Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Vertically Centered

Is it sitting upside down? If not turn it over so the tweeter is lower. Also I found that whether I used an M22, M80 or VP150 that raising my M80 mains a little to bring all the tweeter closer together (about 6” apart) evened things out.

Yeah, it's flipped over. I think it just may be too high for how close the screen is to the seating. I'll see about raising the M80s a little if I decide to keep the M22 on top of the TV, but right now I'm leaning toward finding a new way to situate the amp and preamp so I can have it below the TV. Thanks for your feedback, as always, Dean.

How close are you to your screen? And how big is your screen? I'm always so amazed that people here don't like having the speaker above the tv because they feel it destroys the sound field simply because I've never experienced this with my set-up.

However, I do not want to sound like I doubt those who've stated this, so I have therefore come to the conclusion that I must have somehow gotten the distances just right, by total accident. Not only is my VP150 above my screen, it's a foot and a half feet above my screen, anchored directly to the ceiling. But it is 15 feet from my ear, my screen is 65 inches diagonal, my M80's are 12 feet apart, and 15 feet from my ear. None of these measurements were carefully selected, I just set them up, did some moving around with the M80's, and settled on where there are based on the way they sounded. But for whatever reason, I've never been able to tell that the VP150 is where it is. I'm scared to move it below the screen test how it sounds down there because I'm afraid if I do hear a drastic difference then I'll never be able to live with it above the sceen again, and there really is no room for it below the sceen.

But then again I was also scared to try the 'phantom center' set-up for the same reasons. But once I did, I found that phantom center did not do it for me, so I was safe in that department anyhow. Don't want to push my luck too far though!

No way of a temp position below the TV, say on some stacked books or similar, just to see what it would sound like without going through the trouble of rearranging the amp etc.?

I went ahead and moved the A1400-8 down next to the Integra to try it out, and I'm already much more satisfied. I don't have anything behind the door on the right side of my TV stand at the moment (it's where I had my PS3, which I still haven't replaced with a Slim). I don't really want to buy a new TV stand that has enough space for decent ventilation because when I move it all to the basement, the gear is going to be up on a ledge behind where the screen will be. The TV will simply sit on a wall-mounted shelf until I get a front projector. Anyway, this setup will work for now. I think I'll find something to boost the M22 a couple more inches, since there's a little more room. Right now it's just sitting on some M80 rubber feet on top of the Integra, and it's just far enough forward for the disc tray of my OPPO to come out. Of course, now I have to hold my arm out to the left for the remote to work. You can tell I don't live with a woman, huh?

I did notice one advantage to using the VP150 over a vertical speaker is that whenever I sat very close the “smearing” (wall-of-sound effect) of the imaging the VP150 caused seemed to help obscure it’s position more.

If you’re keen on experimenting something I never tried was running an M22, VP150 over/under arrangement. Hint, hint.

Also Charles something I noticed when switching to a vertical center was that at first from any distance it called more attention to itself I think because of the improved clarity and imaging. I was use to the sound and dispersion pattern of the VP150 so the M22 somehow sounded wrong. It did sound odd at first but as I listened and compared things I realize the M22 had higher fidelity. I’d say I just wasn’t use to things sound more “correct.“ Over time I stopped noticing it.

Micah, my screen is a 60", and I sit about 9 feet away, I'm guessing. I don't know where my tape measure is at the moment. The tweeter of the M22 would have been around 5.5' high on top of the TV.

Interesting notes, Dean. I didn't give it much of a chance on top of the TV. The only way I noticed it calling attention to itself was that it was coming from so high, but maybe the sound itself was also pretty different. However, moving it down made everything sound a lot more unified, so I'm sticking with that for now.

I was actually going to ask if anyone was running both an M22 and VP150 together in that arrangement. I'm not sure when I'll be trying that out, as I'd want to get an XLR Y adapter first. My dad is wanting to try out my VP150. He otherwise has Polks, so it wouldn't be a seamless front soundstage, but we'll see what he thinks.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not implying on top is better. Worked for me because it put the tweeters as close together as I could manage while keeping all the tweeters near ear level. I imagine everyone’s setup will be unique.

Yes, and to me this is the sort of thing that makes life interesting. If everyone had a cookie-cutter HT system in their home, with all the same dimensions, distances, room treatments and all the rest of it, what kind of fun would that be?

It would be totally pointless to invite all your friends over to watch a game or movie on your system, because there wouldn't be anything special about it.