Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners pioneer hpm 100 vs m80

I just remembered that when I had the HPM's connected to my Technics 65 watt per channel (1970's 2 chl) receiver they sounded great. When it died I tried a late (1980's 2 chl) 100 wpc receiver and they sounded like you described. I then purchased a Sansui 8080 (1970's 2 chl monster) 130 wpc, they sound great like the Technics. Recently, I tried connecting them to a Denon 4308ci 7 chl 130 wpc receiver and they sound tinny, as you described. I don't know why but these newer receivers don't seem to send the low frequencys to the mains like the older receivers did. I'm wondering if it has to do with them being designed to have a sub. I had the Denon set with no sub large fronts 2 channel direct and the sound still didn't rival the sound when connected to the Sansui.

i remember in the 80s when i bought my first integrated amp (some Sansui model) with 125 W/ch.
i used it with speakers of about 86dB sensitivity.

got rid of it within a year because it could not even reproduce a solo piano at live levels; but i remember that the low frequencies were good and the rest too.
i liked this amp a lot, but not the low power.

i then bought a Hafler 500 which i still use.

Butch, this might have to do with amp designs, some of the older amps did not have linear amp sections, like most do now. Also those older amps had huge power supplies, so feeding speakers power was easy, the new avr's etc, have good power but no where near what some of those old amps have.

Thanks for all the feedback. I just placed my order for the m80.

I found a vintage sansui g5700 75wpc about 2 mos ago $20. $10 for cleaner for tuner and knobs . swapped out my 40 wpc kenwood for this. so far so good.
With the m80's on the way I 'm debating what to do first.
1. hook them up to the sansui in the living room ( dinner music)
2.hook them up thru the speaker selector to the adcom 555 amp right next to my hpms and do a/b comparison.
Also picked up another 40+ used cds today. (gotta love princeton record exchange.)

Personally I'm interested in a comparison, hummm... I love comparisons.

My new m80s.. 1st using sansui g5700 75w. I hooked them up put on a cd for dinner music, I couldn't turn the volume past 2. The out put was so much more than my KLH 17.
Listened all week with the Sansui, nice smooth pronounced mids and highs. Good bass.
mostly low to modrate level listening, using a large variety of cds.
I did discover some of them to be poorly recorded, never noticed before.

Last night had my son carry them to the basement, my hernia repair prevented me.
Hooked them up to the adcom 555 amp placed them right next to my HPM 100s so all I had to do to judge was move over 1 cushion on the sofa.

We played the same song on each speaker one at a time. My son and I both agreed on the same differences. The M80s put the Hpms to shame as far as mids and highs, but the Hpms had more bass.
We then played the same songs on my old phillips turntable , wow what a difference, much "smoother" full range sound.
We both liked the m80s with the turntable the best.
I had him carry the Hpms upstairs. We played with the postioning of the m80s with the others out of the way. Spread them further apart moved closer to the rear wall. faced almost straight forward
We cranked it up a little and...There's the bass! Nothing missing here!

Glad you're enjoying them ff! I remember when I first got my M80s, I put on Physical Grafitti and immediately noticed the bass of the 80s, tight and punchy.

So the M80s are ALSO the Dick Cheney of speakers?

I said "tight and punchy" , not "white and paunchy" !