Hello all! After falling in love with my M3s, I upgraded to the M22's and moved the M3's to surrounds. I currently have a V2 VP100 (my other two sets are v4). I feel like it is certainly the weak point of my system. I am curious which center channel would offer the best imaging? That's a big deal for me. My space isn't very large. My set up is in my condo's living room. I am debating between the vp150 and vp160 but if the vp100 is the best for imaging given it's more traditional form, then I will upgrade to the v4.

Any thoughts?

PS: it took me about a week before I really fell in love with my m22's. I found them to be a bit harder to place to get good imaging but once I found the right position, I love them. I had a friend over and his mind was really blown by the first half hour of Master and Commander. When he was ready to go, he put on his jacket and put up his hood because he thought it was pouring outside because the rain sounded so real.

The biggest problem that many have on the center channel is balancing want/need with space/ethetics. A larger speaker will give more sound depth than a smaller speaker.

The VP160 is an 8ohm speaker that is quite tall so before you start to look at it, make sure it will even fit inside the space you have for the center channel speaker. It will give you sound that you would never have believed possible compared to your VP100. It uses its volume of air to give you a whole load more frequency range that smaller speakers simply can't as well as a presence.

I've used the VP100 (M22s for L & R) for a year but it was not placed in an ideal spot - close to the floor & tilted up to aim at ear level. It worked very well there but I decided that I needed fuller sound out of the CC.

I 'Traded Up' to the VP160, but due to its size, I required a bigger stand to accommodate it. It turned out to be a fabulous upgrade to my system. There is really no comparison as the VP160 is so much more powerful & full sounding. My Audyssey 'heard' the VP100 at 80 Hz & the VP160 at 40 Hz.

Given the huge amount of dynamic content mixed into the CC these days, the bigger the better I would say if you have the room...

TAM

I have M22's and VP 150, if I were to upgrade, it would be to the VP180, I think it would match better with the M22's, and it's not as tall as 160, may fit better depending on your setup.

PS- I always show off Master& Commander, the first 30 mins as a demo...

At one point or another, except for the VP100, I have owned the VP150, 160 and currently 180. In moving to what would essentially be full-range speakers(160/180)the difference in sound is much more pronounced between the VP150 and 160 as opposed to the VP160/180.

I must admit though with the design difference between the two models, in my opinion, that from both pink noise generated for balancing purposes and actual real world listening, the off-axis performance of the VP160 is somewhat better than the 180. In either case, though, you can't go wrong with either one of them and because they are both rather large speakers, then it just becomes a matter of space issues.

I have the 180 but if I had a choice to do it all over again, I think that I would likely take a serious look at the VP160.

To be serious about HT, then you would have at least 1 subwoofer in your setup. So getting that little bit extra of lower frequency from the VP180 is a bit of a moot point unless you have a high enough AV front end that can take advantage and set the cross over point low enough for the center. From what is out there, most systems will default the speaker to SMALL but even in large set the cross over to 80hz, so you can't take advantage of the lower end.

I have a VP150, VP160 and VP180. My VP150 is currently in the closet. Both the 160 and 180 are incredible centers. It may be the room, but I think I prefer the 160.