I've tried to photograph them- but my pics always suck for some reason. Yes they have TRT caps. If these are the only pair, then for some reason they still needed another 100 hours or more of break-in time. The passive is a pain in the ass to adjust (due to breakin and impatience). But Brian is right, you can easily tell when you have too much or too little dampening.
Sound: Nice
I miss a little of the air that you get from a dipole/bipole, but they actually have great depth. The highs are awesome. Very sweet, dynamic and pure. The midrange is quick and clean, yet has the drive that few high end ribbon or electrostatics can deliver. I get the feeling that the mids could be cleaner if they didn't have all that metal in front of ribbons. The bottom end is very good. Anybody who says/thinks that VMPS bass is boomy hasn't heard these. That said, the best bass I've had in my system was from Genesis 201's. I suspect that the separate bass towers- with all those woofers driving the room from different hieghts and directions were the real key. But the RM/X's do have great tight bass. Oh, and the cabinets are by far more solid/less resonate than the Genesis cabinets. In fact, the seem more solid than Vandersteen subs... and that is saying something!
As for my speakers from the past... Sound Lab M-1's, Genesis 201's, Apogee Duetta Sig's, Acoustat Spectral 22's, Acoustat 1+1's, Maggie SMGa's and Altec 19's. In that order. Plus countless subs.
My current system:
Wadia 860X w/ESP Essence power cord pugged into a PS Audio P300 for AC. Connected into the AES digital processor loop of the Wadia is a Tact RCS 2.0 using Harmonic Tech cable.
The Wadia feeds a Audio Research VT-200 via balanced Acoustic Zen silver ref (whatever). But, sitting directly on the inputs of the VT-200 are Vandersteen M5 passive balanced x-overs set at about 80Hz.
I use the single ended (RCA) outputs from the Wadia to drive a Spectral DMA 150 for the RM/X woofs. The interconnects feeding the Spectral are also Acoustic Zens. The DMA is pugged in using a ESP Essence power cord. Both the ARC and the Spectral are plugged into seperate 20 AMP circuits. Also plugging into the outlets of each is a Richard Gray RGPC. My speaker cables are Transparent Ref XL's on the ARC and MIT 750 Shotguns on the Spectral.
In my room I can't (well I choose not to) place the RM/X's against the back wall... so they need a little help on the bottom (due to a room suck out). So I suppliment the bottom with a pair of Vandersteen 2WQ's. The 2WQ's get their input from the ARC's speaker taps. The 2WQ's are plugged into the RGPC's mentioned above.
