Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Anybody using a M22 for a center channel?

Has anybody tried using the M22 as center channel or is it just best to use the VP150?

I don't know how it would work in the proper (vertical) orientation - maybe great - but I wouldn't recommend just laying a M22 on its side and using it. I've read - perhaps in something Alan wrote, actually - that positioning speakers on their side when they are not designed for that can screw up the way the sound is heard (something about a problem with the axis).

I've read about using 5 such speakers for surround sound music (L,R,C,SL,SR), but they were all normally oriented.

If you can keep the M22 in its intended vertical orientation, and you don't have a wide area to cover for center channel duty, then I woudl guess that it should sound better than a VP150. Cheaper, too.

Y'all are right. And yup there was a post some time ago about using an M22 as center; worked better than a Vp100. I remember it well, it's why I'm currently using an M3 as center. (It also stated that the M3 worked better than the VP100 also, But I'm not gonna say THAT out loud for fear of really starting something ugly.) Anyway, the problem with laying one on it's side WAS an axis problem, or rather off-axis; it works ok laying down if the tweet was toward an assimetrically occupied listening area. If I remember right, the post was in conjunction with an associated post by Ian listing the engineering requirements of an acceptable center channel design, very interesting indeed. At any rate, a vertical, but inverted, speaker works just great, no down or side lobes, full range and all that if the listening area isn't too wide. The vp150 wasen't included in the test that was completed in the post, but the M22 was best, followed by the M3 then the vp100. Good stuff.

I used an inverted vertical M2 as a center for a while. Worked really well -- the only reason I replaced it was that it looked a bit wierd on top of my 27" TV.

Lying the M2 on its side definitely was not as good. The issue is that you want woofer and tweeter to be in line horizontally so you don't get a blurred "image". If you have a symmetrical driver array (eg. woofer on each side of the tweeter) the woofer sound effectively comes from the center of the array, same point as the tweeter.

At least that's how I understand it

I don't know if I would say the M2 was better than the VP100 -- I think the extra woofer/mid on the VP100 made a difference although I think the M2 matched the M60s sonically better than the VP100 did.

If you can live with a vertical M22 I think that would give you the best of both worlds.

You could always lay 2 M2s side by side horizontally - that way you would have a symmetrical speaker array.

I'm using a M22 for my center and it works excellent!
K_A

Good point. That worked pretty well. I didn't use that configuration because it put the (unshielded) woofer magnets too close to my poor old CRT and made funny colours, but the sound was fine.

>>I'm using a M22 for my center and it works excellent!

Vertical or horizontal ?