Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater VP180

My Initial Impressions:

Warning – This “review” will use a lot of words that are opinion based, and qualitative. I'm not a professional speaker reviewer, but I wanted to share my opinions of this wonderful speaker.

I stuck with the “Large” settings that Audyssey suggested, as well as the XO settings of 40 Hz for the M80s and VP 180. To my ears, it gives the fullest sound and tightest bass. After taking measurements with my ears and my sound meter, the only other adjustment I made was actually bringing down the VP180 to -0.5 db, while retaining the M80s at +1.5 db. I think the level difference is directly related to the speaker distance from my main listening position (the M80s are about 2 feet further away from my main listening position than the VP180 since I put it as forward as I could to have at least 6” behind it for the rear ports).

Sometimes I felt that the VP150 could sound thin at times when compared to the M80s. Almost like they got lost and the M80s were overpowering them. This problem is gone with the VP180. As I stated above, I am actually running it 2.0 db lower than the M80s. The sound of the VP180 (IMO) is very close to the M80, but if I had to make a guess at what sounds different, it's that the highs are not as (and I'm really thinking hard to come up with the right word here) “forward”? I was thinking of the words “harsh”, “brash”, and “pronounced”, but they all tend to have negative connotations associated with them and I do not feel that the M80s are really anything like that. Maybe the right word is “mellow” or “refined”.

(Alan, you had stated that the VP180 sounds close to the M80. What did you feel the difference was?)

The VP180s blends perfectly with the M80s, and the speakers seem to really compliment each other. The VP180 sounds much fuller than it's predecessor. The soundstage seemed to open up and have more of a sense of a 3rd dimension. This wasn't just my opinion, my wife said the same thing without me even giving her my impressions. After we listened together for about an hour (mostly to a Carpenter's Greatest Hits SACD which I chose on purpose for channel separation as well as a disc that would really put a spotlight on the center) she said that there were times where she could close her eyes and it would almost sound like Karen was in the room. This was really never the case with the VP150 (at least to me). She also said that she could really hear each speaker individually now, and even though she had heard this disc many times, she heard things she never heard before. I agreed, the disc almost sounded remastered.

Over the course of the day, I must have played 40 CDs. I chose tracks that I was very familiar with and ones that covered the gambit of different types of music. In every case, there was a VERY noticeable difference with the VP180. Every song sounded fuller, deeper, and “more real”, if you know what I mean. Most of these tracks were played using Dolby Pro-Logic II and they sounded almost as good as their multi-track counterparts (though the multi-track counterparts always were a bit better). I also took time to listen in the other seats in my theater, ones that were not the “sweet spot”. What I noticed right away is that the VP180 seems to have a wider sweet spot than the VP150. I could hear the center when I moved to the left or right seat, and I could also hear it very clearly from the back row.

I know this is just a bunch of rambling, but I am very impressed with this speaker. It sounds even better than I hoped it would. If you have M80s and the space, I would seriously consider giving it a listen. I think you will find it hard to go back to the VP150.