Hello Matt,

A couple of points need special emphasis here. As JohnK has pointed out, advice about not using a center channel to anchor dialog at the screen is really limiting: you can't adjust the dialogue volume levels for lots of movies that are mixed with too-low dialog levels, or to compensate for hearing losses with age. All men over 50 suffer such losses to a greater or lesser degree, and the losses increase with age for most men.

Also, no two identical speakers will sound exactly alike using an ultra-critical test signal such as pink noise, because of the speakers' locational differences and boundary effects within the room. Try it if you want to confirm this: use pink noise and switch from the left speaker to the right speaker of an identical pair. You may be surprised at the tonal coloration that room effects cause in two identical speakers. The result is that using a third M80 as a center channel will not result in all three speakers sounding precisely the same when you do comparisons with pink noise (the latter has equal energy per octave across the audible spectrum).

However, such small differences in tonality that are audible with pink noise are not significant with program material -- dialog or music. Our brain and hearing system accommodate small differences in coloration, and blend the three front speakers into a cohesive front soundstage.

I did double-blind listening tests to the prototype Axiom VP180 and an M80 floorstanding tower. The VP180 is extremely similar to the M80, but not identical, however, it's a wonderful center channel that blends very smoothly with the M80 floorstanders.

I suspect that Mr. Smith may have not done careful listening tests using pink noise to three identical front speakers, otherwise he wouldn't make such statements. The slight differences in coloration from room effects and design configuration of the center speaker are simply not significant when playing back dialog or music.

You'll find the VP180 center speaker will be quite transparent and a beautiful match to the M80 towers.

Lastly, I do not work for Axiom anymore. I'm retired, and any contributions I make to the forums are purely to add what I've learned from decades of professional experience and because Axiom does indeed make highly neutral very good speakers at remarkably low prices.

Regards,
Alan Lofft

Alan Lofft,
Axiom Resident Expert (Retired)