Hi Pitbull24,
To answer your last question first, one big advantage of the VP180 is that it's a 3-way system with six drivers and a refined crossover that eliminates some of the compromises of more modest center channel speakers.
If you listen to multi-channel music, whether from DVD-A, SACD, or stereo material run throught DPL-II(x), DTS Neo6, Logic7 etc., you will not hear any hardness or stridency on male or female vocals, especially at very loud playback levels, either from pop/rock or opera (unless the stridency is in the original source recording--and there's plenty of those) through the VP180.
Also (and I've said it before here many times) Audyssey and other auto-setup/EQ systems are error-prone so don't rely on their settings as absolute. If your ears tell you otherwise, then play with the crossover settings and the Small/Large settings. It varies so much with room size and with speaker location.
In my particular setup (an average room size of 2,100 cu. ft), if I set my M80s to "Large" and use my EP500 subwoofer, I get way too much upper bass. The best balance is with the M80s set to Small and an 80-Hz crossover (which I use for the center and the surrounds). Ian at Axiom, in his big cathedral ceiling living room uses 40 Hz on the M80s.
As a default setting to start out with, it's hard to beat an 80-Hz crossover and Small settings for all the speakers. It's why I recommend it, and also why Tom Holman of THX recommends it. Then if you want play with Audyssey or some proprietary auto-setup system, go ahead and use the one that sounds best to your ears in your setup. It's just that we get complaints at Axiom of "not enough bass" or the like and when I or the audio experts investigate, we find the customer has used Audyssey or another auto-setup that has clearly miscalculated on the crossover frequencies, subwoofer setup, and speaker size settings.
Last, when you set a tower speaker to "Small" you are NOT wasting the bass capabilities of the speaker. All crossovers have "slopes" (think of a ski slope, not a cliff), so the reduction in bass output is gradual. The woofers in your M60 or M80 are still working but with less excursion (less excursion means lowered distortion and cleaner more articulate bass) and they continue to contribute to overall bass output and smoothness together with the subwoofer.
Regards,
Alan
