[Brian Cheney]

All floorstanding VMPS speakers have the same adjustments as the Carver Amazings, so we did go that route.

[John Casler]

I have owned VMPS speakers for over 12 years.  The first pair I had that had  putty and pots (Tower IIs) I "never" adjusted until 2 years ago!!!!

Did they sound absoulutley horrible? nope, did the tuning make them better? yep.

I find that occasionally this question crops up and some fastidious 'philes, make statements like a "small changes" make an "incredible" or "unbeleivable" improvement, they went from lousy to heavenly.

That just doesn't happen

The tuning capability of the VMPS floor standing speakers is to allow for adjustment to the bass "damping" system and to adjust levels of the neopanels and tweeters.

Since many describe these "enormous" changes in sound quality with the slightest adjustment, the newcomers feel like they are searching for this "illusive" sonic grail and are lost in the sea of "inexperience" to never find the path.

I have to assure you that a huge majority of what are sometimes described as "huge" differences are "very subtle" but noticable changes that when heard, finally say "this is right" or at least it is "closer to right".

Big B's speaker systems by their very nature can be some of the most revealing and resolving transducers you can listen to.  Because of this ability to hear "into" the recording to a greater degree, we have the opportunity to find "areas" of the sound that we might want to improve.

Now what causes these areas?  Well it could be any number of things.

Source material engineering
Source hardware
Preamplification
Amplification
Cables and interconnects
Room Acoustics
Polluted Electrical Power
and more....

That "more" could be the speaker.  Now after cleaning up the rest of the sonic production chain, most speakers leave you with little adjustablity other than "postitioning".

VMPS on the other hand, has provided the tools to extract that last little bit of sonic tailoring to allow you to go even further.

Even after exorcising the main "Sound Demons" we may still find that we have personal preferences, and even hearing ability, that might call for additional contouring.

If I might suggest that tuning the VMPS speakers is not some incredibly difficult task unless you approach it with the idea that you will transform the speaker into having the perfect sound on every cut you play

It is not going to happen.  On the other hand "do" be careful not to make large adjustments after the initial gross settings.

The large adjustment to the putty and pots should come upon unpacking the speakers.

First step is to remove a marble sized bit of putty from the Passive Radiator.  This normalizes a woofer system that comes "overly damped" from the factory.  Since Brian doesn't want you to have to run to the hardware store to pick up a small bit of putty, he adds a little extra to start.

This is all you need do to the putty, until the system has had time to "break in", which may take 30-60 (or even 90) days depending on how much and how loud you listen.

After this period you may add or subtract smaller amounts of putty to "fine tune" the system.  This is done by listening to good bass rich cuts and listening for ringing, overhang, flabbiness, and wooliness.  All of these might inidcate that you need to slightly adjust the putty (macro adjustements of a "fingernail full")

How much are these adjustments?  A fingernail full if rolled into a ball might be about the size of half of a BB.

Make sure these are cuts that you are familiar with, and know well, since bass varies wildly on different software.

Regarding the Pots, there is no "ideal" setting except for the one that sounds best to you.

The pots allow you to "balance" the relationship between the midrange/high frequencies, and the bass..... And the relationship between the midrange and the high frequencies.

The idea here is to first get the placement of the speaker and it's fundemental damping close to right (tight, defined, deep and clear bass) and then balance the mids and highs to match the "foundation".

Most will start with the "gross" pot adjustments to around 12:00 - 1:00.  This may vary based on electronics and rooms with warm soft tubes running as high as 2:00 -2:30 and bright SS maybe even less than 12:00.

After the break in, this may change. with slight macro-adjustments (15 minutes or so) like 11:45 or 12:15.

Then when you really become familiar with the system as a whole, you may at anytime take a small screw driver, place it in the slot and turn it one or two windings.  This adjustment can only be felt, and not seen, it is that small.

These are the "micro-adjustments" and again should only be performed when listening to program material that you are familiar with.

Now keep in mind that if you are a person with "very" sensitive hearing and are an experienced listener to the point of being able to discern significant fine detail then these "micro-adjustments" can be the final "coupe de grace" (or is that grais?)

And also there is no reason to "tweak and tune" every time you listen, unless you are that kind of person.

There will be days when your system will sound better than others for many different reasons.

I mean there are many reasons your system can sound a little different.

From things like "lousy, dirty power" to unequalized "inner ear" pressure there are many reasons that your special cut might not sound the same everytime you play it.

As you become familiar with your speakers, your room, your system and your power, you will be able to maximize most listening sessions.

And as you develop this familiartity, the adjustments you make will be subtle and meaningful, but don't blow the whole process out of proportion.

Sit back, open your ears and listen to the perfromance.  Listen for the details that are there and realize the power to adjust that you have at your finger tips, but don't go overboard and don't over adjust and set yourself up for frustration.

Just focus on a solid, clear and lifelike balance and sonic tapestry, woven with a great performance of your favorite artist.

When you get it close, you will hear subtle nuance and cystal clear 3-D sounds that approach, the limits of your system.

[Stevo]

John,

Thanks for taking the time to consolidate 12+ years of VMPS listening experience into one extremely helpful guide for optimally tuning these speakers.

The tuning process and rewards to be attained are much more clear now that you have put things into perspective.

[zybar]

But John, I want a magical spot at which everything works perfectly and world is in perfect harmony!!!

     

Well said.

BTW, they really didn't sound too good out of the box and IT IS easy to take off too much putty and screw up the sound even more.  

George

[Sedona Sky Sound]

I respect John's comment but must say that I disagree to some extent. There are many cases where small things (or several small things together) do make HUGE differences. As you go up the line, things tend to get a little more critical.

With the 626Rs, you almost have to try to make them sound bad. They seem to be somewhat forgiving of room placement and as long as the tweeter is not turned too hot they will sound OK. Experiment with the pots a little and they will sound quite good. Any tweaking past that point will likely just be incremental improvements.

With the RM40s, room placement becomes somewhat of an issue. It is relatively easy to get the bass, mid, and treble out of balance but it is equally easy to get them pretty close (just do the things that John suggests and you are 90% there). Biamping, careful pot adjustment, careful placement in the room, and adjusting of the passive radiator will get you the last 10% (and 5% of that is strictly tuning to your personal taste).          

With the RM/X, small changes make incredible differences. With the RM/X, room placement is THE first issue you have to solve. Out of the box and placed where I had my RM40s (with roughly the same pot/damping settings), the RM/X was almost unlistenable in my room.  It took me quite a bit of work to get it to the listenable stage (this is the stage where UTLAW first heard them). After an incredible amount of work and frustration (I can assure you that I know exactly what most customers go through   ), I finally got them to the "magical" stage (the stage where UTLAW heard them the second time as well as the Houston Audio group). Attention to detail is exactly what it took to make that final leap and that leap is not a small one. Horrible to heavenly fits the description pretty well   . So at least with the RM/X, yes John, it does happen.    

Julian
www.sedonaskysound.com

[Brad]

John,

I agree with your statements but would add that the mid/high pots can turn the VMPS from 'hot' to a long-term listenable sound.
When I had RM2's, it took more dialing back on the pots than I would have thought to make them sound great to my ears.
It was the last little change that made a big difference for me.

But that's exactly the point - adjust them to your ears and room, right?

Julian:   WHAT Houston Audio group?
I'm pretty sure I'm living in a hi-fi desert here....

[errivera]

Brian, yes, I understand that the VMPS speakers do have the same adjustment capabilities as the Carver speakers. I was specifically refering to the Q adjustment of the Carver's being integrated into the crossover (electronically) not by adding or subtracting mass from the driver.

Also, as a side note, I think that making the adjustment pots larger by putting some sort of knob on them would make fine adjustments easier. The larger the knob, the more detail or finer adjustment can be made more easily.

Just trying to offer my 2 cents worth.

[Tim S]

Larger knobs might be nice, but the best addition would be some sort of scale of notches around the pots so that it is easier to get both pairs of speakers synced and so you can remember more easily exactly where they were when you experiment to try something different. Nothing more frustrating then having them about right, experimenting a bit, finding it worse, and then not being able to find where you started.

Tim

[John Casler]

But John, I want a magical spot at which everything works perfectly and world is in perfect harmony!!!

     

Well said.

BTW, they really didn't sound too good out of the box and IT IS easy to take off too much putty and screw up the sound even more.  

George

Hi George,

I have a feeling that with all your changing, adjusting and tweaking you are approaching the "pepsi ideal"  of "perfect harmony"

And you bring up a good point about the bass putty adjustment especially for someone who has  (had) "tube" amps full range.  Since many tube amps many times have a slightly different bass response, the adjustment may need to be a little more precise.

And regarding other comments.  I maybe should clarify.

It is certainly possible to make a greater level of improvment in the performance all VMPS speakers, than conventional speakers due to the fact that there is a greater "range" of adjustability.

And without a doubt, with this "range", if all the adjustments were set at their "worst" setting, then of course it would not sound good, in comparison to if they were all set at their best.

My point about "Horrible to heavenly" is that a single fingernail of putty, or a single click stop on one of the pots "will not" make this change.  It is a collective, progressive change of gross adjustment, to macro adjustment , to micro adjustments.

My greater point was that the process is not a "perfection" or "lousy" issue, but degrees of approaching perfection, by starting at a general midpoint then moving toward improvement.

It can be compared to focusing a microscope, clairity slowly and progressively improves.

Speaker set up and adjustment must be approached with some degree of logic and purpose.

As Julian states, actual placement and convergence is first on the list.  Until this is determined, then all other adjustements are secondary and can confuse the "tuning" issue.

And He also raises a good point that placing the 626, the RM40, and the RM/x require different strategies.

This is primarily due to the room interaction of the bass systems.  

The 626R is a rear ported system and "does" require proper placement which is room dependant.  It sounds best when it is an appropriate distance from the front wall, in relation to the room and distance to the listening area,  It also requires that it is set at a good height to align the tweeter and neopanel with the listening height.

The RM40 on the other hand has front firing and slot loaded low bass with D'Appolito "type" woofer arangement of the lower bass on the bottom and the upper bass on the top.  This all must be considered for placement, which again will be wholly determined on room dimensions and distance to the listening area.

Then the RM/x has the additional "side firing" woofer, creating a different set of set up placement/interaction accomadations.  It also has the "free swinging" (FST) tweeter to adjust vertical dispersion of the HF.

Now placement "is" one set up adjustment that in many cases "can" offer substantial difference with relatively small adjustments.

That is, bass perception in the sweet spot can be changed to a very large degree with relatively small movments of the speaker.  By relatively small I'm talking in the neighborhood of inches

But this is true of "any" speaker and not particular to VMPS.  Vmps just allows a "further exploration" of the bass response/performance capabilities in its PR tuning.

So if I might recap, when setting up any speaker:

1) place it properly to harvest room interaction (reinforcement) or non-interaction (reflection)
2) converge the speakers properly

with VMPS then:

3) Macro adjust the putty,
4) Macro adjust the pots
5) Micro adjust the putty
6) micro adjust the pots

7) Enjoy

[rlcordeiro]

I am new to hi-end audio having just got my RM-40s in Nov last year. I struggled with them till last week I came across this thread with Johns excellent instructions. I Just finished listening to Rumours on DVD-A and I thought I was front center at a live show. Can the RM/Xs do more? I think I am at that magical spot that Zybar is referring to. What HD is to TV's this is to audio.I feel bad that I bought the speakers on the net and therefore didnt have the advantage of this knowledge earlier. Thanks for the discourse John.

[John Casler]

I am new to hi-end audio having just got my RM-40s in Nov last year. I struggled with them till last week I came across this thread with Johns excellent instructions. I Just finished listening to Rumours on DVD-A and I thought I was front center at a live show. Can the RM/Xs do more? I think I am at that magical spot that Zybar is referring to. What HD is to TV's this is to audio.I feel bad that I bought the speakers on the net and therefore didnt have the advantage of this knowledge earlier. Thanks for the discourse John.

Glad it was helpful.  And Zybar's "magic spot" is a great place to be.  As with all things, excellence requires patience and compromise, but the reward is lasting and great.