[ctviggen]

I wonder what causes that?  More heavy machinery and phones?  It's strange, as I typically only listen at night, so I can't tell a difference (and when I do listen during the day, it's on a weekend).  Also, I live in a relatively bucolic area (with the leaves grown in, I can't see my neighbors), with a marked paucity of industrial areas (we just had 360V approved for our "industrial" area).  This might end, though, as we're to have three more "New England Style" shopping centers added and a filled up industrial area.

[mlschifter]

We made quite a few CDWG's in our own factory with a table saw and hand routers.  For two weeks of effort we got a bunch of warped waveguides and a thick film of sawdust on everything. We're not doing that again.

I am working to get CDWG's made for all models and they will be  available asap.

I might know someone that could help you with this...  

All the best...

mls

[OTL]

I'd guess I'm into this for about 20 hours so far at "break in" volumes.  If you asked, I'd say overall things are a bit smoother with just a touch less edge.  In their present location the bass is coming around nicely and the chestiness I reported earlier is considerably diminished, but I'm still just starting to uncover what's possible here......Casler was right.  Mayo too!  It's difficult to imagine the next level of improvement, but I'll keep looking for it.

Had a good, long session last night.  I owe my retired, Italian neighbors an apology for the Leslie West/Mountain, Black Keys and RL Burside that warmed everything up.

Me and Honey cherry-picked from both CD and vinyl and gave the RM30's a good workout with a variety of source material ranging from Goodwill $1 Rock biscuits to the "good" stuff.....

Well, the first pieces of packing tape are on the floor!  Found a good spot, after about 8 or so tries while listening Ben Andrews (Recommended.
On Mapleshade) and then Lyle Lovett and some Oscar Peterson (both live and studio).  

With a couple of moves and some final toe adjustments (like a quarter of an inch) everything kept improving and then BANG! I had some rocking 3D space in my living room!  Congestion diminished, bass/midbass both tightened up, deepened and began to "let go" (although still a touch retentive).  Image is wide, tall, and deep.  So strange that a bit of "toe angle" can be heard outside the listening seat, but trust me it makes a difference that's not subtle.  Very impressive.  Things are now proper and ready to show off.  

So, how do they sound?  In one word, real.  In "the reviewer's parlance", palpable, present, immediate, detailed, full, spacious, blah....Have you ever noticed that Oscar Peterson hums along as he plays?  With the RM30's Oscar's humming is no longer "buried", nor is it unnatural or objectionable, it's just naturally there.   To say nothing of how RIGHT Oscar's (or other) piano sounds. Tommy Flanagan on Sax Collussus was sweet. I still can't get over how "right" these things now sound with the current placement.  Not only in the sweet spot, but all over the house.

If you get the chance, give these guys a listen.  If they're setup correctly, and sound anything like the pair in my living room you'll at very least be enticed.  If nothing else, what you'll experience can be used as yardstick.  They are that good.  Just amazing.

As a closing note, all listening so far has been done using Muse 175 mono amps, McCormack modded ALD-1 preamp, CAL Alpha/Delta and VPI Jr w/Audioquest and Grado.   All this gear has been around for quite awhile and performing exceptionally well, including the Grado 8MZ!

More to come, when I can find the time.

Listen, share and enjoy.

Mike B.

[warnerwh]

Mike: You are indeed beginning to find out what your speakers are capable of. The transparency is incredible which makes every 1/4" noticeable.  Speaker placement is huge.

Then there's all the other things that affect the sound. The most important is the room. Then if you really want to get serious after room treatment add electronic room correction like the Behringer DEQ 2496 for 250 bucks.

After I bought my RM 40's I learned that everything I upgraded made a noticeable improvement in the sound.  The reason I started upgrading stuff had been because I could tell that the weaknesses in my system were in front of my speakers, a problem that hadn't been so crucial with my previous pair of speakers. These upgrades are worthwhile as the speakers will allow you to hear the improvements.

 I'm not trying to put ideas into your head but am letting you know that when/if you decide to change a piece of gear that it is more worthwhile than it probably had been in the past.

The main thing though is to enjoy your music.  I'm glad you are enjoying your RM 30's as they're an incredibly good speaker.

[John Casler]

I like to call it "ADVENTURES in HIGH PERFORMANCE LISTENING"  

Now you're in the club.

A VMPS speaker can be like a Formula ONE ride.

There is only "one line" through a corner at any particular speed.  Once you've found it, you're in for a wild, exhilerating ride.

ENJOY!!

[Se7en]

OTL,

You're not running any subs are you?

Also, from your other posts, you haven't started tuning the PRs yet, but do you have any thoughts on the RM30's performance in the lower range? Do you see yourself needing to add a sub in the future?

Thanks!

-Gabe

[OTL]

OTL,

You're not running any subs are you?

Also, from your other posts, you haven't started tuning the PRs yet,.........

-Gabe

Gabe,

I'm not tuning a thing until the speakers have several hundred hours on 'em and I'm satisfied with my understanding of source and placement effects.  So, the PR's won't be tickled for another month or so.

As for running subs?  Not presently.  My present impressions are that I'm getting much of what can be offered from music as far as the "bottom end" goes.  To guess, I'm missing maybe the last 10-15% or so and that's a considerable investment of $$$ and time to not only reproduce, but reproduce correctly.  So, for the time being I'll be optimizing and the best investment I can see is in reducing early reflections.

Mike B.

Best guess, no measurements.....I'm hearing a solid 34Hz.

[Se7en]

OTL,

Thanks for the reply. That's exactly the type of info I was looking for.

The reason for the question was based on a few other posts that refered to the RM30s bass being punchy, but lean and potentially thin especially with direct comparisons to other vmps speakers.

I did take note of the fact that your very detailed set-up/first impression posts made no mention of a sub in the mix. I suppose I made the assumption that you weren't using one or in the past had no need to. Assumptions continued:  Being a "non-sub" user, did you feel like you were missing something from these speakers in the bass department as past posts (not yours) may have suggested.

I hope I'm making sense...

Once I get my Tact back, I should be able to put some in room response and frequency data together. Of course this will only be specific to my room and set up.

Thanks again...

[Brian Cheney]

The RM30 was not designed to have first octave (16-32Hz) bass response.  It is fine above 35Hz, however.

Try it first without a sub, you can always add one later.

[Se7en]

The RM30 was not designed to have first octave (16-32Hz) bass response.  It is fine above 35Hz, however.

Try it first without a sub, you can always add one later.

This is the plan  

[timr]

I too was planning to contribute run in, setup, sound impressions and looks comments to this RM30 thread but sadly the shipping demons got inside those fine looking rosewood cabinets.  They created multiple musical driver disarray.  The situation is being taken care of just fine, other than fulfilling my anticipation that peaked around mid March.  

The funny thing is when these finally arrived (two days late -- BAXTRAXNOT) I was busy with non-audio hobby afflictions.  My wife had heard most of the contenders to replace her favorite Snell CVs, but not the RM30s.  We usually agree on sound so I wasn't too worried.  These were  set up close to where the Snell CVs sat and I set off a CD of my wife's request and disappeared for hours.  Plan A, let her listen and the speakers run in on CDs and FM.  I returned to find my wife's favorite CD cases and bad vibes everywhere.  "You liked these?"  They sounded as broken as they eventually turned out to be.  Uh-Oh...Tim's in deep doo.  

Kudos to Scott Mayo for arriving with a plan and a back up plan to quickly confirm our suspicions that something was amiss and BC for responding.

For now I'm fulfilling my anticipation jones by noting that OTL is getting good results in a open concept, uneven room, that's similar to ours.  All though I'd guess I don't have as many set up options.  I'm still not fully extracted from the doo but I'm not as worried.