Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater VP150 in a hole?

The VP150 is a different speaker than the floorstanders - lacking ports, the 6.5" woofers, and designed to lay flat on its side. Not unexpectedly, it seems to my ears to have a little warmer, chesty sound (not dissimilar to my Monitor Audio Bronze 2s) than the M60s or M3s. In my experience this difference is noticable w/ pink noise, but not at all w/ movies or concert DVDs (I listen to music in 2 channel only).

I suppose you could get a better timbre match using a couple of M2s in lieu of a single VP150, but for anyone with a wife that probably isn't an option.

If they redesigned the center w/ tweeters over mids the thing is going to be a foot tall, two feet wide, ugly as sin and difficult to place in some HTs. Again, not an option for the wife impaired. Might be nice to have as an option for some folks, however.

The off-axis "suck out" that Tony keeps mentioning is a non-factor to me, and probably to most others as well, since we tend to watch our movies from somewhere IN FRONT of the screen.

Uh oh - wait for it.

NRC measurements at 15 and 30 degrees (certainly in front of the screen) will prove or disprove this suckout. Anyone know where to find them?

Regarding the audibility of improperly timbre matched centers and lefts and rights, given the dynamic and transient nature of sound, I think you'd need some pretty poor matching speakers to be "audible". Truth be told, the vast majority of centers (even expensive ones) use an MTM arrangement. All the measurements I've seen show pretty severe suckouts at 30 and 45 degrees off axis. Then why do manufacturers continue to make them: marketability, pure and simple. As has been alluded, the wife won't allow something tall above or below the screen, hence we suffer from poor off axis response. Now I realize that the VP150 is different. It hasn't been proven to me (either by listening or measurements) that it doesn't suffer from the same poor off-axis response a traditional MTM. To me, it sounded rather lousy, chesty, the drivers didn't sound integrated, and I heard timbre changes as I moved off axis. Did I hear it with music: see above re the transient nature of sound.

I don't know if we should call it marketability, versatility, or functionality when we describe the TMMMT array of the VP150 (and similar centers). The VP150 sounds great. It can be placed in tight spaces because it is a sealed design. Your timbre-matching complaint you nullified yourself. The off-axis "suck-out" is null for me and mine (and most everyone else). So why do you persist?

I just watched "Pirates of the Caribbean" and was completely stunned and satisfied (as always) by the performance of my entire system. (Maybe increased sensitivity from the Axioms would be nice.)

I think I'm going to go analyze some pink noise now.

Mark, please be careful. The Axioms are very sensitive and comments like that will upset them!!!

I persist because the subject came up and I gave my opinion. It appears my opinion makes you uncomfortable, so I'll go. You have succeeded in chasing me away and can now continue your love fest. If it comes up again, I guess I'll just stay away. I don't want to upset or challenge your notions of what's good in center channels.

I'd rather you didn't. I enjoy reading differing opinions and hearing what else is out there. Yes, I own Axioms and like them, but that doesn't mean they are the be all and all and the perfect speaker for everyone. If they were all the other speaker makers would be out of business.

i think the vp150 performs extremely well for the price. i had a paradigm cc370 that never seemed to cut it.

i would be interested in trying another center if axiom ever made one.

there are three major stereo speakers (m22, m60, & m80) so why not go for a 3rd center?

Misfit_Toy

I have a H/K 630, VP150 and M60s.

I HAVE heard what you are talking about.
I have NOT heard or measured what Tony is talking about. (I did try, though...)

I FIXED what you are hearing on my system by changing the crossover to 100Hz. No audible differences that way. Change it to 80Hz and I can hear it.

I get the exact same results if I wire one M60 to the center channel. One M60 sounds different than the other one at 80Hz xover. I have no idea why.

Let me know what you find.

Perhaps I have overreacted, but do not innocently proclaim that you were merely giving your opinion. You were sarcastic in your first post (but I suppose you're right - after all, NHTs are the best and we're all f***ed here), and simply ignorant in another (the VP150 is far, far from "lousy").
All I'm saying is that your complaints about the VP150, even if they had some validity, don't matter to me because: at 13 feet away the VP150 covers all of my HT seating area w/out any suck-outs; and I'm not concerned with how pink noise sounds from the VP150 - only dialogue and effects.
I'm done.