In reply to:
I have the VP150 and it's one of the best centers I have ever heard. I have the Fifth Element superbit, and that Opera scene at 'full blast' is @(^($@ incredible! Her voice, even at the highest frequencies, just sail across my living so gently and swiftly, never hitting a foul note, never sounding fatiguing or annoying. Trust me, I am EXTREMELY picky about sound.
I also recently purchased a VP150, along with a pair of M60ti's, M3ti's, and a single QS8. Part of the reason that discussion caught my attention is because the VP150 hasn't quite lived up to my expectations. Sound from the center channel sometimes seems to have a slightly hollow or "boxy" sound to it, and maybe a slight rolloff in the upper freqencies. Dialog also seems strained at times, sometimes even to the point of slight distortion that sounds like crackling or static. Note I'm not even talking about off-axis performance here, this is from the sweet spot. The other speakers are very impressive, particularly the M60's which have given a new life to 2-channel music; so I don't think this is just a matter of me expecting too much from the Axiom speakers. The way I see it, there are three likely explanations for my disappointment:
1) My VP150 is somehow defective. Thing is, it's not obviously broken, so I don't know if it's possible for the speaker to have a defect that hurts performance without making the speaker inoperable. Also, I really don't know of any technical test or diagnostic I could use to determine this.
2) The VP150 just doesn't perform up to my expectations. On the other hand, given the price of this top center from the Axiom lineup and the fact that I'm very happy with my other Axiom speakers it seems like this center should suit my needs well. That's why when the discussion about the design of the VP150 came up on the other board it caught my attention.
3) Source Material. I suppose this is possible given that sometimes the VP150 seems to sound better than others. I would even expect this if I were just getting disappointing from analog cable TV. But that's not the case, as I'm seeing these problems with DVD's that I would consider to be reference material. You mention 5th Element Superbit; the scene where Leloo escapes from the lab and jumps off the building has always been demo material for me, as well as the scene where Gary Oldman's character demonstrates the new gun. Both of these scenes exhibit the problems I mentioned above. And the other night when we were watching Mothman prophecies there's a scene towards the end where it's totally silent except for a phone ring coming from the center channel, which had noticeable distortion/crackling. But then last night watching Disney's Atlantis the sound was very good. So I don't know if Atlantis is just a less-challenging soundtrack for the center, or do the recordings on the other two movies contain distortion?
The one thing I
am sure is that this is not an issue of inadequate amplification or clipping. I'm using an Outlaw 770 amp with 200W/channel @ 8ohms (300W @ 4ohms), so it should be plenty of power considering I watch movies at 6-10db below reference level (usually 10).
In reply to:
My receiver also has a 5 channel stereo option, and classical music with this on definitely sounds great out of the center. Off axis performance is also amazing. I have M22's, M3's, and VP150, and I think the VP150 has the best off axis performance of the three
Interesting, my old Denon had 5-channel stereo, and my Rotel 1066 has 7-channel stereo. About the only thing good I can say about these modes is that they're loud. I much prefer plain old 2-channel or maybe ProLogic-2 for classical music, both of which do a better job of preservering the soundstage and imaging of the recording.
