Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater VP180 First Impressions

Agreed!

As happy as I am with the VP180, I would still like to try a WT/MW unit from Axiom one day. I don't actually expect it to be better than the VP180 in terms of sonically matching the M80, but it would be nice to see if the horizontal off axis performance is significantly better, and to see how much (if any) of the vertical off axis performance is affected by the vertical T/M alignment.

If a single small mid driver (required to keep cabinet size down) is a concern then perhaps they could try a WMT/MMW layout that uses a small mid driver under the tweeter, flanked by larger mid drivers and then woofers on the outside.

Thank Gawd (and Dean) and QFT.

I'm STUNNED that observations about speaker placement and room interactions have been virtually nonexistent in these discussions.

Even if you had IDENTICAL speakers that were oriented identically, wouldn't you expect them to sound slightly different if one was in the middle of the room and one was near(er) a wall?

It's supposed to be fun, remember?

That is very true, but that doesn't mean you can use just any speaker as long as it is in the "correct" location in a properly treated room. Some people are restricted to what they can do to their room and/or where they can place the speakers, so the next thing they have control over is the speaker itself.

Can one of you guys with both the VP150 and VP180 do a test for me please?

I do not want to give up my center arrangement of one under and one over my screen. I can't, no way in hell, hand a VP180.

I'm very curious to hear if the the two centers would play nice together. So if any of you guys who own both could give this arrangement a try (VP180 under and VP150 over the screen), and report back what your thoughts and impressions were, it would be appreciated.

That would be interesting, I think RickF would be able to do it somewhat easily, looking at his latest pics.

I am expecting the SPL to be different, but enough to make it distracting or would it blend?

Thanks for the follow up.



Yes I have unfortunately trained my ear to hear subtle difference in timbre I would never have noticed years ago. However, the “tunneling” or “beaming” effect I describe hearing with the VP150 in my present room is not subtle. It sounds like the speaker is at the back of a sewer tunnel when moving the left and right seats. Note that this particular effect has only happened in one out of three rooms I’ve tried it in.

I've not experienced any tunneling or beaming effect so far.

If it’s very slight then do yourself a favour and stop listening for it right now or you will end up quite insane like me.


I also notice it more with music. I agree with your reasoning and would add from what I’ve read that in many cased the sound engineer will mix some of the center channel into the mains to get a more seamless soundstage for movies especially with things moving and panning around the screen.

Thanks for the detailed explanation. If you were hearing the “hollowness” in my experience it’s never subtle so sounds like its not there.