Speaker Asylum: REVIEW: VMPS RM40 Speakers by chipperman General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

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Model:	RM40
Category:	Speakers
Suggested Retail Price:	$4600/PR
Description:	FLOORSTANDING RIBBON/HYBRID TOWER
Manufacturer URL:	VMPS
Model Picture:	View

Review by chipperman ( A ) on July 28, 2006 at 00:52:45 IP Address: 69.235.208.252

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I listened to a pair of these last night in a dealer's home. I like that kind of real world experience, because it is more useful to me in evaluating how the units will adapt to my space, not the other way around. They were set about 7 feet from the rear wall in a room with a flat 8 foot ceiling about 13 feet wide. Some corner blocks were in the rear corners, and some type of bass traps on the side walls. I like nice equipment, but I don't obsess, so I really don't know what the amps were, except they had more tubes than a Las Vegas billboard, with cables the size of garden hoses protruding from them. There was no power conditioner, and the transport was a modified Sony of some sort.

I was looking for the sonic experience; the one that scares you with it's impact. I guess that comes from coloration. With these speakers, there was none. I am not going to wax poetic over individual cd's, but all my test discs sounded different than before. After about a half hour, I realized it was because there are absolutely no added artifacts from the drivers. The ribbons are so fast, it shows all the detail on the disc, and the blending of the conventional bass drivers is seamless. I can't tell if any electronic instrument is voicing correctly (how could you?) but the Stradivarius was indistinguishable from live, the overtones and decay really amazing.

The big shock came when the dealer used Liquid Resolution on my Planotones cd. I am a cynic, and that by definition is a skeptic with 50 years of experience. What a bunch of hocus pocus. But when he finished treating the disc, it looked like a first surface mirror in a telescope!

All the scratches and little smudges normally on any disc were gone. So, I watched really carefully as the disc was inserted into the player, looking for slight of hand with maybe a setting change on the preamp or something. Nope. And I will tell you this; even to my age damaged ears, the difference was right there, right now, and very noticable. I don't know what this stuff is or does, but the depth of the stage was increased, not the width in this application, but the clarity of reproduction was akin to cleaning a pair of dirty eyeglasses. Kenny Vance's voice actually raised the hair on my neck on the test section we had been listiening to.

Pardon the digression, as I know this is a speaker review. The soundstage with these units is huge, and even though you can move out of the sweet spot the field seems to follow you with very little degredation. Ribbons are known for this and this pair excelled at it. There is really nothing to fault with this speaker, and I can't see how the sound in any other competitive unit will come close. I'll never go back to cones again.

Does it have flaws? Well, the huge and powerful bass doesn't have that colon emptying slam from the pipe organ in the bottom half of the lowest octave, but if you don't listen to that kind of music, it really doesn't have any flaws. That was the wierd part, it is just so neutral, it wasn't there. And I don't think the room setup was too great, so that makes it all the better. As for the price to value ratio, well there goes the hype of the other manufactures. This is not just a steal, an outstanding value for the money, etc., this is the best speaker I've heard at any price, period. If you hear one, you'll know what I mean.

Now, the spouse factor could come into play here. These are big towers; I wasn't ready for that. All those drivers up and down the column make for a huge soundfield, but it looks like a refrigerator cut in half, one side each residing apart from its sibling. Of course, many of you like that, and these will play loud in a really big room.

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Product Weakness:	Really couldn't find any, other than size and placement, something all the big units share.
Product Strengths:	Fast, accurate, huge soundfield, the most amazing clarity and range, and the best value out there.

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Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	Dont know
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Sont know
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Sony
Speakers:	RM40
Cables/Interconnects:	Xtreme
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Vocal, Violin, Pipe Organ
Room Size (LxWxH):	20? x 13 x 8
Room Comments/Treatments:	Some bass panels
Time Period/Length of Audition:	2 hours
Type of Audition/Review:	Dealer Demo

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