Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater 3- VP150's as front speakers?

I was wondering if anyone had tried 3- VP150's as front speakers for their home theater setup? I was considering it with the center horizontal and the L/R vertical. The only issue I can see is the tweeters being at different levels on the side speakers. Let me know your thoughts on this..
Thanks Mike

Although Alan at Axiom said it did pretty good when he tested it once, it is really designed to be a horizontal speaker. By flipping it vertical, you would be turning the designed dispersion of the drivers. Much like taking a speaker that is designed to be vertical and laying it horizontal.

Why are you considering this, just curious?

Yeah, I'd stick with the orientation that the speaker was designed for.

I had a few thoughts. It keeps all the speakers the same across the front (although this can be done with other models). It would also look even and having three 5 1/4 drivers I felt would give the best impact. I will be using two subs when I'm done to fill in the bass portion. I've also considered all M22's or M3's, but I'm worried I'll be disappointed. My front speakers now are outdated and were never high quality but all the driver's are large (2-6.5's in the center, 1-6.5 and 2-12's per left and right). While they may not be tops in quality they definitely supply quantity. The room I have is about 4000 cu ft and opens into a hall and kitchen.

I should also add this is on wall or on wall/ in wall. Right now I'm looking at removing towers from my setup.

Thanks Mike

That's quite a large area. If you like higher listening levels you might have to go with in-cab M60/80s, at moderate levels the M22s would be ok....it also depends on how far back your seating area is. A lot of those older(larger) drivers would be embarrased by many of the comparatively small, modern woofer designs these days.

The amount of extra detail you will hear will be the best part, but unless you get floor standing speakers you might be diappointed with the bass/ midbass punch as those old 12" woofers really throw out prodigous amounts of bass, usually very loose and flabby though. The new smaller drivers offer the same bass but sound much tighter and controlled but to some it sounds like there is much less bass.

Listening distance is about 16 ft away. I definietly know what you mean about the smaller drivers, but I feel more then two will be necessary. Thats why I was looking at using a VP150 vertically.

Hi JST,

Some excellent advice from others in this thread. Certainly, your large area and listening distance will demand higher output and three VP150s could provide that.

I'll describe my early experiments with the VP150: It was shortly after I joined Axiom and I was listening to most of the Axiom models in my home with an A/B instantaneous switching arrangement. (I'd point out that these comparisons were not blind as they are in the Axiom listening room.)

I was trying various combinations of Axiom's compact models (M2i, M22i) as centers and comparing them to the dedicated Axiom centers--the VP100 and VP150. One of my Axiom colleagues at the time, Joe Vassallo (after whom our Vassallo series of real-wood speakers is named) told me that he was using three VP150s as the fronts in his basement home theater, so just for fun, I flipped the two VP150s I had on hand and put them on stands, listening to them in stereo and in a home theater mode using a VP100 as the center.

I was surprised how good the dual VP150s sounded in the vertical orientation in stereo and remarked at the time to Ian Colquhoun that we should consider perhaps selling them to be used for special installations in a vertical orientation.

I did not do double-blind tests vs. other Axiom compact or floorstanding speakers of the VP150's used vertically. I don't know how they would have ranked in such a comparison, however I'd been doing a series of comparisons of the different models using both music and movie playback and I was simply surprised at how good the VP150s sounded. Joe Vassallo always claimed that his installation sounded great (I never heard it.)

That said, the in-cabinet M60s or M80s would give you all the output you'd need, and that's what I'd recommend. However, in terms of overall clean output at loud playback levels, using three of the in-cabinet or on/in-wall VP150s would give you the multiple drivers necessary to handle high SPLs and good sound quality (not as excellent as the in-cabinet M60s or M80s, I suspect) but pretty good.

Regards,
Alan

Thanks for the reply Alan. I'm still giving the 3-VP150's alot of thought. I think this along with a good pair of subwoofers might do the trick. Once they decide on my TV repair or replacement I'll know what I'm going to try.
Thanks Mike

The VP150 isn't ported so it won't play quite as low as the M22's and I suspect a pair of M22s will play virtually as loud as a piar of VP150s give or take a db or 2. IMO the M22 plays a touch smoother than the 150.

If I were you I would try the M22's and if you feel they are lacking then I would move up to floorstanders, M60/M80, the Vp150 is a good speaker but was not designed to be used vertically and as such the sound quality can't help but be compromised. For example, I tried the VP180 vertically against my M80v2 and there was a noticeable difference. The Vp180 couldn't touch the soundstage the M80 could throw out. The 180 was still clear and sounded quite good but not as good as the M80.

Hi JST4FN,
I don't want to rain on the parade hear (pun intended ) , but have you considered that the VP150's only play down to 85Hz at their -3dB point? Just wanted to point that out so you consider all of your facts when deciding which way you want to go.
Personally I would go for M60's or 80's with that much space to fill and relieve your subs from having to play up to a higher crossover point. However I'm still interested in how three 150's as LCR would sound. Let us know what you go with.

Cheers,

The only reason I'd go with VP150s is if I was buying a few of the v2 for very cheap.

Having just acquired M22s, and having owned a VP150 for about a year. The M22s are better sounding, if just because of their lower reach.

My auto-calibration did put the VP150 4 dB above the M22s, though. So it may play a bit louder with the same power.

Still I'd take 3 M22s, or 2 M22s and one VP150 (if you don't have the space) over 3 VP150s any day.

I would expect the VP150 to be set above the M22's with it being 6 ohms. I know my tests with my RS SPL meter the M22s are about 3-4 db lower just as the M2 was for the same input levels, but ultimately the M22s and VP150 should still be able to reach the same max SPL (louder than I would listen for any length of time).