RM40's merciful on bad rooms?

sbaillar · « **on:** 6 Jul 2004, 06:21 pm »

Seeing the listening rooms some people have, it seems that RM40 is very particular on room placement. Also I've read that these speakers sound bad out of the box and it needs a lot of tweaking/breaking in. Is there a newbie VMPS FAQ lying around on all the tweaks etc...

I'm interested in the RM30's....I do have a dedicated theater but by no means sonically perfect and no way my wife will let me put wall/ceiling treatements all over the place. Will I have a hard time getting these things to sound good?

Thanks,
Sonny

Tyson · « **Reply #1 on:** 6 Jul 2004, 06:33 pm »

The narrow dispersion characteristics of the speakers will help it integrate more easily in to a typical room than another speaker with very wide dispersion (ie, a typical cone/dome speaker). When you add in their tunability, VMPS speakers are a blessing for people with less than perfect rooms.

tkp · « **Reply #2 on:** 6 Jul 2004, 06:40 pm »

Quote from: Tyson

The narrow dispersion characteristics of the speakers will help it integrate more easily in to a typical room than another speaker with very wide dispersion (ie, a typical cone/dome speaker). When you add in their tunability, VMPS speakers are a blessing for people with less than perfect rooms.

These are the reason why I have not been able to find a speaker that can replace my pair of RM40s. The room my pair of RM40s are in right now is probably the worst.

a) Tile floor.
b) The back of one speaker face the opening to another room and the back of the other speaker is about 14" from the front wall.
c) Between the two speakers is a large entertainment center.
d) This room has a lot of openning to the rest of the first floor of the house so technically speaker, the RM40s have to produce good bass in a 1600 square foot room with 9ft of ceiling.
e) No room treatment what so ever.

Without the adjustability of the RM40s, I don't see how I can get decent sound in this room.

lkosova · « **Reply #3 on:** 6 Jul 2004, 07:13 pm »

Sonny,

As a new dealer for VMPS I just got my shippment of my Three front RM-30's(plus other speakers) about four days ago. Out of the box I was suprised how good they do sound. As far as the tweaking goes it took me about two hours after removing the putty and setting the pots to get sound that was great. I am now just letting them run 24/7 to break in and yes the sound is improving. More dynamic,more depth and soundstage. People that have heard them(friends etc) have commented how wonderful they sound.

My room currently has no room treatments(but will) and is a dedicated theater. You should know that I am using average electronics (older Parsound seperate system) till my new Cary gear gets here and I am extremely happy with the sound. I am real picky on the sound I get!!!!

No I have to go hook up the subs.....I am amazed at the bass without a sub...so far.

Hope this helps.

Larry
Audio and Image-Chicago

jgubman · « **Reply #4 on:** 6 Jul 2004, 09:03 pm »

I thought my RM-40s sounded pretty good out of the box. Putty and midrange/treble tweaks improved the quality, but nothing terribly drastic. Wasn't a different speaker after adjustment, just more refined.

If you click on my gallery, you can see that I have a pretty challenging room. The RM-40s are easily the best sounding speaker I've had down there and regularly outperform other speakers at dealer showrooms (going from dealership to dealership and auditioning speakers is a hobby now).

lkosova · « **Reply #5 on:** 7 Jul 2004, 01:49 am »

Jdubman,

Nice heating vent. Need to paint it black...

Sonny,

my wife just heard the RM-30's for the first time and I was playing Diana Krall "live in Paris" . I went to go get my daughter at swimming and she said it was really hard to get up since the music was just wonderful. She said it seemed like Diana and band were playing in the room in front of her and that the music seemed to be everywhere in the room. She said that the music seemed to reach the end of the room(25 ft by 15 by 8.3).

I would use other words to describe this but she wants to get the kids to sleep so we can "go back to the live concert"....

She also had a great description for the Rm-30's.....she said" what's not to like" ."They are tall and skinny and beautiful looking....if they had blonde hair, you would have an affair with them"!!!!

Well gotta go back to my "affair".

Larry
Audio and Image-Chicago

John Casler · « **Reply #6 on:** 7 Jul 2004, 01:53 am »

Quote from: lkosova

She also had a great description for the Rm-30's.....she said" what's not to like" ."They are tall and skinny and beautiful looking....if they had blonde hair, you would have an affair with them"!!!!
..

Boy has she got your number

lkosova · « **Reply #7 on:** 7 Jul 2004, 02:20 am »

"Boy has she got your number "

After knowing her for 25 years and next month going on 17 years of marriage....she has lots more then my number.

Back to the Matrix Revolution for center channel tweaking. Man, that RM-30c is clear as a bell!!! I have tried it with just two channel but I like my movies with a "great" center channel and this is it!! I am just running my front three and it seems like I have my surrounds already hooked up. I actually had to check to make sure they were not!!

Tommarow....adding sub number 1

Larry

John Casler · « **Reply #8 on:** 7 Jul 2004, 02:24 am »

Quote from: sbaillar

Seeing the listening rooms some people have, it seems that RM40 is very particular on room placement. Also I've read that these speakers sound bad out of the box and it needs a lot of tweaking/breaking in. Is there a newbie VMPS FAQ lying around on all the tweaks etc...

I'm interested in the RM30's....I do have a dedicated theater but by no means sonically perfect and no way my wife will let me put wall/ceiling treatements all over the place. Will I have a hard time getting these things to sound good?

Thanks,
Sonny

Hi Sonny,

Don't let us scare you into thinking your room or rig is not up to the VMPS program.

Most of the VMPS line is very chameleon like in nature, and like a chameleon it can change slowly to fit its environment.

"ALL" High End speakers are room sensitive, and equipment sensitive, if you want to hear the best they have to offer.

The only difference (actually there are many) is that the VMPS can be further adjusted with the pots and in some speakers the bass damping system.

I think one other factor is that VMPS users, are a little more prone to enjoying their systems in this way. That is, they like to work more with placement, room treatments, and tuning, since it can be incredibly rewarding compared to "place and play" only.

And don't get the idea that "Place and Play" are in some way easier. In some ways they are much harder. Because they "DO" take the same care in placement and convergence to sound their best. And if your room or electronics don't like them, they"aren't" adjustable or fine tunable.

And as has been stated in other posts, the dispersive sonic radiation pattern of the VMPS ribbons is "less" prone to room interaction than most "higher dispersion" drivers.

Why do so many of us use room treatment? Simply because, the resolving qualities of these speakers makes them sound so detailed, that subtracting that "last" distracting room reflection (there will always be some) can provide such a realistic "blackness" with sound coming out of it, that it can be "breathtaking"!!!

Do you have to use room treatments to get them to sound good - NOPE.

In fact, they need less than conventional speakers to sound "good".

Only if you want to move to the next level of "audiophiledom" (not a real word) do you start slapping foam all over the walls.

If you want a speaker thats like an SUV, get some Klipsch and get thrown, bounced, and blown out of your seat.

But, if you want to sit in, and drive the Formula 1, of speakers, that will blow your hair back with the vibrant reality of sound, with detail, control and finesse, these are your speakers.