Thought I would post some of my thoughts of these various speakers as use as a center channel.
Bryan(icehawk21) was kind enough to lend me an M2 and his VP180 for this week and asked me to have a listen to them and give him my thoughts, so I shall share them with you all.
First a couple of pics
Here is a pic of the 2
And just the 180 as the center
(If anyone wants to see the M2 as a center in this set up let me know.)
As you can see the VP180 dwarfs the VP150, yet my trusty RS SPL meter showed very little difference between the 2 not even enough to adjjust channel levels for. The meter was a solid 75 db with the VP180 while the VP150 would have it drop into 74db ever so briefly, not enought to allow even a 0.5db boost other wise it read 75/76 regularly. I opted to not make any channel level adjustments. For reference the M2 needed a 3 db boost to match the VP180. I left Audyssey off to eliminate it's room corrections/EQ abilities and the crossover was initially left at 40hz for all, speakers set to small.
First thing I did was listen to The Eagles Farewell Tour - Live from Melbourne DVD. The vocals from the VP180 were smooth and lifelike. I never once felt like I was straining to hear the singer over the music, it was just a nice blend. The front soundstage was very even with my M80v2's pounding out the bass and the VP180 was able to match them for every note, it was seemless multichannel music. The VP150 was no slouch and neither was the diminuitive M2, both were able to hold there own but did sound as though the 40hz crossover was causing some resonance. I adjusteed the crossover to 80 and this helped them clean up their music presentation, so much so that I was hard pressed to hear any real differences other than the center appeared thin in sound compared to the L/R and from what I could remember from the VP180. With the VP150 or M2 the center stage was slightly less dynamic/shallow/recessed from the rest of the system without that exrta bass fortifying it's presence. This was not surprising considering the lack of drivers and cabinet size of the M2/VP150.
I next moved to Lord of the Rings- FOTR. This is where the VP180 really hit home. During the Fireworks scene the extra punch from the center channel was quite noticeable and was lacking while watching the same scene with the VP150 or the M2. There were many other scenes that had much more impact with the VP180 compared to the smaller M2/VP150, scenes that I never really considered being of importance, such as when the ring falls out of Bilbo's hand and hits the floor or when Gandalf bends down to retrieve the ring and the eye quickly flashes into scene.
I moved onto U-571 to see how all the whispers would sound amongst the trio. They all proved to be great performers but during the intial boarding of the U-boat the gunfire was again more visceral, impactful with the VP180, the VP150 and M2 were much weaker in comparison. The depth charge scenes were also much more impressive with the VP180 compared to the smaller centers, again no surprises here.
I tried for some off axis listening and the VP180 just like the VP150 or any other horizontally designed speaker does not offer great off axis listening. It still sounds good just softer than sweetspot or near sweetspot listening. In my room the seat farthest to the right is 25-30 deg. off axis and in this spot just as with the VP150 or even my VP100 you lose quite abit of volume 2-3 even 4 db on some material; it is quite noticeable. The M2 on the other hand only drops barely a db. I checked this with various program material, my mains disconnected and the max setting on the RS, not very scientific but neither is this whole review
So YYMV.
All in all the VP180, IMO, is truly the center channel(beside the obvious choice of a third M80 or an M60) for a complete front soundstage for the M60/M80(I heard it at Bryan's with his M60's) providng you have room and can afford it. I would not hesitate at recommending the smaller speakers either but there is a difference. I would suggest to those that can't afford the VP180 right away purchase the M2 or VP150 and then repurpose those once you can get your hands on the VP180.
Hmmm. I wonder how an M2 mounted high above the TV to spread out the sound and the VP180 to fill in the soundstage would be.................
