Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Hearing Things M80v3 are “Towers of Power”

Sorry about the link...tried to go back and fix it but maybe I'm too new to be trusted with the "edit" function?

It’s not you the edit function times out fairly quickly.

Thanks for reposting the link. It’s an interesting read.

Bump(you're hereby granted 45 minutes to edit future posts), I studied that 3310 review. In the past I haven't taken seriously claims that Denons could somehow handle 4 ohm loads better than units such as Onkyo, Pioneer and Yamaha, because the lab tests that I read and personal experience didn't lend any factual support to those claims. I'm also not willing to take seriously a claim that Denons aren't suitable for 4 ohm use without more than that reviewer's report.

Examining it indicates in my view that either the individual unit was defective or the measurement was flawed. Nothing suddenly happens just after 1KHz that would cause distortion in an amplifier to shoot straight up, as his 4 ohm measurement shows. Furthermore, even his 8 ohm measurement isn't in accord with Denon design results, which support a 120 watt rating over the full 20Hz-20KHz range at no more than .05% THD, when operated for five continuous minutes at the full rated power.

I was interested to compare other Denon measurement results on that site, and found that both the 1909 measurements and the 2309 measurements showed no problem at 4 ohms. I also read the rather nonsensical comments by the 1909 reviewer, who still said that there was reason not to use 4 ohm speakers(the 2309 reviewer apparently hadn't gotten the message and said nothing of the sort). So, models one and two grades down from the 3310 didn't show such an anomalous result. Just more 4 ohm silliness demonstrated.

Ram, there's no good reason for you not to go with the 3310 or 3311. Also, you shouldn't assume that an amplifier with more maximum power capability would actually give you an improvement in performance. The 2310/2311 should have all the power needed for safe volume levels with the M80s.

John, does the 2310 /2311 have the pre amp facility for future upgrade to a powerful Amp, for better performance.

No, the 23XX series does not have amp preouts, you need to get the 28XX, 3XXX, 4XXX and up series to get them.

Ram, that was the reason for my last two sentences above. No, the 23 models don't have pre-amplifier outputs for an external amplifier, but that may not be significant. As I said, a more powerful external amplifier doesn't necessarily give you "better performance". If the amplifier in the receiver has enough power for the sound level needed at your listening position, adding something that has even more available is meaningless.

The M80s are fairly easy to drive and use about 1 watt for a comfortably loud level at a typical listening position. Brief split-second peaks in the sound use much more of course, but the typical receiver rated anywhere around 100 watts maximum has enough headroom to handle these peaks at safe(to your hearing)sound levels.

If you studied the lab results on the predecessor model 2309, which I linked above for a different reason, you saw that the 4 ohm output measured was about 200 watts. If there're some other features of the 33 series that you really want, you should pay more to get it, but you shouldn't be overly concerned about power ratings.

Jake, Thank You

John, I appreciate your advice and time taken to enlighten me. Thank you.

John enlightens us all, the rest of us can en-lighten your wallet though!