Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Which Power Source for M60ti? Newbie.

Ask your neighbors ... I'm sure they know

I can say that I’ve been very happy with the quality of the Transformer streaming via Spotify connect. It has Ethernet/WiFi to connect up to streaming services and allows for Tidal, which also sounds very good although the UI is sometimes inconsistent. It only has one digital input, optical, no coax which might be an issue for you but you probably wouldn’t need to connect your computer to it.

I know it has a burr brown dac which are good.

Lastly, it is more expensive.

Why buy the Schiit when you can get apps on the AxiomAir Transformer?

The problem I have with all these DACs is performance specs are not published.

Thanks for the feedback curved air. Yeah with the wireless I wouldn’t need as many inputs / coax. My current CD player only has coax as a digital feed out.

I’d love to get an axiom air / transformer but the price is up there. ( for me at least ). Which is why the Schiit modi 3 is on my list.
If was going into the axiom price band I’d look at other options too like the chord mojo etc.

But mojo you’re totally right. ( again , smirk). How do we compare these DACs? Other than anecdotal reviews. ( which can be good and trusted I think). For example, Curved air above says the burr brown dac sounds good. I believe him. ( why would he lie?). Then another reviewer says the modi 3 sounds good. Compared to what? Our own subjective preferences. At least in this case we are all working with in the relative similarity of axiom sound / voicing.

I’ve always believed in buying things once and aiming at the quality one can afford in this purely first world hobby. But then again this hobby is about mixing matching and experimenting. And there’s a part of me that feels that prioritizing on components is important. I’d rather have a cheaper DAC and save for amps. Really though it’s only $200 and amps are gonna be $$$ bling.

But that wireless connection with apps sounds lovely.

Can anyone comment further on the sound of the burr brown dac ?

Thanks all. Interesting food for thought.

Ok. So I’ve already done the speaker swap. And now I switched the speaker wires at the out put on my receiver and the problem travelled. ( one channel quieter than the other. ) This leads me to believe it’s the receiver and probably the pot / attenuator sensitivity. Nice to know it’s not a major room boundary or something.

Guess I’m gonna pull it all out and clean it. I’m watching videos on how to deox it. Will this be enough , I guess we ll see. Any other tips ?

Listened to DSOTM on a regular CD. Fabulous at medium loud volumes. ( seems the channel imbalance disappears at louder SPL).

Nice troubleshooting. Frankly, the culprit(s) may be so many different component(s) along the signal path. I hope it is the pot and hopefully you can replace it if it comes to that.

I believe both the Schiit and the Transformer sound good but what are you missing with one vs the other or maybe both? To really know, you'd have to really listen to both and maybe a "reference" DAC - at no signal (to gauge noise), low volume and at high volume, with different inputs, music, file types, and bit rates. You'd also have to listen to each channel individually by unplugging one of your speakers and seeing how much audible cross-talk there may be. And you have to know what to listen for on a high resolution, high accuracy, low noise system.

pay the bit extra for the deoxit with lubes. As the pure one is more for extreme cleaning, {dual cleaning lubing}. If it is the pot that should be enough.

Burr brown is used by a lot of companies quite good, my older AVR Teac pro {Tascam} used one of their top chips. Was great through any connection. Not sure what my current Anthem uses but equally as good. Check the model # of the chips as they change so quick one years top model is the next or 2nd years bottom tier.

I’m not sure of the model # of the Burr Brown in the Transformer.

Would need Ian or Andrew to confirm that information.

Thanks to all for the great info over the last month. It’s been super helpful gathering info to help make decisions. ( I haven’t bought anything yet but will be doing so over the winter. DAC and bluray / sacd player. ) I’m gonna stick with my current Yamaha receiver for now and hope to go to separates ( ADA amp hopefully) perhaps in the future. If I’m going to spend $$$ I do t think I’ll see a ton of gains in quality or SPL from another mid grade integrated amp.

I want to switch gears and ask something new. I was reading reviews ( all kinds of them , and very positive all around) on the m100. One short review ( audioholics ) described the midrange woofers on the m100v4 ( and m80v4) for that matter) as running “ full range “ with no crossover. Is this true or is there some kind of high low pass filter at least?

Do my m60ti run full range in the mid woofer?

If true, why does axiom ( Andrew and Ian ) choose time do this? Advantages ? Disadvantages?

I’ve got no opinion on this , just curious. It sounds like a departure from what’s
“ normal “ in most 3 way designs. In fact I think the midrange and mid bass is one the strengths of my m60ti.

Happy new year all and look forward to your comments as I further my understanding of this great hobby / past time.

From what I've seen on my v4, Axiom is continuing the tradition of letting the woofer response attenuate naturally on the low end rather than limiting it with filtering. Simple theory will tell you this is bad because amplifier power is being robbed to move a small driver non-linearly and it could get damaged from thermal or mechanical fatigue. In practice however, the truth is more complicated. First, the woofer remains linear for its specified range and SPL. Second, the woofer does not get damaged mechanically or thermally even at the peak specified levels. Third, adding a filter to limit low frequency behavior likely negatively impacts The Family of Curves. Fourth, such a filter would unnecessarily add cost.

I've found with any of the passives including the M100, low frequency performance improves with the addition of a sub. The actives are a different beast. For music, the addition of twin 500s fed off each DSP make no difference in my 1800 cu. ft. living room which is open to the rest of the house. The bass is absolutely a wonder and I cannot say that about any passive in the same space. The active, signal level filtering has brought out the best in all the Axiom drivers and there is nothing more one could ask for with regard to speaker response.