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I'm looking to upgrade my speakers, and I wanted to query the experts on VMPS 626Rs and the Virgos (or other AP models). Without considering the differences in cost, which do you all think is the superior speaker for me or generally?My music:
eclectic, but primarily small-med. size jazz combos,
with some large orchestral and electronica.Other components:
Supermodded Pioneer DVD player
DIY buffered "passive" DACT preamp
Supermodded Adcom 5400 power ampMy room:
21x10x8, speakers to be positioned along long wall in near-ish field positionMy priorities:
*transient response
*mid-range purity
*separation of voices
*lack of fatigue/brightness
*tight musical bass with decent extension, but not necessarily powerful
*soundstaging
*prefer to do without sub for a whileCurrent speakers:
Acoustic Energy Aegis 3s. Not enough detail in the mids, lack of coherence between the drivers, and general lack of imaging/soundstaging. Don't get me wrong, for their price they're nice musical, non-offensive speakers, but they fail to grab me anymore and I'm looking to step up to the speakers I'll be keeping for a long, long time.Thanks a bunch!!
Follow Ups:
The 626 excels at all your criteria. Its sonic fabric is breathtaking on good recordings. However, in a bright room (such as mine) the pair I have do spotlight the mid-treble some. Whether it is bright will depend on your room, other equipment, and your taste. I'm still waiting for my upgraded pair, which might be up and running in about a week. I'll report further then.
Thanks Jonbee! Your posts on the 626s have been excellent and much appreciated.I'm a little worried that I'll be missing the bass extension w/o a sub, though as I mentioned bass impact isn't a big deal to me. What do you think?
Also, were you using those bargain standsonthenet.com / parts express #240-744 stands with the 626s? If so, did they work well?
The bass is pretty deep, to 37 hz., and very tight and extremely clear. They are not "light in the pants", as they say. I'm using a pair of nice wood stands with these, as my wife prefers the look! I always use stone tiles cut to size at Lowes to decouple the speakers from the stands, with a little non-hardening caulk on both sides to hold it together. I find the stone tiles act as a barrier to some energy going into the stands, and makes a noticeable improvement. Easily worth the $14 it costs.
I have never heard the VMPS but heard the Virgo.Based on the list of your priorities it looks like Virgo matches perfectly.
I personally did not like the Virgo, but it did not pass my test on two other criteria that you have not mentioned in your list but they score at the top of mine.
These are:
- Emotional factor and warmth. Even though the Virgos have the 'mid-range' purity as such, to my ears they sounded a bit lean in the midrange and as a result gave a cold and 'remote' presentation.
I personally prefer more 'midrange-forward' speakers, but Virgo's are the antithesis of this - they're 'midrange laid-back'.
I heard them with both SS and tube amplifiers - tubes added a little bit more warmth and made female vocals more attractive but on some classical material Virgo's still retained their 'from the last row' presentation.
- They rated poorly on my own value-for-money scale. For this kind of money there's a helluva lot of good speakers.
Good luck!
easy...
These things are 24 inches tall right? - What kind of stands do you have these on? - You don't have them on the floor do you? - Most stands are 24 inches - if you put these on a 24 inch stand, you would almost have to stand up to listen to them.What's the optimum placement on these things?
Cut-Throat
I have them on 24" stands which work fine. VMPS recommends 22".
I spoke to a dealer (ribbonspeakers.net) about this question the other day. He recommended only slightly shorter stands (22"-24", depending on the height of the listener).My guess is that this is to put your ears at the level of the mid-range ribbon, which is positioned in the center height of the speaker.
They are 24" tall. I would get a stand so that the center of the ribbon is ear level when sitting down. This will depend somewhat on your chair but you might want to get a 19" stand instead. I do not own the 626Neo's, I own the RM40's. However, they have the same drivers and crossover network from 166hz on up and for that I give them my whole unequivocal recommendation. BC has been making world class bass systems for 25 years, I would trust his (serious expensive) midbass driver in the 626 is of the highest quality in performance. For a monitor these are said to be something else.
I second that motion.
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