Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater VP180 vs two VP150s vs VP150 & VP100???

Just to be clear, I was very happy with my M60/VP100 system (I had friends literally in awe after listening to scenes like the Matrix helicopter crash, which is mostly center channel), and if someone walked off with my VP180 I could go back to being happy with the VP100 again.

I'm just even *more* happy with the VP180... nyahh hah !!

Question-is there a point at which a center channel can become too large? I mean, with the left/right speakers supposed to be around 10-12 feet apart, or the same distance apart as the listening position is from the center channel (my understanding anyway), would it not cause a seamless sound across the front because there is less space between the front speakers? If so, is this a good thing, or should there be a more noticeable separation between the three front speakers, which would happen with a smaller center channel.

Maybe I'm way off in left field, but that popped into my head this afternoon.

Thanks,
Cam

That's been a question of mine for many years now.

I believe the mixing of the media and/or surround processing will still give you the separation no matter the distance between the speakers, listen to a good concert DVD and you can pretty much tell what part of the stage most of the musicians are playing on without even watching the video source.

I had a similar question earlier regarding the VP150 because my room is not very wide. Nobody said I had to worry, and nobody seemed to take issue with it... so I assumed it was ok.

Here is the thread in question, though it likely won't help:
http://www.axiomaudio.com/boards/ubbthre...2556#Post312556

Thanks
snazzed

Hi,

You should not be concerned with the distance between the center speaker and the main left and right ones. With the available adjustment on your avr; you should be able to bend it quite well. The mistake which I often see, mostly at audio show, is a too large distance between the main speakers that can be awfull especially in stereo.

Cam in my experience testing two M22 speakers laying horizontally above my screen in my apartment (mains only about 6 feet apart) I found that for multi-channel sources the center of the soundstage was way to wide for most music. For studio recordings it made the vocalist, drummer and/or any other instruments coming mostly from the center channel sound blurred across the front like the vocalists mouths were 5 feet across. No amount of tweaking any settings could “tighten up” the center channel image since the drivers were physically spread out 4-5 feet. Note this was also sitting 6-8 feet away from the screen and the further back you get the more the line array of a horizontal center starts to sound more like a point source since it’s angular width decreases relative to distance.

OTOH I did find that for movies and most concert SACD/DVDs the “wall-of-sound” effect created by an array of horizontal drivers seemed more like a movie theater of concert. Also, at first I thought the large horizontal array sounded great for everything but once I started listening critically I didn’t like the smearing effect it had on multi-channel or PLIIx music. I imagine that for most people this will not be an issue since the “wall-of-sound” does seem quite impressive.

That’s the reason I’ve been musing the idea of getting a VP180 and mounting it on a stand so it can be rotated 90 degrees between the horizontal and vertical so I can have the best of both worlds. (yes I’m eccentric)

Cheers,
Dean

This place wouldn't be nearly as fun without everyone's eccentricities.

Thanks Grunt, interesting findings. I had thought that it might create a movie theater like experience.

Nick – So far, no one has actually compared two VP150’s to one VP180. I’m not convinced that one VP180 will be any better than two VP150’s. I’d hold off and let the dust settle from the “gotta get one” crowd for a spell before jumping on the band wagon yourself. I know that Ian is currently running two VP150’s and has mentioned that he will swap them out for VP180’s. I hope to speak to him about this to get his thoughts on the differing combinations.