[cbartolomei]

I put a few pics of my listening room in the gallery.  I'll add more of my RM/X's over time.

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?action=gallery;area=browse;album=101

[shokunin]

Niice... the RM/x's sure are shiny    What are your impressions so far?  Well, other than, damn they're heavy  

[cbartolomei]

My impressions... Clean, very clean in the mids and highs.  Much lower in distortion than my Genesis 201's or Apogee Duetta Sigs.  Not as airy though.  Much better mid-bass impact than the Gens (that BG ribbon shouldn't be employed under 300Hz).  Fun.

The PR radiator is a pain in the ass to adjust.  Too much playing with itty bitty bits of putty.  But worth it in the end.  Once adjusted properly they really come alive and sound- fun with nice bounce/rhythm.  You'll know you've got it right when you hit the right amount of mass- the difference is obvious.  But- getting to that point is full of great uncertainty (for me at least).  I felt like I was feeling/listening in the dark.  Not knowing exactly what I was searching for, but knowing that I wasn't hearing it until- WAM!! I hit the magic amount of putty and things gelled.  A little more (removed) and things got boring again.  EZ to fix.  Read Brian's notes on adjusting the PR mass and follow them.

As for positioning, I like them out into the room a bit.  More air and depth.  But there is a trade off in bass (in my room 19ish Wx 24ish Lx 9H).  I've supplemented them on the bottom with a pair of Vandersteen 2WQ's (driven and level balanced in an unconventional manner).  I guess I was spoiled by how the Gens drove my room.  All those woofers driving from different heights did spectacular things for the bottom.   Anyhow- the 2WQ's seem to help.  My guess is that 2 more would help more  

But don't get hung up on that.  These are awesome speakers.  They bring me closer to the music than any speaker I've owned. Regardless of price.

[JoshK]

Congrads!

A few questions.  Are you driving the RM/X's with only the Vt200?  Second, well not a question really, but I would love to see some pictures of the VMPS dipoles close up, maybe with the grills off.  This is the first I have heard of the dipoles coming to life.

[cbartolomei]

Thanks Josh.  I'll add pics of the dipoles.  I had some upgrades done to them.  I think the tweeters.

As for driving the RM/X's-
I have driven them full range standalone with just the VT-200.  As well as with just a Spectral DMA 150 and just a Music Reference RM 9 (with a butt ton of upgrades).  And I've tried every combo of the above three.  And then also every combo with and with out the 2WQ's.

The ARC's drive the RM/X's just fine.  Plenty of power and control.  But my RM-9s sound better on the mids and highs so I use it for that and the VT-200 for the bottom.  I use Vandersteen passive xovers on the inputs of the RM-9, but the VT-200 is run full range.  I connect my 2WQ's via the RM-9.  Seems to work just fine.  

I also use a Tact RCS 2.0 connected into my Wadia 860X's digital processor loop with the Wadias clock-link enabled.

The Spectral sounded good as well.  In my room for my tastes it was a little too tight-assed though.  The DMA was the ultimate amp for driving my Apogees.  Talk about current, control, sweetness, soundstaging, yadda, yadda, yadda.  But to my ears the ARC is more musical on the RM/X's bottom in my room.

[John Casler]

The photo of the RM/x from the top is "magazine quality".  

What a great shot.  Very creative.

The system looks great.

[Tyson]

cbartolomei,
Treat the front of your room with some dark grey acoustical treatment, it will help both the audio and visual part of your setup (white wall behind the screen of a front projector, not good).

Those are some sweet looking speakers.  I have a friend with Apogee "The Apogee" speakers, and the air is certainly better in his setup, but I think it's an artifact of the dipole radiation.  I have the 40's and I've decided that I prefer the sound of the direct radiators. . .

[warnerwh]

Nice pics and congratulations.  I'm jealous.  You may want to try the above suggestions in Tysons post.

"Treat the front of your room with some dark grey acoustical treatment, it will help both the audio and visual part of your setup (white wall behind the screen of a front projector, not good). "

Tyson is right, my first thoughts exactly. If you can get away with it you'll be way pleased with the improvement in sound and imaging of a few hundred dollars worth of acoustic foam.

[Xi-Trum]

Put me in as another recommendation to treat the space directly behind and between the speakers.  You'll be amazed at the improvement in the sound quality.

If you're interested, acoustic foam can be gotten for reasonable price at foambymail.com.  They have colors that may match your liking.

Cheers.

[warnerwh]

Here's another place to get acoustic foam that is reasonably priced in case anybody is interested. They'll cut pieces any way you want them too.

http://www.foamorder.com/products.cgi?cart=b0W0t0n29193142221n6A2c1Z&item=acoustic

[cbartolomei]

Thanks for the suggestions.  Actually I had thought about addressing the front wall.  I was weighing foam/SONEX stuff versus one of those sculptured wooden diffracting solutions.  But I got sidetracked.  

At the time I had Genesis 201's.  I noticed the tremendous loss of depth when I lowered my screen to watch movies.  Also, that in spite of what everyone said about "you must have a screen", that the picture didn't look horrible when I didn't lower it- and projected the picture directly on the wall.  The picture was even across the viewing area and there weren't any hot spots at all.  Yes, I gave up image tightness when I didn't use the screen- but (duh) the picture was huge.  Size matters!  It filled the entire wall.  And it lined up perfectly between the speakers.  And soundstage depth was no longer destroyed.  And it was just plain fun.  Occasionally, I still watch stuff that way.  

Knowing what I know now, I would still install the screen.  But if I were going to do a projector on the cheap- I wouldn't.  I may revisit the treatment idea.  Again thanks for your suggestions.

[BrunoB]

Here's another place to get acoustic foam that is reasonably priced in case anybody is interested. They'll cut pieces any way you want them too.

http://www.foamorder.com/products.cgi?cart=b0W0t0n29193142221n6A2c1Z&item=acoustic

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, their acoustic foam is not fire retardant.