LOL. Yup. I do.
First up, I agree. Treat the room and then look at speaker upgrades. I simply stated that when you do upgrade, the VP150 doesn't have much resale value (not that it is a bad center channel).
Now on to the screen...
"Acoustically Transparent" screens are not made equal... This is actually a good thing.
Again, my research showed that "perforated" screens are OK (not great though) at visual brightness, but not great for sound transmission and a number of people can see the perforation holes.
So stay away from perf screens.
Go for a woven screen for the most audio transparency if you want to go AT. The absolute best bang for your buck would be Seymour Center Stage XD. You can do what I did and buy the material right from them and make your own frame, or do what a guy that I work with did and go to Jamestown Home Theater Screens and have them make the frame for you and bundle the Seymour screen with it.
Just be aware that the Seymour screen material is always in short supply, so there are long lead times for the bulk material from Seymour, and even longer at Jamestown, so plan ahead.
Here is there website:
Jamestown Outside of going to a high end woven screen, that is one of the best out there. Even then, Seymour offers an even higher quality product, but not in a DIY version or price. They call it Enlightor 4K. It is a finer weave, but also less than 1.0 gain, so that could be a factor.
Seymour's main site is:
Seymour AV So now to your question. Does it change the sound? Absolutely. Anyone that says it doesn't is flat out lying. Now, is it a noticeable difference? Out of the box, yes again. I mean, you are still blocking the sound waves no matter how good the material is. So why would anyone use it? Why did I go with it? Well, lots of reasons. The main one being that my center channel is directly in the middle of the screen and not longer mounted above the screen near the ceiling (bad for acoustic output from the center channel), or on the floor in a less-than-idea location. It also made for a much cleaner looking screen area. Sure, it is a shame to hide the Axioms.
So, what do I think about the sound? It is great!
"Wait, what? I thought you said that it blocked sound, how could you possibly like it at all?"
Yes I do. The screen material will reduce the response at some certain higher frequencies (lower frequencies aren't impacted by the screen), but you just compensate for that manually, using an SPL meter and adjusting it on your receiver, or run something like Audyssey to compensate for it.
That is what I've done and I am going to do again today now that I have my 2nd sub installed. I learned a few "calibrations" ago, that you can't just put the Audyssey microphone anywhere you want. There is a method to it that doesn't make logic sense at first (you actually put the mic at two of the same spots twice each, and move from there for example).
Anyway, with that, I am getting the great sound that I am used to when I didn't have an AT screen, and still getting the benefits that I wanted.
So I am all for doing a full false front wall with an AT screen. Mine is about 2.5 feet deep from the real wall, and the false wall and AT screen hide my L/C/R speakers, both massive subs, front bass traps, and full front wall acoustical treatment.
Any other questions, just fire away.
