Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Wanna upgrade...opinions?

From my other recent posts you can gather that I'm upgrading my home theatre. I've bought a new TV and will soon be buying a new receiver/pre-pro and Blu-Ray player.

Now I want to upgrade my speaker setup but I'm not sure I want to pony up for all of the potential upgrades. I thought I'd list them and see what others thought would have the largest improvement in the listening experience - which is primarily TV and movies with some music sprinkled in occasionally.

Please recommend what you think would offer the largest improvement or wow factor.

• Buy M2s as height channels (either PLIIz or DSX)
• Upgrade VP150 to VP180
• Purchase another EP500 to give me dual EP500s
• Sell EP500 and purchase dual Epik Empires (or Legends) - caveat: not sure I can get these in Canada so this might be a moot suggestion
• Upgrade M60v2 to M80v3

What does everyong think?

Thanks!

Bryan

All of the above Sorry
Jokes aside, if it is mostly for movies, I would say the dual sub option and maybe the VP180 (although my main reason for upgrading to the VP180 was for music).

Bruno - I knew someone would suggest all of the above I'd like to do it all but the CEO of my house might balk at that expense. She knows about the TV, receiver and bluray (ps3) but not about new speakers. I'm not sure she'd notice an upgrade from VP150 to VP180 but she'd probably notice another subwoofer sitting in the room.

I'll most likely get the M2s as heights. That's almost a given. Not sure about the others...I'd really like to try the VP180 but not sure how much it would add over my VP150. Although it is mostly TV/movies, I do like to listen to music in PLII Music which uses the center quite a bit. How do you find the VP180 vs. the VP150?

I'd really like dual subs as well. I'm contemplating some options from Chase Home Theater (craigsub) and Epik for duals. Seems like I could sell my EP500 and get duals from them for less than the cost of purchasing another EP500. Don't get me wrong - I love my EP500 but I'm considering other options that might yield more for less (or the same).

Any other opinions?

My unqualified vote goes to the VP180 center channel upgrade.

Yes, he is unqualified.

I'm unqualified too, but there have been millions of unqualified votes cast this week.

VP180.

Do you need "more" bass or "smoother response"? A second sub is only going to give you the latter.

I'm surprised the rabid dogs of the M80 posse have restrained themselves this long.

Not saying that it is a bad speaker cause it's not but for me, the VP150 sounded a bit thin. This is due mostly to the small cabinet. For movies only, I might have been OK with that. The biggest improvement for me was for multichannel concerts where the voice tones are important (it's also important for movies but more forgivable). The vocals just sound more natural from the VP180, almost in par with the M80s. Another big improvement was the bass. A lot of concerts have the bass guitar coming from the center. That was a problem with the VP150, I couldn't almost hear it. The dual 6.5" woofers help the VP180 in this area. The VP180 has a bigger cabinet, more drivers and is overall a better speaker. For me it was worth the extra $$$, for others it might not.
I would have ranked number 1 improvement if you would do 50% HT / 50% music. Since you do mostly HT, I rank it number 2, dual subs being number 1 improvement.

I too am going to say VP180 and I can let you swap out the M60s for M80s and decide if you think that particular swap is worth the cost. I can bring them over when ever. I will just toss the M22's into use while the M80s are at your place.

You are right, Epik, strangely enough, STILL doesn't sell in to Canada and when they did at the beginning their shipping charges were horrendous. Apparently the business model is not there yet for them to get any sort of meaningful deal from a major shipper to go beyond the lower 48. Even if you can have it shipped to a US address, they won't honor the warranty. Not worth the hassle. Interesting to note,however, they have set up a distributorship in Europe.

On another note the VP180 is a large leap beyond the 150, size notwithstanding.

Low blow, Jason.