I just received my VP160 today. Below is a photo of it and my VP150 sitting in my home theatre renovation disaster zone for comparison. The metal brackets on the wall represent the top and bottom of my 118 inch screen. I was planning to leave VP160 on the floor and tilt it up a bit, but now that I see it, I'm wondering if it might be too far below the bottom of the screen so the sound will be disjointed from the image. When completed in about a month, the room will have black carpet and a dozen acoustic tiles to keep any reflections to a minimum. The VP150 sounded fine at its height. Do you think it would be best to buy an FMS-160, or is there a chance the VP160 will sound just fine on the floor?

Bayne, sure there's a chance it'll sound fine there, especially if you tilt it back a bit. In any case, don't worry about it until you've tried various positions.

Can you make a temporary stand to do your listening tests?

I like the room colors.

That VP160 looks like a beast next to the 150.

Well, what JohnK said, but I'd be surprised if it didn't sound "better" on some kind of stand. Your existing stand won't work?

Sure it could work on the floor tilted up, but unless I had a compelling reason to keep it there I would still try to place it as high as possible. By the looks of your pic, you should have a foot or so off of the floor to play with.

I would try to raise it if possible. What type of screen aspect ratio are you using, that seems tall for the given wall. Maybe go with a 2.35 or smaller 16:9 screen so you can raise the center up.

I would go with some sort of stand, any way you can modify the FMS the VP150 is sitting on like cutting a section off one end or the other?

I remember a couple of years ago, pictures of vp150's sitting on soup cans.

The screen is 16:9 and it's at the optimum height for my seats. Here's a photo of my old set-up. The fabric ceiling panels hide all the cables. In the renovated room the cables will be hidden inside black crown molding and it will appear that there is more space above the screen.



I don't think I can modify the stand I have for the VP150. The VP160 is a monster and I'd be afraid of it being too top heavy for the old stand.

I guess you could order the VP160 stand in a special height, more money but guaranteed to work.

Soup tins stacked 3 high should do it.

Bayne, placement directly on the floor may in fact be a superior option compared to a stand mount. The important factor is to have the center of the woofer cones at different distances from the nearest room surfaces(floor, wall behind, side walls)so that the reflections don't pile up at the same frequencies and result in uneven response. At present it appears that the woofers are about 5" from the floor, a couple feet from the wall behind, and more feet from the side walls. This is excellent from one factor of room acoustics, but not so good from the standpoint of having the tweeters directed to ear level(they don't have to actually be at ear level). Tilting the center back to point to the ears works well and may be better overall than using a stand unless the distances to the room surfaces from the stand position are made unequal.

I'd vote for a stand, though of course placing it on and off pretty much anything will allow you to try both.

My gut feeling is that the speaker will sound a bit chesty when sitting on the floor due to boundary-effect and the speaker's low-end ability.

If you do indeed find a stand of a particular height is preferable, it's easy enough to build something simple and virtually invisible until you have the time or the money to replace it with something better. Maybe some colored (black?) milk-crate-type things from Target would work for awhile....

You could always use soup cans.

Hi Bayne,

I suspect that boundary effects from the floor will add colorations to the VP160 you won't be happy with. In general, speakers should not be placed on the floor unless they're floor-standing designs (like the M50,M60 and M80 towers) intended for floor placement.

Definitely use a stand or some kind of support to raise it off the floor.

Regards,
Alan

I can't believe nobody has suggested hockey pucks, yet.

The 160 comes with feet as thick as a hockey puck.

This is another option if you want some extra tilting, which the Axiom doesn't seem to do. http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?PartNumber=240-808 It should be close to the right height. I bought some steel speaker stands from PartsExpress for my M22's several years ago. I don't know which brand now, but they are so beefy that I feel confident standing on them myself. This center channel stand is probably not quite as sturdy since it can tilt as well, but should be fine for the VP160.

Though, the price of this is so close to the one from Axiom, you may just want to go with that one, since you live in Canada. I just noticed that you can enter a custom height when ordering it and the cost is the same, so the Axiom stand may be the best way to go.

Thanks for all the suggestions, guys. This is one more reason why I love Axiom--the helpful tips from like-minded enthusiasts. I've been doing a lot of thinking and reading about boundary effects and have decided to go with a stand. I know I can build one, but the FMS 160 isn't all that expensive, IMHO. My VP150 and stand are 21.5 inches high, so if I want the same height, I'd need to order a 10.5 inch FMS 160. Although I may go about an inch shorter because of the thick carpet and underlay we'll be adding, and I'll probably add a bit of an upward tilt by leaving off the stand's rear feet. It'll be good timing as I need to order 150 feet of Axiom bulk speaker wire next week.

It may be small, but it's fierce!

Here's my FMS 160 which just arrived today. It's a very nice stand and I'm glad I bought one.

In this image I've just connect the VP160 to my 3.0 set-up just to test the speaker. What a nice sound. Obviously it has a much larger prescience than my VP100 here. Can't wait to hear it in my home theatre in a few weeks.



Here's a comparison shot.



And here's how the new speaker fits in with my screen. It's more or less in the same place as the VP150 was.

Nothing like a custom fit, good choice.

Looks great!

All you and your 160's... gonna guilt trip me into replacing my VP150.

:P