Hi guys I ordered a vp180 to replace my 150. I'm excited to listen to my 5.1 music and movie dialog when I receive this monster center.

I might try to cannibalize my vp150 and use the drivers to make a pair of small DIY bookshelf speakers to use as height or wide in a 9.1 setup. Has anyone tried this before using axiom drivers in DIY enclosures?

Dougie

What would happen if I removed the center driver from the vp150, cut the enclosure in half and sealed both halts up. Would I have two identical m2 speakers?

Well, for one thing, you'd only have one crossover. Or half of a crossover.

That would be funny (or not) if I had cut the crossover in half. Lol

I guess it would be dumb to destroy a perfectly good center speaker. But with so many people upgrading to a 180 I would imagine the value of 150 is very low. Maybe I could trade my 150 for a pair of m2 or m3 but I don't think it's worth enough to trade

Dougie Baby

And even if you would get a second crossover, it was designed for the VP150, not a M2. The enclosure is also different. I guess you could always try for fun and build 1 speaker, if you like the result, you could always buy a second crossover.

Unless you have measuring equipment and/or are an experienced speaker designer, I don't think you'd end up with very satisfying results from cannibalizing the Axiom drivers.

I'd either sell the VP150 or try to re-purpose it - either as a center in another system or a rear in a 6.1 system. Or, if - as you suggest - the VP150 value is low right now, BUY ANOTHER ONE and use them as mains in another system.

I'm not sure I would do that as they are horizontal arrays and not sure how it would sound even placed vertically.
As a rear for 6.1 is a very good idea if you have a place for it.

Better than a sawed in half one!

There was some really cool installation (in CA or FL?) where the family had windows-to-a-view and used the VP150's horizontally as mains hung up in the eaves of the room. Looked awesome, and he said it sounded great. I agree that it's probably suboptimal, but I was just thinking it was better than sawing it in half

Nyah!

You should be able to make DIY M2's out of the VP150. You need to build 2 speaker cabinets the same size as the M2 and make your own crossovers based on the same crossover point of the M2 and that should do it, you would then have DIY M2's.

You could ask Axiom how much for a couple of M2 crossovers if you want to make a couple of bookshelf speakers out of your VP150. If and when I get a VP180, I might just hold onto my 150 and use it for spare drivers down the road(past warranty on my other Ax's).

Don't forget to take a door knob hole saw and cut out a port in the back of each half, then pad around the hole with some vinyl cut off from the couch.

Crossovers are tuned to the cabinet; its volume, and the shape of its front baffle. If you're putting Axiom's drivers in a custom cabinet, the M2 crossover probably isn't ideal.

Building speakers isn't hard; building good sounding speakers is. I say hold on to the intact VP150, and sell it, trade it, use it some other time in the future.

If he kept to the dimensioning of the M2 cabinets, he should be ok.

Isn't that what I said?

But they need to be the same size.

and you'd need some way to replicate the Axiom ports.

VP150 is sealed. M2s have ports (as CatBrat already mentioned).

If I had a VP150 taking up space I would be more tempted to try making a single "M2 in a big cabinet". You could probably use the unmodified VP150 cabinet on one side and make something similarly-sized for the other side.

The M40 (basically an M3 tuned down real low) has remarkably smooth bass... I always wondered how one or two 5-1/2" woofers would work with similar tuning.

Dougie, using the VP150 to make two DIY M2 replicas doesn't seem very practical. M2 crossovers and a tube of the right length and diameter for bass tuning, besides suitable enclosures, would be needed. Actually, Tom's suggestion about getting a second VP150(if available at a good price)to use as a vertical pair of main speakers has merit. Turning horizontal centers vertical, at least as an experiment, is something that I've suggested several times. Alan reported excellent results a few years ago when he tested vertical VP150 as mains and thought they could possibly be sold as such.

You can experiment now with the one vertical VP150 connected as a single mono main speaker(disconnect the regular mains, set the receiver to mono and all the other speakers except the sub to "none"). You don't test stereo imaging that way, of course, but it gives you a general idea of how the speaker sounds in that orientation, by flipping it back and forth between the two.