Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Center Channel Sounds Hollow

This is a general question as I experience the same issues with other speakers, but why does the center channel always sound hollow and high pitched? It sounds completely out of sync with the other speakers. I assume this is intentional, but it does not sound as deep as the theater.

I'm using a Pioneer SC-07 with a VP150 center. I can use a different receiver or speaker combination and it's the same.

Can you tell us about your center channel's placement? Speaker placement had an enormous effect on how a speaker will sound in a room.

I know its not generally recommended but have you ever tried setting your center channel to "large" in the receiver settings so it runs full range. This might help.

A-ok, if this is present with different center speakers and different receivers, then maybe placement is the determining factor, as Peter suggests. One quick experiment would be to turn your VP150 upright and listen to it in a vertical configuration to see if the effect that you described persists.

aok, the center is primarily for the dialog/voices in movies/music, so it does not need to be full range. How do you have your settings in the receiver and where is it positioned?

It's roughly an 19'W x 18'L x 12'H room with a standard 7.1 system with the sub behind the couch. The setup takes up 10'W x 14'L of one end of the room.

I also have the 2 M80v2, 4 QS8v2 and EP500v2 and they've been calibrated. The fronts are large, while everything else is small. The fronts are 13' from my sitting position.


It's located inside a cabinet exactly like the BDI Avion except it's not enclosued by a a front door and screen. The only screen covering the speaker is the oem screen.


I've tried both. I can't tell much of a difference but I think large seems to make it worse.

I don't know...the theater sounds like it has more depth.

As an experiment, can you pull the speaker forward so it hangs outside of the cabinet by about 2 inches?

I think the problem may be with your receiver or its settings or DSP selection.

The VP150 should not sound "hollow." It sure presents an impressive array of drivers for voice, music or effects.

I don't think the cable will go out that far, but I'll give it a shot.


It was the same with my Denon 3806. With my current receiver (Pioneer SC-07) I always use THX Ultra2 Cin. It's been calibrated via MCACC, so I wonder why it could be off.

try wiring it out of phase