My country's SVS dealer loan me the SVS MCS-01, which is a GIANT center speaker
The 1st word my wife saw it and she said:"What a BIG BIG potato!! Don't you ever dream of buying that and put in the living room!!"
There goes my intention of owning it even before testing it

A simple 1st time review as compared to my Axiom VP150

Appearance
HUGE!!! at 10" x 24" x 13", it's look like it's even larger than my Emotiva XPA-3!! and weight 17.5kgs!!
the height of the speakers blocked slightly like 0.5" of my TV which is 9.5" from the table
The reflection of the Piano finished is a turn off as it reflected everything from my screen...

Setup
Simple enough, just unplug my the VP150 and plug in my speaker cable with dual spring banana plug and there it goes....but 1st need to "hug" the thing from the box to the table...

The sound
Ok, the most important part.
Processed by Marantz SR6003 and powered by Emotiva XPA-3, since the unit had been run in at the dealer's place, I just crank it up.
Tonal balance blend nicely with my Axiom M60 main and did not notice of any timbre mismatch. Did not run any calibration, just pop in "Celine Dion: Live in Vegas" Celine Dion:Live in Las vegas and select the song "I Am Alive".....immediately notice the clarity and more dynamic mid range as compared with the VP150

Then, I put in Storm Warrior II (A HK production based on comics by Ma Weng Seng) (Storm Warrior II) , the opening scene with dts-ma 7.1 selected, when "Mou Meng" engage "Man Kiem Kuai Zhong", the sound were terrific, can literally felt the swords are flying around you, and with the MCS-01, the colliding sound of the flying swords are more realistic than the VP150, and the dialog from "Chiit Mou San" also clearer even though he spoke very softly and less muffle compared to the VP150.

After that, pop in "AFQ Live" AFQ concert.....in dts-ma 5.1, I felt a more vibrant guitar sound and notice improvement on small details from the larger woofer (7" vs 5.25" of the VP150) and 2 big bass port at the back. Those size really helps bring out the sound of the concert.....

The thing cost $479+ vs the VP150 at $408, worth it?
Yes if you have a big room, but on a smaller room, unless u wanna play really loud, and for the mere $71, if you have the space for it huge size and a power amp to drive it, I would say it perform remarkably value for money and better than the VP150 in most way.

Just my take.....but not gonna buy it as it lack WAF looks

Please don't think I'm being insensitive to your findings and that I don't appreciate them, because I love reading speaker comparisons. But if you didn't calibrate the new center, how can you really say something like "the dialog from "Chiit Mou San" also clearer even though he spoke very softly and less muffle compared to the VP150"?

Maybe the new speaker was a little more sensitive and therefore 3dB higher in output....causing it to sound clearer in comparison?

For all I know, it just might be a fantastic speaker and well worth replacing your VP150, but without calibration, the differences that you were hearing might not have actually been there...

Thanks for the write up. That was mighty nice of them to let you simply 'borrow' the unit eh? Sounds like my kind of place.

Have you ever thought, since it is so big, about using it as a television stand so that your wife doesn't even notice it?

Thanks for the write up. So whats the process that you had to go through for them to "loan" you the speaker. Sounds like a friendly dealer.

Now, I *REALLY* want to hear the SVS M-Series bookshelf speakers.

Glad to hear that there wasn't a tonal mismatch but as Mark said you need to at least do an SPL match to quantify SQ differences as the louder speaker will almost always be chosen as the better sounding one, but I do beleive the larger cabinet size would allow for better dynamics, at least that has been my experience with center channel speakers.

yep, unless you calibrate each time for each speaker, the test would not be true.

Does it really matter of what his methods are? He was only giving his subjective opinions on each product anyways.

Gotta agree with the Doc for once. It's better to recalibrate, but...

Even if it is just a personal opinion (is there any other kind?), isn't still a good idea not to mislead yourself?

if I had a dollar for every time I had

But he's not just talking about overall tonal balance. He's saying that whispered words are clearer... certainly an artifact of a speaker that's outputting a few dBs.

Again, it may be a phenomenal speaker, but unless you're doing apples to apples...

Well if you look at the sensitivity ratings 87db and 95 db (VP150) I would think that the more effecient speaker will be the one to be played at a higher decibel the majority of the time in an uncalibrated setting using only volume adjustment.

The 150 is not 95db, that is the in room rating which is variable upon the room, this is why it is so critical to calibrate for each speaker, as each one will react with room differently. For all we know the in room response could have been in reverse with the MCS actually higher than the VP150.

I am glad he was able to have a listen and posted his thoughts but is it not up to us to point out the short comings of his testing? He may want to buy this speaker at some point ( if he gets divorced ) and then find it is not what he thought it was after he actually calibrates the system.

Hi mpyw

Thanks for your impressions of that large center channel speaker. I had a KLF C7, a HUGE center with 8" drivers and a huge horn tweeter. I was really disappointed in its sound quality. I prefer the VP 150.

On the other hand, SVS has made some excellent speakers. I'd like to hear their huge center.

Let us know what you choose.

Good luck.

I got to hear a complete SVS M-series system at the Oregon GTG last fall. It was the only system in that room. I thought it sounded quite good, but it didn't make me think my Axiom system was inferior.

Was this with the tower M's or all bookshelf speakers? I seem to remember reading somewhere that the M-series bookshelf speakers sound better than the towers. I think the same may have been true for the S-series as well.

I've only run the test around 9.30pm or so and do not have time to re-run the MultiEQ and SPL. Just wanted to get the feel of the speaker when new toy came home :p

Will re-run the MultiEQ this weekend and SPL calibration and will post up the personal impression again.

The dealer is a personal friend of mine and just got his SVS dealership recently so he is trying to push for sales and as a friendly reseller, as our culture here do not have the 30 days trial period terms, he is loaning out his demo speakers to potential buyer, he can even loan me the full 5.1 + SVS EQ1 if I want, but that would be a full load of van for the transport and helper needed to setup those heavy boxes, so, I just ask for the center as I really want to learn if the SVS have timbre mismatch with the M60 which I am very satisfied with but not with the VP150.

And I've told my wife that I will get my own HT room one day and put up the ugliest boxes in there :p LOL

No, No, not the ugliest boxes, simply the biggest and best sounding system you can get in there, something like that might actually pass.

p3a - it was a 5.2 channel system with towers in the front, bookshelves suboptimally placed as surrounds and 2 PB12-plus. The bass was fantastic. The fit/finish was great, too. Without a true A/B test, I perceived the sound quality as similarly good to my M60/VP100/QS8 system.

Yea, I'd really love to see a QS style surround built using the M-series drivers but they would be EXPENSIVE since the tweeters are $190 each. I'd guess about $1500 per pair.

I've return the MCS-01 without having time to calibrate it, my wife just hated it :p

anyhow, when I reconnect the VP150, I've turn the speaker upside down to check if the sound would improve....and it DOES!

Amazing by a simply flick over the to place the center face UP and it improve on the sound and the diversion of off-axis listening is much much better now....

but the clarity and detail of the MSC-01 still better in my opinion but no that far off after i change the position of the VP150.

Refresh my memory where is your center located, under the TV I presumme? If so it makes sense to have it flipped with the angled side down so the drivers are aimed slightly upwards, this is how I have mine. It has been said many times the VP150 is a speaker that needs to tried in various positions and IMO, especially if listening closer then say ~10ft away. I have played around with my VP150 and found if I am sitting 6-8 ft away it sounds a little different than when I am in my usual position ~14' away.

Speaker positioning is terribly important and completely free.

Only takes a few secs lol... I dont think the build & quality is all that great in the 150.

I like my new 61 pound beast I can run on large.

Well, I wouldn't suggest anyone try this to prove it to themselves, but I dropped my VP150 off of the entertainment stand I have(about 2 ft) and the 150 dented my imported hardwood floor. The 150 suffered a dented corner, which is what hit the floor, but the speaker has worked flawlessly for months and months since.

I remember many months ago I was unsure about my 150 as well and it was suggested that I play with the positioning.
I'm glad I did because it significantly opened the soundstage. I had to play with the input level a bit as well but it sounds much better now. I went back to listen to the Klipsch RC 62 I had and the highs were too 'piercing' ( which was causing me an ear ache in my left ear after 20 minutes each time ).
I realized then how VERY important speaker placement affects the sound.

Although I'm completely happy with the sound coming from my VP150 (and the rest of the set-up for that matter), I never did any experimenting with it. So now I'm all curious about what it might sound like beneath the screen.

The bad part is, if I move it down there to see what it sounds like, and it's a huge improvement over it's current location, I'll really be stuck. Because I don't have any room beneath my screen to put the damn thing.

So I suppose I should leave well enough alone. Curiosity killed the cat!