I think it is important to remember when listening for buzzing and crackling noises that the speaker is going to reproduce whatever information or noise may exist in your entire system right back to the original recording. This goes to every wire connection, solder joint, antenna hook up, ground wire, and electrical component through the whole system. If the speaker is the culprit then the noise will be mechanical in nature, which generally means that crackling type sounds are not the speaker. A mechanical noise will generally seem to add an overall distortion to the sound at volume levels that are definitely below clipping. This is usually pretty easy to notice when listening to music. For jkohn's particular issue with the VP150, there seems to be something wrong here for sure. We would be happy to bring your VP150 back to our lab for a thorough test and either fix your problem or least be able eliminate the VP150 as the source of the problem. There is absolutely no way with the power you have that there should be any distortion from the center channel, unless of course you are running into clipping. The VP150 can take the 200 - 300 watts you are powering it with no problem. In fact I run my own with more power than 300 watts and our power tests are done on the VP150 with a 620-watt amplifier. Please contact us directly at the toll free number 866-294-6688 or at advice@axiomaudio.com and we will look after all the details for you.
