I have heard from multiple sources that the book 'Getting Better Sound' by Jim Smith is the holy grail of speaker & equipment setup.

So as I read through his book there are multiple items that do make some sense but other parts that fly in the face of what was told to be right.

On tip #20 through #23 he touts that all your speakers especially the front 3 must be the exact same as that is the only way to make them all sound the same.

His take is that any change to the shape and components in one speaker to another would change the characteristics of how sound radiates from that speaker and so what you hear will be different than what was intended on the recording. (OK maybe)

On his tip #26, he tells that you should just say no to horizontal centre channel speakers. So even having the exact same speaker but putting it on it's side, the sound dispersement will change, so it's more directed along the horizontal axis and more wide in the vertical.. where as a vertical speaker orientation like you would have with your left and right will be the opposite.

He then goes on to say if you abosolutely need to have a horizontal speaker then you need one with the tweeter directly over top of the mid range.

The VP160 would fit that bill.

But I am wondering if he is talking in generalization of misinformation and making broad assumption that all speakers are made the same.

So for instance, will the tonal quality and sound dispersement of a VP180 be vastly different than that given off by a M80 speaker? Or have Axiom taken those issues into the design to make the off axis dispersement on the horizontal speaker match that of the vertical main counterpart?

To put Jim Smith's optinions into perspective, his tip #24 is not to have any centre channel speaker at all as he feels it is not needed and a better set of left and right speakers can generate a wide and detailed enough sound stage with out it.

I have not tried out every speaker combination to prove or discredit his posting. But I also know that people like Alan Loft don't just pull the company line because a dedicated center channel is cool. He goes with what actually works and is proven


Anthem: AVM60, Fosi DAC-Q5
Axiom: ADA1500, LFR1100 Actiive, QS8, EP500, M3, M3comp, M5