zzyzx, when I read Tom's comments, they don't seem directed at you, they were expressing general frustration. I realize a lot of forums are filled with people who want to yell at each other, but that's not the case here. In general you'll find this is one of the friendliest forum groups around, so I'm sure we can all get along.
To the question that came up about professional reviews on the VP150, I read the same review you did on Sound & Vision.
Sound & Vision
The VP150 center channel exhibits significant off-axis lobing that begins as soon as the microphone is moved off center. Our averaging technique tends to obscure it’s severity but it’s easy to hear the sound change quality at any listening angle as one walks about the speaker.
...
Later in the same review
The system's center speaker did a mostly fine job when delivering dialogue. A wide range of voices in 300, from the heavy-handed narration to King Leonidas's barked orders and the superhuman sound of Xerxes's utterances, came across as clear, natural, and unstrained. When I shifted to either side of my couch, however, clarity dropped off noticeably. Voices basically retained the same tone, but they sounded less crisp when heard from any position other than dead center in front of the screen.
I for one agree with this review. I do notice that the sound when right in the sweet spot is fantastic and there is a noticeable difference when moving to the front right or left position. Now, do I think it's "bad" when off-center? No, not at all (and I don't think that's what the review indicates either). It is simply not as good as it is dead center.
I should preface my comments by saying that I do not have a professionally trained listening ear, and I didn't listen to dozens of different speakers before making my purchase. I have to imagine that off-axis sound is always worse regardless of the manufacturer, but I didn't listen to enough other speakers to tell you how much better or worse Axiom is than average.
So, in summary of a long post.
The VP-150 sounds tremendous when listening in the sweet spot. It still sounds quite good when listening off-axis, though to me there is a noticeable difference. This does not affect my happiness with the speaker. I would buy it again (and may in fact do so in the future to add a second below my screen at some point in the future) Happy shopping! I'm happy to answer more questions if you have them.
