Today Spiffnme was kind enough to invite me to his house to audition his set up. He has M60s, VP150, QS8s, EP500, algonquins, M2s and more. I was really impressed by the set up and the sound they made...

The sound was very detailed and clean. The M60s sounded great for music and it seemed even better for movies. I am now sure that Axioms will be in my home theater room, I just need to decide whether I will go with the 60s or 80s, kind of leaning towards the 80s though.

I have an Athena set up at home which I was very satified with until now. I do believe after I get my HT done I may have to upgrade my living room system when finances permit.

Thanks again Spiffnme...
Jim

M80s, M80s, M80s, M80s, M80s, M80s. Jim, I think you should choose the M80s, if I haven't made myself clear.

Ditto

Considering the number of us on here that have made the jump to M80s, I think you have to do the same, the amount of extra detail and low end is worth the extra money for the M80s.

That's really impressive being the M60s sounded so good. I cant wait to get back to my home and order some of these beasts...

Since the price difference isn't all that much I will probably go with the M80s.

Or, you could get the M60s..........and skip the trip to "Amp shutdown world"

Sorry, I couldn't help myself....but the M80's posse is getting out of control.
Either would be a great choice. (provided you have the right Amp(s) for the M80's.)

And what IS the right amp for the M80's?

Mine

I have half a mind to drag my 105w Sherwood RX-4103 stereo receiver out of the garage or even the 50w Onkyo TX-8211 from the den and connect them up to the 80s and see how well they do. Even prior to hookup I'd be almost ready to bet the 80s won't shut either receiver down at comfortable levels.

Unless you consistently listen at quite high volumes or have a very large room, I seriously doubt that you'd be disappointed with the M60's.

It's wonderful that you were able to visit Craig in his new home. I'm jealous!

No, you wouldn't be disappointed with the M60s, it is just a matter of preference and getting all that you can for the money paid, the M60s and M80s offer both, I just feel the M80s offer a little more and are worth it.

For an avr, the 3808 is the defacto standard around here to drive the M80s. For seperates, you have a number of choices including Emotiva as there are few on their forum running XPA's with no problems. I have my eye on the Outlaw series of products, in particular the M2200 a pair of them to drive the M80s and leave the Denon to deal with the rest, or possibly a trio of them for the front.

Get to it then.

I can go one better...er, worse, my 14 year old Sony STRD-915(?) dolby prologic receiver. I ran the M80s off of it for the duration of my M22 Ninja XO comparisons when I had the 3808 all tied up with them. The Sony worked very well.

Jim - I did the exact same thing you did. Auditioned the 60s, loved them and figured that for the "little" extra money, why not go all in? Knowing myself, I knew I'd always ask "what if" if I didn't get the best floorstander in Axiom's line up.

Since you've heard the 60s, you know you'll be happy with them, so it comes down to knowing yourself and considering whether you'll have the upgrade bug in the near future or not. If you don't have the same addiction that many of us do, go for the 60s and you'll never look back (and you'll still impress all of your friends with how amazing your setup sounds for what you paid). If you don't have that level of self-control, you're not alone, and it's easier to go for the 80s now than to upgrade in the near future.

Either way, I'm glad you enjoyed the audition and are on the path to joining the Axiom club.

Jason

We had a blast (or at least I did!)

For aesthetic reasons, we'd moved the TV and equipment into a corner. Granted it does look a bit better, but with Jim's visit, I moved it back out of the corner to really hear what the difference was. It's staying out of the corner, aesthetics be damned.

I've not had much time to focus on getting everything setup properly, but most everything is pretty good now. I think I may need to play with the surround settings, but at least everything else is working nicely now.

Jim's visit prompted me to finally get off my duff and figure out the media sharing features of the PS3. I have had it working so-so for awhile, but it always had some bugs. I downloaded Twonky and moved the hard drive that held all of our music into my newest PC, and bam! It's all working. Now I not only have my mp3's working out in the living room, I've got all of our pictures, and video files as well. Yeah, that means all the downloaded porn works in the living room as well! Who could ask for more? PS3 rocks!

Next up...figuring out how to rip my entire DVD collection so I can use the PS3 to view all my movies as well.

Anyway...thanks for stopping by Jim! I'm glad I could help you out!

Oh...and from the room size you described to me, I think the M60's are your best bet. If it were me, I'd get the M60's and pay a bit extra for a custom real wood finish.

Yea, It was the highlight of my week by far... We need to do it again when I am not so sleep deprived.

I'm glad you were able to get the computer hooked up to the PS3, That Rocks... POrn on the big screen huh? LOL...

Right now I am seriously considering doing some reconstruction in my basement to enlarge my HT area to accommodate the M80s but you did have a great idea of custom cabinets on the M60s, that would be so sweet.

Man audiophiles are cool people.... Thanks again for having me over, It was a blast.

Jim

Craig - glad you are enjoying the PS3!

Couple of thoughts (this may be redundant to another posts I have done).
1) I got a D-Link (powered) 8 port USB hub and plugged it into a port on the PS3. Moved my pics and music to a 320GB external drive. Works a treat and gets the PC (and the aggravation of Twonky/Tversity and network issues out of the mix.)

2) Along the same lines, I am in the process of moving my DVDs to an external 750GB. This thread is the best one I found and goes into substantial detail on the process of moving DVDs to a hard drive.

NOTE: Once you get the DVDs onto an external drive, you need to allow everything to set itself up for a few minutes after you turn it on. The DVDs won't show up instantly.

Final suggestion. While it's a little pricey, this PS31r-PRO is a great solution. You can use your IR remote to operate your equipment. Your remote will use PS2 commands to operate the PS3 throught the Shmartz unit and the Shmartz unit includes ON and OFF commands in it's software. Wonderful stuff.

Ray

i would recommend the A1400-8. I love that amp. had it for 3 months so far. very nice power.

The USB hub and an external drive is a great idea...I may go that route.

I still need to figure out how to turn the native VOB file from the DVD into a file the PS3 can playback though. I'm still working on that.

Most times all you need to do is trick the PS3 by renaming the .VOB file to .MPG.

The only other issue that you run into when running them directly from a hard drive, is that the PS3 will only read hard drives formatted using FAT. This limits your file sizes to 4 GB. When you rip your DVDs, you just have to make sure it is compressed to under 4GB. A single VOB file is best also. It gets complicated when you rip it into several vob files, as the defaults usually specify.

Start by removing all the extras, menus and extra sound formats. That will get you most of the way there. If you use too much compression, you will notice a difference in the video quality. If you want to view an extra, you can always dig up the disk again.

You can avoid the size limitation by streaming the movies from your PC with an NTFS drive instead of FAT. However, that is a whole other can of worms. A portable drive, plugged in directly, is a lot easier.

I am TOTALLY just going to keep schlepping video disks around the house for a while until you guys get this all figured out.

I think we actually do have it figured out now.

However, your way is admittedly better Tom. It allows you to keep standing up and sneaking past the fridge for more beer proving that automation is not always the answer.

I think it is actually you who has it figured out correctly.

The thread I provided gives you great detail to doing the .vob thing.

What you will also find out is that it isn't necessary (or preferred) to rename the file from .vob to .mpg.

If you go the hard drive route, you will need to format it in FAT32 (also explained in that thread) and keep the .vob file you make smaller than 4 GB.

That thread has all the answers.

I just realized...it's possible my system wasn't working properly when Jim demo'd at my home. *blush* How embarrassing. 2-channel audio was fine, but there's a good chance when I played movies he was only hearing 2.1!

WHAT!!! You know come to think of it you may be right...

Well I guess we are going to have to do it again... Yay!!!

Jim

yep...maybe later today or tomorrow? I'm not exactly sure when I'll be home yet though.

Don't sweat it, I have company from Ga here so probably next weekend if thats ok. I am looking forward to it.

I may have to find some M22s in the area to listen to as well. man I am flakey... I guess thats why I am a chronic bachelor...

Jim

Glad to see that others are worse than me!

Jim, the M22s sound very similar to the M60s just less bass. The mids and highs are very close.

The M60's soundstage is quite larger too...but the tone/sound is very similar. The M22's are perfect for a smaller room paired with a good sub.

In a Mojos big room the M22 with the EP600 sounded very good and surprisingly similar in soundstage to the M80s when we did the Ninja testing and had speaker stands for the 22s for proper placement. All involved were quite surprised as, has been previously mentioned, the 22s sounded thin before, but not that time. But the M60/M80 will play louder when required.

I've heard and read in reviews that the 80's play loud. How do they play low?

Alan told me the same thing about the M22s/w sub. He said it's actually a little hard to discern between the M22s and M80s where the sub is used. Obviously 2 channel, different story.

Right now awesome listening to a little Black Sabbath. At 95dB 1w 1m efficient, it doesn't take much.

Awesome, I do most of my listening at low volume, 60-75db and the M22 and M80 have better detail at low volumes than the M60s, at least when I was doing my comparison. The M60 when played a little harder then sounds more like the other 2, IMO.

Thanks Jay!

your welcome.

The last audition I hosted was worse Craig, so don't worry. We listened to everything without the EP600 engaged... duh!

Jason

Glad I'm not in Texas!

Are you sure? 65 and sunny today. How's the weather in NY?