When I first bought this receiver, I did not buy it without reservations. The M80’s are known to shut down receivers, as well as stand alone amplifiers. Axiom is very up front with their customers who are considering the M80’s and there are not many receivers that they recommend to customers. To find out what the receiver’s limitations were going to be, I did numerous listening tests in stereo, direct, pure, and also surround modes. During these little “tests”, I turned the sub off and set the mains to large.
In my room, there is no way I can pin the volume and not walk out without permanent hearing damage. I can however stay in the room and listen to multi channel music (SACD) at a fairly loud SPL. That being said, in multi channel surround, and an average SPL at my listening position 12’ away from the mains of 105 dbs, there is absolutely, no tell tail signs of clipping. To further experiment, I left the room and used my RF/IR remote and turned the volume to max and let an SACD disk play from beginning to end. Even though I was not in the room, I could not detect any oddities of sound and the receiver did not shut down.
The Marantz does not have a soft clip feature that I am aware of either. So if it were to clip, I’d know it.
All that aside, I do not recommend the 8001 to anyone. I have had other problems with it that I’ve reported here already. I am not a Marantz fan boy and will only report what I know and hear, and not what I think or believe without expressing those words.
The question of this post was whether or not the 8001 will drive a 4 ohm load. It will drive mine, so take that for what it’s worth. It will also process all LPCM inputs from HD and BR players and DSD from SACD players, so I consider it adequately ‘future proofed”.
