Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Receivers used with M80

There are many people out there with the XPA2/XPA3 with M80s and love them, there are also a few that have had problems and moved on to other products, so YMMV.

The Emo seems to be a bit of a gamble, some have been fine and others have not when driving 4 Ohms so that is up to you to decide if you want to try that out.

On the other hand, if you choose to go the pro amp route, consider a couple of points....they are the best bang per $$ out there, as far as power goes. They're usually not all that "pretty", but some are not too bad. The fan noise may or may not be an issue for you...it depends on how loud you are playing, at lower levels the fan(s) may not even kick in. Remember that pro amps are built for the road and are usually not pushed anywhere near as hard in a home enviro. Nevertheless, there are some threads on the web reg. swapping out the fans on some units like the Behringers, to a much quieter fan(quite simple from what I've seen). Zimm(Charles) has disconnected his fan on his QSC altogether, with no issues other than a little extra heat.

Behringer makes a fanless amp, the A500, which many HT owners seem to like, although a few quality issues have shown up on some forums.

Another point to consider is the inputs/output connections...QSC GX's and Behringer EPX's and A500 have RCA inputs and Banana/spade outputs that some other pro amps don't have.

Jason, welcome. Again, how have you "come to find" that? The 805 is a very powerful amplifier, including 4 ohm operation at those frequencies where the M80s measure that impedance(over the majority of their range the M80s are 8 ohm speakers). If you get the M80s you shouldn't assume that a problem would occur. If it did you could then correct it.

John,

When contacting the audio experts at Axiom I was told there was a potential problem with the Onkyo 805 shutting down due to the protection at 4 ohms. Maybe someone else can shed more light on this.. But it would be ideal for me if I didn't have to spend anymore.

Jason

Jason, Axiom has done testing in the past with various brands of AVR's in combination with the M80's. Denon, HK, SN, to name a few, have had no issues at any levels. This is why they encourage people to look at those brands.

On the flip side, any receiver will drive the m80's. However, some may go into protect mode sooner than others, depending on how hard your driving the speakers.

Personally, I don't think all receivers are made the same, they are not apples to apples. Design and engineering quality does vary, just like anything else in life.

I do believe the last few year offerings from Yamaha and Onkyo have improved and people have less issues.

I may just try it and see what happens, with a room my size I would guess the 8ohm M60's may be out of the question.

why? My room is 30 x 31 x 9, I owned the m60's for many years before getting the m80's.

I have that feeling if I get the m60's, I will always wonder how much better the m80's could sound

Ahhh, the condition known as "upgradeitis". All I can say is that if I still had my m60's I would be very happy, they were totally sufficient. For the small difference in price, the 80's are awesome. There is not a huge difference in sound, but the 80's can handle GOBS of power. Whether you will ever make use of their ability, is another question.

It is pretty bad when I have the sickness even before purchasing anything.

Thank you guys for all your help!

Jason