I'm with Mark, Michael and Tom and I have a v3 VP180 incorporated with v2 M80s and QS8s that to my ordinary ears sounds absolutely incredible as a whole system. Not once, for even a millisecond has the thought entered my mind that the VP180 center was sonically in a different class than the rest of my system nor have I noticed any obvious differences other than the silver domes and magnetic grills, which, if you leave the grills on like myself you'll very seldom even see those differences.
My personal opinion only...
I'm inclined to believe a little bit of the review Ian posted from whoever it was who reviewed the v3 speakers was a wee bit over the top regarding the vast differences between the new and old versions and some folks have taken the review as an axe to start chopping trees, myself included at first.
I am absolutely happy with my Axiom speakers and if the wife ever lets me spend any money whenever I decide to upgrade, it will primarily be to a nicer finish because like Michael, I wouldn't care if the speakers were version 3 or 10.
Rick that is another very valid point, we, I think that are getting a little too enthusiastic with the new version, and we have not even heard those new V3 yet, we are just trusting what the manufacturer have stated, maybe is all about numbers and you can not even hear a single bit of a difference in our setups. Another thing is that even if we can hear them, maybe we do not like the change, all is in the eye of the beholder....BTW the old M80 curves, and I think the others as well were removed from the website, we do not even have now a way of comparison, from what I recall the old M80 were a little more irregular in the low end at least in papers...but God knows...I think that will be good the Axiom publish all the manuals in PDF, of all older versions with the graphs, just as a reference...
