Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Dual centers; vp180 & vp150?

hello all.

I purchased a vp180 to replace my vp150 a couple months ago and have been completely satisfied. I still have my vp150 and have been unable to sell it. I am planning on picking up a emotiva xpa5 amp soon and it got me thinking. I could run the vp180 off the amp and the vp150 off my marantz sr6005. Allowing me to run the vp180 below and the vp150 above my 50" dlp. Is there any negatives to this? I'm thinking it will make the vocals sound more centered on the tv (height wise). I know a lot of people have upgraded to the vp180, has anyone else though of this?

Darren back whenever I bought our VP180 I wired it with the VP150 via a parallel connection having the 150 above and the 180 below our 73" screen and the combination didn't work well at all for me. My thought was the same as yours regarding planting the dialog onto the center of the screen but the 180 did such a goodl job on it's own that the 150 simply disappeared in the mix, you can try it but I certainly wouldn't expect any improvement whatsoever.

Having a couple of VP180s as dual centers like JC has would be a hoot I bet.

If you are using the preouts on the Marantz to an external amp for the center channel, you can't also use the AVR's speaker terminals for the Center Channel at the same time. You would have to wire the speakers in parallel as Rick mentioned, which would lower your Ohm spec for the total of that channel.

Given the size of your monitor and the fact that you already have the 180, it would be pretty much overkill. I must admit though, from my own experience, if you can possibly get the VP180 above the monitor and tilted toward the listener, it would sound better than being below it, however, because of its size, I am assuming here this may not be possible. Matching possible differences in volume level between the two could be an issue as well. I, personally, never liked the sound of any center channel that I have ever tried, regardless of size or configuration, below and in front of the screen of an RPTV.

I would NOT recommend combining your VP180 with a VP150. The VP150 has a horrible off axis response hence why Axiom is quickly replacing it with a VP160. Using both centers at the same time would result in significant off-axis shifting of sound. I can't see why you would need anything more than one VP180.

I have a M2 over and a VP150 under. The M2 dissapears sonically, but I believe that there is "some" benefit of helping to anchor the sound towards the center of the screen, but I don't get a lot of improvement. I agree with above statement that there would be much more lowering of ohms between a vp180 and a vp150. Much more than a vp150 and an M2. I don't think I'd try it.

Now I'm wondering how JC has his 2 VP180's hooked up. I'm guessing he is using the center pre-out to drive 2 mono-blocks, but I'm only guessing here.

LOL. The VP150 has been around for at least 7 - 8 years and the VP160 is still in "pre-order" phase...

You make a good point though. Any benefit noticed while "on-axis" would be gone once hitting "off-axis".

I have a VP180 here and the VP150 that it replaced. I have been trying to figure out what to do with it ever since I got the VP180. I should have put it on the Auction for a super low price and used the Axiom bucks for the VP180, but I didn't and now I have no idea what to do with it either.

There were mentions of things like a plant holder if you take out the speakers from the VP150, up to using it paired up with some M2s or M22s for a TV...

Here was my thread on the subject...
What to do with my VP150 if I get a VP180?

Hi JBall, Axiom is not replacing the VP50; it is adding another center speaker model to its line-up. The number of positive comments which we receive from VP150 owners far exceed the few negative ones. Using one VP150 with one VP180 is not recommended; it would be like using one M22 and one M80 as your front main speakers.

LOL That's a good way to compare the two JC.

There have been a LOT more than just a few complaints about the VP150. I had one in my system for a year wondering why dialogue was so unintelligible when I sat away from dead center. I replaced it with a Infinity Primus PC351 and WHAT a difference!

Too bad the VP160 wasn't available at the time but I can't imagine anyone buying a VP150 when the much better VP160 is available for only $100s more. Me thinks VP150 will quitely go away in short time.