starts to get hotter, the components inside will start to fail.

Now there is the second component inside your receiver that has an effect on this heat. The volume knob controls how much of that potential current goes through the amplifier that is the biggest heat generating part of your system. The lower the volume, then the less current.

This is all overly simplified but it illustrates the point. The M80's can be played on your receiver, with a large * If you do play too loud, you will cook the receiver and shorten it's life. The loudness is an additive thing, so playing at -30db for a whole day might be just as bad for the receiver as playing at -15db for an hour.

Just make sure that you give your receiver adequate ventilation.

Thank you guy's.
My M80s are huge, As always they came in one week flat.
Hooked them up right away, oh my god as I have read many times here already it's way different than a bookshelf speaker.
I've already gone from M3 to M22 now M80. My M3 has moved to height channels and M22 are now side surround, and of course my VP 160 can stay put.
Each upgrade has been phenomenal, Thank god I've grown up from drooling over the Klipsch Reference series in all the stores.
In my opinion there is no comparison, Axioms are more Reference quality than all the music playing in London Drugs and best buy.
Here's hoping my AVR can handle the power of these babys

Brendo -- Congrats!

My m80s came today too. Bliss ..

Your unit has pre-out. Why not keep an eye open for a used 100~150w power amp that you could plug the M80 into through the pre-out on your Integra??

I don't know if it's like where you live, but here I picked up a great AudioSource One/A amp for $75. There are always people selling separate amps. The M80s would shine and save your receiver for powering the other speakers

Congrats to you as well Mr. Quark.
I think they are a great addition

Thank you Matt,
The power Amp, is totally on my radar.
I also think a used power Amp would be a great addition

I love my M80 v2 and I would gladly have upgraded to v4 if someone - anyone - could convince me that I'd hear a noticeable difference.

There would be a subtle difference. If you did an A/B test of the two side by side you would say that the .V4 was better. But if you simply unplugged your .V2 and replaced them with the newer .V4 you would most likely miss the differences.

Not to say the improvement is not worth it, but the speakers you have are very exceptional

I have a bunch of drivers (late v3 and early v4 mix) and some v4 crossovers waiting to go into my v2s. One of these days...

I'd love to do a blind listening test of the V2 and V4.

At the last Axiom gathering, I was impressed by the mids of the B&W Diamond bookshelf vs the M3. There was a quality to the female vocals that brought the Diamonds one step closer to being truly transparent.

If Axiom could bring a similar improvement to the M80, that would be amazing.

You are saying this based on experience?

I have heard a pair of M80ti's and I have owned a pair of M80.V4's and I would not say they were night and day different. I thought that both of them sounded exceptional and yes the .V4 did sound better but I could not put my finger on what was different.

I am basing my opinion on psychoacoustics in you brain will have a very hard time to distinguish two sounds that are very close to each other if you don't sample them back to back several times.

Perhaps it is just me as I am not a trained listener

The incremental improvements would take a backseat to other far more important things.....

Like your new room soon Mojo.... Then you can get every drop out. You cannot complete your transition to the darkside in the Dojo.

Placement, acoustics and toe in would bias differences far more than version incremental upgrades I'd guess. (But I have nothing to go by but my own messing around.)

In early 2007 I listened to the M80ti and was extremely disappointed with the linearity. When I heard the M80v2, I pulled the trigger. If there's as much of a difference between the v2 and the v4, as the ti and v2, I'd definitely upgrade.

Oh hell...screw my new room! Why don't I just sell everything here, come out there, buy one of everything Axiom, Bryston, Golden Ear and Paradigm, kick the missus out and we'll have an A/V party the rest of our lives. Yaaaahooooooooo!!!!!!

I my self only learned of Axiom in late 2013. So only know V.4
most likely there has to be noticeable difference in all Versions or why else would they keep updating.
As I've come across in these forums there's already a big difference in the tweets as they've changed them from a plastic cover. So there's likely material upgrades in other components {Woofer, crossover,cabinet}.


Sounds like audio bliss mojo though the room for the equipment would make the bliss of the components shine.

You're just acting crazy cause its Stampede time!

I have a denon 3805 and that was rated 110w per. It had no problem playing my M80's.
Your room is not overly big so I cannot imaging you would have issues.
I now run a Anthem MCA50 and a Anthem AVM30 as a pre/Pro and I get more volume than I need actually.

I notice a big difference between the ti and my v3.
if your running 5.1 or 7.1 and your planning on upgrading then that centre channel needs to go the same route.

That said is the difference worth $1500, I don't know ... to me yes.

Whynot order the M80v4 and try a side by side. If there not then it only costs you $90 to find out.

I just spent the last two hours drinking some fine Chianti while feeding a plethora of M80 decision options into a Bayesian Belief Network. Here's what the neural net came up with.

Who's got the ti AND v2 AND v3 AND v4? Axiom that's who!

Who's got a huge dock and can line up all 4 versions in inky black against the midnight darkness? Axiom that's who!

Who can host the largest double-blind listening test in September? Axiom that's who!

Time to light up Muskoka with some M80 sweetness boys...and Mary if you're still with us.

And finally...who's crazy enough to pull off a stunt like this in the name of SCIENCE! Ian that's who!

Isn't my neural net algorithm simply brilliant?

Now your talkin!

Well yeah, Axiom could set up a blind listening test, but then you'd miss out on all the fun.

well,way I see it without hearing all those side by side blind tests is:
if there were no upgrades or improvements, why do they keep tweaking the M80 line ?
ok with the M80Ti if I can remember was the highs and that was tweaked with a cross over change. Some use to put a resistor in there.
v2 - v3 Cross over and I think that's when the black dust caps changed also I believe drive change to the woofer.
V4 well Driver change, tweeter change and crossover.
If none of these were to improve sound why all the changes ?

I've had the Ti, and now v3. I can hear the difference. I have here the M80Ti L/R and a v4 Centre. I can tell you that side by side is a no brainer difference. And at that, it would make me upgrade, specially if I had the cash in the bank.

v3 to v4 , well I still have my v3's .......I am waiting for v5 I still think there's a Mid-Range driver update coming yet someday and with my luck I would upgrade to the HPv4 and that update will come out next month. I have asked this question a couple times. Since the tweeter, Woofers and Crossovers been changed and improved and updated , if there was a mid-range driver update coming and no replies, either denied or maybe or yes.

Brilliant indeed !!

So I would like to thank you guys for all the advice, I found an older Crest Audio VS 900 of craigslist. Went to his house was an audio head with home studio and just never really used it. Totally mint minus one scratch across the top. To cool it's in my entertainment center anyways!!!

So as to the Hijack of my thread are any of you planning to make the party come September.

Yup. All the way from the west coast.

It's nice to have relatives close by in Ottawa...

TAM