SO much of this depends upon the room that it is apparently not helpful for us to speculate. Obviously, people have had success with both approaches.

I like Doug's approach (not "either or" but "both and"). "Less" is not "More", More is More!

I have not had any trouble with the omnimount thing. I have an old Mitsubishi CRT RPTV, so the weight is absolutely not an issue for me. Again - for me, in my room - I preferred above to below acoustically (though not aesthetically). As you can see from the other responses, the room seems to make even more difference than placement on this topic. I do not think that using the omnimount shelf for a VP150 would be a problem; it is quite wide. I put those little vinyl bumper stickons on the bottom of the speaker and shoved a wedge under the back.

It'll be swell.

I got the new stand setup last night. Still getting everything wired up though. I'm not happy with the company that makes it though. I contacted them ahead of time to find out the amount of space there was height wise for the shelving. They told me 8" each. They are both less then this. The shelf below the tv is about 7.5" and the bottom one is just under 7". Fortunately, the VP150 can still fit on the 7.5" shelf with a tiny bit ( 1/8" maybe) of room to spare. I sent an email to the company, but it will probably take days to hear back if I do at all.