I read through some of the threads on various forums and review websites. Below is a high level of what I see others saying about the 150 and its design. Now granted, some of these comments can be from OLDER versions of this speaker, and may not apply to V2, or other enhancements Axiom may have made to recent models...I definately do not hold these positions, I love my 150.
Mike, I will send you a larger form of these comments via email.
*The big benefit of the vp-150’s design is that, because it’s sealed, you can put it almost anywhere. This is a good center speaker and probably matches really well with Axiom’s smaller speakers. With the m60s it matched well for TV and dialogue-driven movies, but for big-sound movies and multi-channel music, I was aware that it wasn’t as big as the floorstanders. It isn’t bad, just not as seamless as the Ascends or ACIs, which are identical across the front.
*Review 4 out of 5 stars for the 150 - "The VP150 has been criticized for having sibilance (over-pronounced "s", "sh" sounds,) a lack of bass and poor off-axis response with too great a degree of timbral change. The simple fact is that I can totally understand how people may have heard this from the VP150 speaker, but these are not inherent characteristics of the speaker itself. The VP150 is an unforgiving speaker, not only of source material and the equipment upstream, but of room acoustics and placement as well. Axiom designs their speakers for flat frequency response in an anechoic environment, not an adjusted response for estimated room acoustics. What Axiom delivers with the VP150 is a technically and mathematically well designed speaker. But unlike Paradigm, Axiom has not adjusted the output to compensate for what they can only guess to be YOUR room's acoustics. The result is simply this: if you have not treated your room acoustically with absorption and diffusion panels, you will likely find the VP150 sibilant, bright and/or harsh.
*Axiom does not roll off the high end frequencies. Nor does Ascend, which is why both sound very detailed. But Ascend's cross-overs have been designed to partially compensate for room boundary reflections, leading to what sounds like a more spacious and even sound in most untreated rooms.
*poor off-axis response is also the result of an acoustically untreated room in most cases. Within a 30 degree window, each tweeter has no timbre change in a room without wall and ceiling reflections. Part of the problem is that the Axiom tweeter actually has a very wide cone of relatively flat frequency response, leading to cancellations and peaks in an untreated room. All-in-all, this is a fabulous sounding speaker, but only in the proper environment.
*Strengths:
Extremely accurate (to a fault - ie. no high frequency roll-off), detailed and clear. Efficient, dynamic and well made.
Weaknesses:
Unforgiving of poor room acoustics and placement. Absolutely requires acoustic room treatment and even THX equalization (or equivilant) to avoid sounding bright or even sibilant.
*2005 reviewer - Upon first hooking it up I noticed the sound was similar to the sound you would get if you talked into a metal trash can. The sound was tinny and un-natural, S’s were not anything you could miss in dialog and were overbearing. The second problem I encountered with this center was the off axis listening. When immediately in front of it sound was totally different than if you moved into my side recliners, it sounded like you had just placed a pillow over the speaker.
*There is comb filtering with a (widely separated, dual-tweeter) VP150 when you start to move off axis. Avoid it. It may not bother you, but there are so many competent designs that avoid the whole issue to begin with (including the M22). The problem is the constructive and destructive interference that happens when you are two different distances away from drivers that are producing the same frequencies.
*S&V review - When I shifted to either side of my couch, however, clarity dropped off noticeably. Voices basically retained the same tone, but they sounded less crisp when heard from any position other than dead center in front of the screen. The VP150 center channel exhibits significant off-axis lobing that begins as soon as the microphone is moved off center. Our averaging technique tends to obscure it’s severity but it’s easy to hear the sound change quality at any listening angle as one walks about the speaker.
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