Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners vp150 too bright/harsh?

I started reading the reviews on the vp150 on audioreviews (http://www.audioreview.com/cat/speakers/center-channels/axiom-speaker-company/PRD_125695_2743crx.aspx) and I started having second thoughts about an axiom speaker setup, since ideally I'd like to have all speakers from the same family. I'm really excited about the surrounds, but the front channel is important too! What do you guys think about this center channel, and if my room acoustics don't play nice, is there anything I can do with settings to make it sound better? I really don't want to pay 500 bucks for a front channel that sounds like sound is coming in through a 'metal trash can'.

Any suggestions? Would the vp100 be any better?

The VP150 is a great center that has a flat response. I have 2 of them and would not consider anything else a center (short of using 1 or 2 M80s!)

Well the first review by terror_beast pretty much nailed in my books. It is just as accurate as the rest of the speakers in the Axiom line up. Some possible problems some folks have is the VP150 can be a touch picky as to its placement in certain rooms and conditions.

I would have you check for an audition in the Hearing things forum and see if anyone lives nearby so you can have a listen yourself, as you are the only one to know if axiom is right for you. If all else fails, order just the center to see if you like it and if not the shipping charges are pretty small to return it. If you do happen to like it, it will still count towards a full HT discount of 5 speakers as long as it is with in the 30 days.

Also of note, many of the "RAVE" reviews get high ratings themselves, and the "RANT" reviews getting low ratings from people reading them.

The VP150 is a great speaker, both on paper and in person. If you put a great speaker into a crappy room, you will get crappy sound. Some crappy speakers in the same crappy room make actually SEEM to sound better, but you are getting worse frequency response from the speaker itself and things get "muddled" and your ears just take that to be "normal". Axiom speakers are not your average lot. If you have a good input source, they will sound amazing, but if you have a bad input source, or badly mixed CD, DVD or whatever, you will hear each and every flaw because the speakers are THAT good.

It is a tough call. For all I know you live in a cement house with a cement floor, cement walls, and cement ceiling, with just a folding chair in the middle of the room. Any speaker would be bad in that situation.

Tell us more about your room. There are many people that have added acoustical treatments to their rooms for all sorts of things (bass management is a big one) which will have a great impact on taming your room. The speaker won't sound any better, but the room will stop fighting the speaker so that you hear what you are supposed to hear.

Where are you located? Maybe an audition could be set up.

Thanks for the reply guys. I looked through the audition list, and it looks like oldskoolboarder is closest to me (I live in the south bay area near San Francisco.) Coincidentally, he has exactly the same speaker setup I'm looking to get. I'll send him a message to see if he'll let me do a little audition, thanks!

As for the room type -- it's basically a carpeted bedroom (18x12x10) with fairly high ceilings (10'), with your typical american wall construction, i.e. dry wall. Nothing fancy really, although I do think there is a concrete slab beneath me.

I had some klipsch promedia 5.1 ultra computer speakers before, which had two side firing 8.5" subs. It was ok, but I'm hoping these axiom's with a Denon 3808 would be nice step up?

Oh, you're in for a treat. Promedias are ok, but nothing on a real HT setup.

Wow, if anything my VP150 sounds underpowered and flat in my room (I was thinking of adding a second). The M80's and EP500's seem to overpower them. Harsh would be the last adjective I could think of...

I have treated my room though...

I enjoy my 150 in my hugeeeeee room very much. I do have the dB's bumped up a few over the mains as most people do as well.

Harsh is not a term that I would use either.

Unless, of course, you're using it as a weapon and beating someone over the head with it. That is harsh.

Certain movies also use harh words...

Ditto.
Which is another term i would rather not use.

Then say, "The opinion of kind gentleman, which I have quoted above for your reference, is sufficiently close to my own opinion that I feel it is unnecessary to use any more words than necessary to indicate my agreement."

I want whatever Peter's having .

ditto

Lithium?

Just a guess.

I think he's been reading too much Samual Clemmens.

By the way, this is a good thread that discusses the same question. It's very recent too, so it should give some good background on the discussion.