This looks great! The design looks like it will be better for off axis viewing than most center channels, yet it is not too tall and deep to cause placement issues with regards to the display. Hopefully there is great dialog intelligibility (even off axis) and yet it will have a flat frequency response and tonal characteristic closely matching the m60's and m80's.

Nice! and thanks Ian/Amie for asking our opinions.

Ian, have you considered using a notched faceplate on the tweeter to narrow the cabinet(allowing more placement options for some people)?

I appreciate the comment that one objective was to minimize height. The height as listed here would defininately trip the WAF alarm.

Thank you, Amie and Ian, for sharing this interesting news, and especially for soliciting feedback.

I'm delighted to hear that it has the same driver compliment as the M60.

The proportions of the speaker make me wonder about having an angle cut on the front edge of the vertical sides, but I know that is not consistent with the look or assembly of the rest of the line.

Ian, good luck with the testing. I hope it's a winner.

So a bit smaller than the volume of an M60, or is that made up for by the non-tapering bottom?

I have 14 inches of clearance from the front of my wall (under the tv) to the duct work inside the wall. With depth being 13.2 inches, it'd almost be an exact fit.

Very nice. I'll be interested to hear comparisons to the VP180.

Nice!

I'd be interested to find out how well it will do in a dual center VP180-VP160 combination.

If y'all get a chance to try that can you report back?

I like it. Personally, I prefer the higher and deeper profile of this prototype as opposed to the usual longer, narrow center channels which tend to have limitations especially with wide angle dispersion and the usual overabundance of sound in the 300-500 hz range which makes voices sound unnatural. This one looks more like a large bookshelf speaker on its side.

One obvious item not mentioned is the price. Since it falls between the VP180 and 150, I gather we are to assume the price will fall somewhere in that range as well?

I think I have died and gone to heaven, this looks like it could be the center channel I have been dreaming of. I'll take 2 right now.