I came across this post and wanted to find out if your new VP150 sounded any better. I am currently going through your problem with the vp150 pretty much verbatim. I noticed dialogue sounded really muffled and not detailed, And Ever since i got the speaker it sounded different from the rest doing pink noise but i figured that was just because it was voiced differently or something, Until i got back from vacation and watched a movie and got so frustrated with the sound i just ended up setting it to phantom center channel and was able to enjoy the rest of the movie.
I took the speaker apart to try and find the problem and a couple components in the xover appear as though they had gotten quite hot, Which im not totally sure how because I havent ever had the theater up at levels I consider to be unreasonable. And to my knowledge either has anyone else.
Upon further trying to diagnose the problem with a toner i found out one of the midrange drivers wasnt working so i took it out and Axiom has already sent me a replacement but that still didnt help my original problem. Like you say my tweeters DO work but unless i have my ear right next to them its hard to hear anything over the midrange drivers.
I hooked the center channel up to an amp and just played music through it and honestly i would have rather listened to my alarm clock radio because it sounds soo dull and muddied and like you said, wrapped up in a cardboard box.
Im not sure if this was a defect from the factory or something else that happened while i was gone for nearly a month or what but I never was really satisfied with the vp150, looking back i wish i had just gotten a 3rd M80 for the center channel. I didnt remmeber being very dissapointed before with the speaker, only when i returned from vacation did it really start to bother me. I didnt even notice one of the midrange drivers wasnt working until i had the speaker apart and put a signal to each driver seperatly.
Im starting to wonder now if when i return the Vp150 for diagnosis if i should just try and trade it for an M80 instead since most people arent really that happy with the vp150 anyway. I even started to wonder if there was really anything wrong with mine after doing some reading on here but theres just no way axiom would sell a speaker that sounds that bad. Just no way.
Oh and then i went and did the stupidest thing of the week, Went and jacked up one of my M80 tweeters while taking it out to test the vp150 tweeter with some music vs just the toner to further check the drivers. So I just left the nice unsmashed tweeter in my beloved M80's and put the smashed one back in the center since its gonna stay with the house when we sell it anyway, whereas my 80's are coming with me. So now I have a Vp150 with a dented tweeter (which still works fine) that sounds like its wrapped in a blanket in a carboard box
