Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners If you were me, would you upgrade?

Okay, I am a proud owner of M60,VP150 and the QSes. In 6 days, my 30-day home trial will end. I'm thinking as I keep reading about the virtues of M80, may be I should replace my M60s and VP150 with M80s and VP180 respectively?

I'm more than happy with what I've got now but I know that I will upgrade down the road anyway. Should I do it now? If you were me, would you go for it?

All advice are welcome :-) Time is of the essence here because the trial period is expiring soon.

sam

I would go for it, but I'm a little obsessed. Ha ha. Here's hoping you get feedback from more level-headed people.

Go for it if you wish, however, in my opinion, if you are looking for significant improvement in sound and still save some money, I believe most would agree that going from a VP150 to a VP180 will be a significantly greater upgrade than going from an M60 to an M80.

thanks, casey.

Yes, that's what I'm looking for: significant improvement in sound.

So, you think a replacement of the centre channel speaker (from 150 to 180) will do it?

I agree with Casey the VP150 to VP180 will give you the most improvement. The M60 to M80 will be incremental probably best done only if you will always be wondering “what if” or you like music like GOA or other forms of EBM with a rapid bass beat where the M80s really shine.

Hey grunt,

Forgive my ignorance. What do GOA and EBM stand for?

GOA actually stands for GOA:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goa_trance

EBM stands for Electronic Body Music:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_body_music

If you are already wondering, and considering upgrading, you'll never get the thought out of your head till you do, but then it will be too late to recoup some of your upgrade costs.

Just do it and be done with it, lick you financial wounds later.

Oh, okay. Thanks.

I do like many types of music but I don't think I have listened to GOA and EBM. I'm sure I must have heard these in passing.

Just wondering; What sub, subs, do you have?

Hi wid,

I have the SVS PB-Ultra 13.

OK, thanks.

If you've already decided you're going to upgrade eventually, you might as well do it now.

AND I agree with Casey; the difference between the VP150 and VP180 seems to be more significant than the difference between the M60 and M80.

Sam,

Just my 2 cents. Over the years I have learned many a hard lesson by getting what I could afford instead of getting what I wanted.

Get the top of the line Axiom has to offer and don't look back. You won't regret it.

Dana

I've heard the M80s, M60s, VP150 and VP180 and also agree that VP180 over VP150 is a greater improvement than M80s over M60s.
If money is not an issue and you feel like upgrading than I would say now is the time. The M80s are a bit more detailed in the mids, aka even less forgiving to bad recordings than the M60s, and have a bit more bass.

The cost of upgrading these components isn't huge, relatively speakeing.

For me I would ask myself If I you like to listen to music without a sub, If yes, I'd go for the upgrade to the 80's. I doubt you'd hear much difference between the 80's and 60's for movies (assuming you have a good quality sub).

VP150 to VP180 is highly recommended if your room can accomodate the physical size. It is a huge speaker and may not look right in most formal living rooms. Dedicated HT room shouldn't be an issue.

Once you've had VP180, you never go back!

pn

Okay folks, I made up my mind. Based on your recommendations which make a lot of sense, I went ahead and ordered the upgrade.

The VP180 along with a pair of M80s are on shipping process and I should receive an email from Axiom with the details. I should receive them in a few days.

What contributed to my decision? Your comments such as:

"The upgrade cost is not that huge..."

"If you want to upgrade anyway, then the time is now..."

"The most significant improvement will be the upgrade from Vp150 to Vp180..."

"If you listen to music a lot then an upgrade to M80 makes sense as it has a lot more bass..."

So, thank you very much guys. Now it's the agony of waiting I have to deal with.
"Once you've had Vp180, you never look back..."

Send some pics Sam when the upgrade config is complete.

Congratulations! You'll be very happy with your decision!

Nice!

Congrats Sam.

Sam, congratulations on your Axiom purchase. Enjoy!

@RickF: thanks. Love your HT.

@Adrian: Thank you. I'm soooooooooooo looking forward to setting it up for some real workout:-)

You won't regret doing the upgrade now as it did save you money in the long run.

My thought exactly. If I waited until after my trial period, I would have to sell the M60s and Vp150 and I doubt if I would recoup 100% of what I paid for them. By doing it now I got the full credit.

I have finally received my upgrade. I went ahead and used the YPAO of my YAMAHA to configure them. My Yamaha selected all my front speakers including the center as "Large". Should I leave it at that or should I change it to "small"?

The Yamaha also selected 40Hz as the crossover for these speakers (front and center). Should I also change that to say 80Hz of 60Hz?

Thanks in advance for the advice guys.

sam3274

I would set them to small and play with the crossover knowing the the M80s will have no problem playing down to 40Hz. Select the one that sounds the best to you.

Thanks, Bdpf.

Follow up questions, just trying to understand as I have very limited knowledge and understanding:

Would it make a difference if I changed it to "small" and leave the crossover at 40Hz? Would'nt Yamaha send frequencies higher than 40Hz to these speakers anyway regardless?

The way it is now, Yamaha sends frequencies lower than 40Hz to my sub and any higher level to the other speakers. When listening to stereo, would it not be better to leave it at that setting since the front speakers would them be able to reproduce sounds down to 40Hz?

I hope I am making sense here. I just want an optimal setting for my gear. Thanks for the input guys.

sam3274

Thanks, Bdpf.

Follow up questions, just trying to understand as I have very limited knowledge and understanding:

Would it make a difference if I changed it to "small" and leave the crossover at 40Hz? Would'nt Yamaha send frequencies higher than 40Hz to these speakers anyway regardless?

The way it is now, Yamaha sends frequencies lower than 40Hz to my sub and any higher level to the other speakers. When listening to stereo, would it not be better to leave it at that setting since the front speakers would them be able to reproduce sounds down to 40Hz?

I hope I am making sense here. I just want an optimal setting for my gear. Thanks for the input guys.

sam3274

When set to large the crossover setting should be ignored.

Maybe in stereo mode you may wish to not use the sub, by having the speakers set to large. Though, I'd just find a good crossover setting (80 Hz all around isn't a bad start) and use it for all content.

The sub will handle low frequencies with greater authority than any smaller speaker. Also the amp in the sub will offset the power demands on the receiver.

So, Small all around, and play with the crossover setting to find what works best for your room and speaker combination.

With the M80s I like mine set to small and a 40hz crossover, the VP180 can be set the same but I did find the dialogue was a touch clearer with 60 or 80 hz.

ok, sorry, the title of this thread has been itching at me since it was first posted...

If you were me, would you upgrade? Having never met you, I would say, "yes"!


A-HA-HA-HA-HA ha ha

ho

hum...


Ok, I'm better now. Move along, nothing to see here
snazzed

Oh gosh...now I'm REALLY one of those "what if" people!

Has anyone noticed that aside from the arrangement of drivers, the VP180v3 looks like the horizontal version of M80v3? I mean, same size, equal number of drivers, same drivers size.

Well... yeah...

Sam, that's pretty much what the VP180 was built for, a seemless centre to go with the M80s(and M60's)....it is in fact, a horizontal M80 for all intents and purposes.