Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater What to buy first, center or fronts?

I am starting my evolution into a better sounding world, and am replacing the old "Off the Shelf" system that I picked up at Fry's. It was one of those Sony/KLH surround sound packages.

So far I have picked up a Harmon Kardon AVR 335, and even though I am still running the same old speakers (KLH 9005's), the step up in sound quality is aleady noticeable.

Being that I have a few birthday dollars left, I am planning on starting to replace the KLH's, and have pretty much decided on the VP100 center, and either the M3ti's or M22ti's, the QS4's and an EP125.

My question is this, I would guess that it would be best to start with the fronts, but would it be better to start with the center or the left and right speakers?

I think you should start with the left and right, but that's just me. You're likely touse them more (at least for music).

I agree with Ken. Start with the left and right fronts.

You've got a good receiver there as well.

Ditto the responses of the first two of our current batch of experts!!

I guess that I didn't mention, I watch more movies and TV than listening to music, so I have been leaning towards the center.

Either way, thanks for all the sound advice (sorry, couldn't help it).

Well i would go with the Fronts go with the 22's they image so well u won't miss a center an when u get one u will b totally happy !!!!

Hi Jim,

Well now, "seeing" as(oops!, I couldn't help it either!)Seeing as you "watch" more than listen(Sounds like my house)and are changing out a shelf systems' speakers(Sounds like my house again)I'll pass along what we did.

We swapped out the mains first, and that was cool, but then we got a center to match the mains; and for TV watching it made the real difference!! We got a full range center that was a close match to the mains...uh...actually it was an exact match. So until we moved into a larger house we had three identical speakers across the front!

Lots of folks go with the Phantom mode until they can get a center, and that seems to work well for many. In my case the listening room has a slightly asymetrical listening arangement(ah ha, but not for the wife and I!)so that for the kids, they would not find the characters centered in the middle of the screen.

Ok then, say you do decide to go with the center first, great! Now it's sorta easy; all you have to do is decide whether you want the VP100(good choice for "all" Axiom speakers) Or, if when you decide on the mains, you decide on the M3s, then a slight problem comes in to play: The VP100-from what I've read in reviews-is a good match for the M3s as well, but, The M3 is a Great Match!

Yup, nothing matches an M3 as well as another M3!

Oops, another concern: If you do go with an M3(or even an M2 if you have a smaller sized listening room)then the best arangement is to have the center speaker(M2 or M3) upright in its' normal listening attitude so that you get the best sound dispersion. (I also run mine inverted with the tweeter closest to the screen-it keeps the tweeter closer to the action and helps anchor the voices to the screen, and also, if a standard crt TV is used, helps keep any magnetic interference away from the CRT since the more powerfull woofer magnet is farther away from the screen) An M22 can also be used vertically of course, but sometimes WAF becomes a problem as well!!

Rich.

And for the flipside of JohnK and F107s advice for bookshelf centres... I tried an M22 in place of my VP-150 and really didn't like it. It seemed narrow - was great so long as you sat in the sweet spot, but once you moved out of it, the benefit of a horizontal centre shone through.

Everyone's got their own preferences, but mine is for the Vocal Point series.

Bren R.

I don't have a good answer, but I have noticed that the following rule is always a good one :

"You probably know what you want to do... if nobody here has a really good reason why not, go ahead and do what you want and you'll be really happy".

Most of us would probably lean slightly towards getting the mains first because of the all-round benefit you get from them... but getting the center will work just fine as well. I don't think any of us have a compelling reason why you shouldn't go that route.

In case it helps, I started experimenting with single and dual M2s for the center... my conclusion was that for movies the VP100 was a tiny bit better than even a pair of M2s, but for music I still prefer M2 center.

I also slightly preferred M2 surrounds to QS8 surrounds for pure music but the QSs are still a far better all round solution.

I bought my mains first with the intention of using my older paradigm center with them. The 80's image well enough that I actually find that having the paradigm center on ruins the overall sound so I leave it off for movies right now and use the phantom mode. I'll be getting the vp-150 soon.

You won't have so much fun with just a center channel imho.