Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Advice for new system

I installed 2 owner-supplied Axiom home theater systems for a great customer (I am an electrician, not an HT expert), and I'm ready to buy my own now. For my 13x14x8'high room I'm thinking of W3 fronts, QS4 surrounds, a VP150 center, and an EP350 sub. I am planning on getting a Yamaha RX-V1600 receiver. The use will be primarily home theater, and not necessarily for watching romantic comedies;) My qustion is are the VP150 and EP350 overkill? When I use the home theater wizard, the more money I put in, the bigger the speakers get, all other considerations being the same.
Also, anyone have any recommendations on a cheaper to mid-level HDMI DVD player? One feature that's important to me is fast control response, as I am constantly loading and changing DVD's for my kids. Thanks everyone.

plenty of people have been waiting for the new OPPO: OPPO DV-981hd

For a typical room layout in that room size I think the VP150 would be overkill, only in the sense that "you would be spending more money and would be hard-pressed to hear a difference". If you were sitting against an opposite wall, ie the same kind of layout you might have in a larger room, then the VP150 would probably be worth the extra $$.

General consensus seems to be that the VP100 and VP150 sound pretty much identical in small rooms, but in larger rooms the VP150 pulls ahead, which kinda makes sense.

Question for you -- one of the "rules of thumb" when placing HT speakers is to have the three front speakers in an arc so they are all roughly the same distance from the listening position, ie the center would be a few inches closer to the back wall than the mains. With W22s and a VPxxx the center would be closer than the mains. I don't think this is a big issue (and some receivers can put in a few mS of delay into the mains to align the sound anyways), just thought I would mention it.

Thanks Bridgman and Rik. That's a good point on the front speaker arc. Everything will be pretty close together; the front 2 speakers will only be about 5' apart. Hopefully that will minimize the lack of an arc. Part of the system design is taking a 3 and 6 year old "demolition team" into account. The viewing/listening position will be up against the wall; about 12' from the center speaker. Will the EP350 sub overpower the other speakers? I'd rather have too big than too little, but if it's just wasting money then I would get a 175. I would like to use Axiom for everything for color coordination (ie: WAF).

You can never have too much sub. With proper placement and calibration the 350 should be a fine choice.