[Blackmore]

Since ejfud has received the Breeze, I thought it would be a good idea to start a new topic called Breeze Tour Impressions.  Here we go:

Vapor Audio Breeze

Nicely finished cabinet and an attractive speaker.  Finish on my sample was excellent and the new front baffle with CNC adds some time alignment giving the Breeze an updated appearance.  And since ejfud brought it up; a lot of the weight of these speakers comes from what they call "Acoustic Inversion Layer"; whatever magic goo Ryan mixes up made the cabinets very dead and VERY heavy for a small speaker. 

Placement
   Give the rear port enough (a lot) room.  Anything too close gave the bass a swimmy sound in my room.  There’s enough bass to let you move them out into the room a bit and I think you’ll like what the Breeze do when they are out away from the walls.   I found slightly closer together gave me a much better center fill and plumped up voices. Nice!  Ribbons have plenty of dispersion to still give that narrower placement a wrap around soundstage. They also did pretty well in near-field placement but I ended up listening at a more traditional distance of around 8 feet.

Tweeters and Foam bumpers
   Ryan has included precise directions on how to place these foam bumpers on the front of the Raal. They’re held in place with an imbedded metal strip, so just let the ribbon magnet hold them in place.  Start with Ryan’s and Raal’s suggestion, but feel free to experiment.  I found they had pretty significant effect on the sound.  I experimented quite a bit with those bumpers and even tried some unorthodox placements.  Ryan just laughed when he heard what I was playing around with. Nonetheless, I was able to dial in the right amount of treble for my living room using the bumpers.  Oh, and by the way, the Raal is a very detailed tweeter that Ryan has done a killer job integrating it with the woofer.  This struck me right away.

Woofers
   This is a nice, punchy woofer.  I didn’t lack for bass weight for upright bass in my jazz combo recordings.  With my final placement, they were particularly good on female vocals and piano.  We had the Stiff Breeze in the front room for a while and their double 6 inch woofers really energized the room, but I find the Breeze plenty enough for most recordings.  Add subs as needed but I was happy and impressed with the bass response of such a small speaker.  Bass response is a strength in all the Vapor Audio speakers with the Aurora being my guilty pleasure favorite. (it’s nice to live close to the manufacturer)

Soundstage and depth
   A real strength of the Breeze.  I got some good depth in recordings and the Raal made some low level sounds more clear in the mix.  I believe Ryan is sensitive to depth in recordings and the Breeze were very good.  Soundstage width is not as expansive as I’m used to, but I use the large Innersound Eros as my main speakers and they do throw a larger, taller soundstage.  No surprise that a small stand mount doesn’t sound the same as a 6’ panel. Feel free to argue which is correct but I think you will like the Raal’s dispersion in your listening room and will search out chestnuts like “Pop, Pop” or “Caverna Magica” to listen details way down in the mix.  I could easily see someone listing imaging as their favorite Breeze attribute.

Compatibility
   I used a variety of amps and found the most fun with a Sophia Electric Baby and the new TBI Millennium II amp (nice) The Baby is a 10 watt p-p amp using an EL84 variant and was plenty loud for me (although it wasn’t enough for the Stiff Breeze) and the TBI is a 20 watt battery powered integrated.  A vintage Musical Concepts modded Hafler 200 was also used and the Breeze had no problem soaking up its 150 watts. Didn’t listen to any NIN, but I did rock the front room with some Tenacious D.  The little woofers just kept pumping.  The only amp that didn’t work was my BAT VK60 because I was forced to run it single-ended instead of balanced and lost too much sensitivity with my preamp. The sound became uninteresting. No fault of the Breeze or BAT, just an operational issue.  Due to the Breeze sensitivity ratings, my SET amps were not used.

Comparisons
   None. I don’t own anything similar to the Breeze and I’ll leave that to others on the tour that have something closer in concept. I would only add that in my fading aural memory, the Breeze have many of the good attributes of the Cirrus Black with a reduction in midrange transparency.  Considering the price differences, this is a reasonable outcome. 

Summary
Ryan and Pete are doing a great thing by sending the Breeze out on tour.  It lets you get some first hand experience with the Raal and you get to enjoy a lively little monitor that can fill your room, responding well to a variety of amps.  Get them out in the room and placed just right and you'll have a good time....until you have to haul that freakin' heavy box down to UPS and send them to the next guy.  Thanks for the tour and hope everyone has a great time. 
   

[sharpsuxx]

Very well said Blackmore...

[Vapor Audio]

Thanks for posting your thoughts Mark!  And sorry for making them so heavy 

[roscoeiii]

Aside from shipping costs, I will state on the record that I have no problem with heavy speakers or amps.

[stlrman]

Very nice write up Blackmore!!

[smargo]

it would be nice if ejfud could give us a little something - it has been 6 days since you have had them - anything?

[JohnR]

I got the impression that you had already dismissed whatever it is that he might want to say.

[shinny]

Mark,
Thanks for the detailed and thoughtful write-up.  Could you share your impressions of Ryan's Stiff Breeze speakers that you mentioned were set up in the other room? I am interested and as they are newer I haven't seen much written on them so far. Thanks.
Steve

[Pete Schumacher]

Mark,
Thanks for the detailed and thoughtful write-up.  Could you share your impressions of Ryan's Stiff Breeze speakers that you mentioned were set up in the other room? I am interested and as they are newer I haven't seen much written on them so far. Thanks.
Steve

Actually, the Stiff Breeze were set up in the same room, just earlier on delivery day.

The Stiff Breeze this week were sent to Terry London at Home Theater Review.  http://hometheaterreview.com/ 

[Blackmore]

Stiff Breeze were first up in the listening session.  I don't know if my impressions will be much help because I was in the "host" mode and let Ryan and Pete listen from the sweet spot.  I moved amps around and did the DJ work.  So I didn't have a ton of time to do serious listening before they set up the Breeze for my tour listening.

Here's some thoughts from listening.   When we fired them up Ryan immediately asked if I had a subwoofer on in the room. I didn't.   We had a tremendous amount of bass in the front room and I had fun firing up some Brian Bromberg and Tenacious D to use that bass.  I think it was caused by the necessity of placement and by my old modded Hafler amp that seemed to lift bass unlike the other amp choices.  My small tube amps were not ideal although Ryan will point out that the Stiff is more efficient.  The Stiff Breeze really like more juice to get up and play and the 150 watts out of the old Hafler made the room jump.  Only downside to the sound was that the Raal betrayed the 30 year old amp in the treble.  Not awfully gritty, but still in the mix.

Since Ryan confirmed we had a bit too much bass compared to his listening room, my comments about tone, timbre, voicing, etc. will all be influenced by the elevated bass level.  Basically the Stiff truly is a Breeze with more bass, a greater ease when playing loud and the same smooth crossover.  I did think the Stiff was slightly duller in the crossover region, but that would be expected given the bass rise in my room.  By the way, the finish was piano black and the Stiffys looked great in the front room on some stands the Ryan brought over.  You would think they were $$$ if you sat down for a listen.  Gorgeous.

Conclusion?  I probably liked the Stiff Breeze better than the Breeze just for the WOW factor and greater ease when playing at "GAS" approved volumes. Overall sound was so similar that any differences would be related to the second woofer loading the room better.  Hope this helps, but I really didn't get too much time with them and I didn't get to play with placement and better amplifier choices.  I bet my big Innersound ESL amp would have been a great match. 

[roscoeiii]

And I will concur with Blackmore, that the Aurora has some killer bass. My main concern with the Aurora would in fact be that its bass would be too much for my smallish listening space. Those speakers can really load a room. Very very impressive. And the pair I heard didn't even have the newer upgraded tweeter.

[sharpsuxx]

I had the Aurora in my smallish room for like a month or two while I was having the cross overs upgraded on my Cirrus, 13x13x8ft and they didn't over power the space, I was running them off a 30 Watt tube set up.  I actually really liked them in the small room, you really got the tactile feel of the bass without it being overpowering, better than any tower I have put up in that room.  I was listening to the Demo model with a downward firing port which also made placement a breeze, (no pun intended)  The biggest thing about placement with them is they just liked quite a bit of toe-in to really get the most out of them imaging wise, the tweeters pointed right at the edges of my eyes in the sweet-spot, even so the image was still very precise in the seats to the left and right of the sweet spot.  I had them cranking quite a few times with classic rock, dub step, rap even and there was never any sort of overload or break-up in the room very well behaved and fast bass.  These speakers, as most of vapor's stuff also had remarkable resolution, not to the level of the Cirrus but I was very impressed, that ceramic inverted dome is one of very few domes I have heard that wasn't somewhat dull and boring.  Please PM me if you have any questions about the Aurora as I don't want to de-rail this topic.

[smargo]

I got the impression that you had already dismissed whatever it is that he might want to say.

your right - i mean if everyone has the right toe in - and the cd player is up to date and the speakers are the right distance from the wall - and the room is not so small - and the tube amp has recently been retubed - no old tubes please - and god forbid no solid state amps - and the speaker cable is at least $1000 dollars and above and the interconnects are at least $500 and the room doesnt have a tv in it - and there is proper damping in the room and you just use killer demo music and you sit in the sweet spot - and you have no equipment that is not broken in yet

i cant imagine ejfud will like these speakers - all of his equipment and his room and his cd player of course is not right for this speaker!

[smargo]

it would be nice if ejfud could give us a little something - it has been 6 days since you have had them - anything?

still nothing from ejfud - am i the only one that thinks this is a little weird - maybe he is sick or there was some sort of emergency

[smargo]

still nothing from ejfud - am i the only one that thinks this is a little weird - maybe he is sick or there was some sort of emergency

i think lateapex has the speakers now - maybe he will say something in the next week - it would be nice to keep this thread going - it has been awfully quiet

[LateApex]

Looking forward to hearing these babies!  I'm just now re-entering the hobby and am certainly not a professional reviewer, but happy to share my impressions.  I should have them in my system mid-week.

[ejfud]

The Vapors left the house today and I wanted to share  few of my thoughts on the time I spent with them. Starting with the room and equipment details.

I'm lucky enough to have a room just for listening. It's small, but enjoyable, approximately 9' x 13'. The system is placed on the on a 9' wall with the electronis in the middle of the wall. As stated earlier, I used a highly modified Pass B1 buffer and Slagle autoformers as my preamps (volume controls really). The amps were a Ghent IcePower and some DIY F5 monoblocks made with some nice parts. The source was the much talked about Ah! The last two pairs of speakers and the ones I use the most are a pair of Mark Audio Alpair 12P's in a bookshelf configuration and a pair of MLTL Jordan's with the Aurum Cantus G2 ribbons in a two way configuration.

The Vapors started on the Ice/B1 combo. In my small room the bass was all I'd need for my listening habits. I had just been listening to the Aurum tweetered speakers and was blown away by the level of detail and "breath" I heard with the Raal's. They were just in another league from the Aurums. There was a depth of soundstage that just drew me in. Soundstage was as wide as I've heard in my small room. A very enjoyable week was spent with this setup.

Next up was the Slagle/F5 combo. The F5's had been sitting for a month or so, so I wanted to let them get good and warm before I had a listen. Of course that did not happen and I had a listen. The bass was more defined and solid to it's lower limits with this combo, but the highs were very pronounced. I figured the amps need a little longer to warm up and walked away for the day. Came back and had a listen again. Bass was still better than the Ice/B1 setup, but the top end was still a little to in my face for my liking. I swapped in the B1 to see if there was and difference in the sound and it was slight. Still a little aggressive for my room and tastes. I switched back to the Ice now with the Slagle and all was right in my world. System synergy strikes again.

Final thoughts. The fit and finish of the Breeze is outstanding. The PE cabinets are nice in cherry and the front baffle is finished excellently. I'm not sure what they have going on in the cabinets, but these little things weigh a lot. The shipping weight is over 75 pounds. As for the sound, The Raal is an amazing driver that blends very well with the woofer. With the right system behind it, it was an amazing little bookshelf speaker.

I want to thank everyone involved for letting me have a chance to listen to them and can't wait to read others thoughts on the Breeze.

[Vapor Audio]

Thanks for posting your thoughts!  Posting about what worked in your system will be helpful for others.  I've had a few ICE based amps over the years, and always found them to have a very "center focused" soundstage.  Did you find that to be true?  Did the width and overall size of the soundstage grow with the F5's?  Also, did you experiment with placement of the foam pads? 

We're glad you enjoyed them, and it was our pleasure getting them into your hands.

[ejfud]

I would tend to agree with you as far as the Ice amps go. Yes, the F5 cast a massive soundstage with the Breeze.

As far as the pads, yep moved them all over the place with the F5 setup. Thought maybe people would think I was nuts if I said I liked them with about 4/5 peaks and more of the tops covered than the bottom of the tweeters.

[LateApex]

Okay guys, I've had  the Breeze in house and set-up for a couple hours.  What a great opportunity to hear a true high-end product in your native environment.  Thanks Ryan, Pete, and team!

System:
Peachtree Decco
Samsung Blu-ray jacked into the Peachtree dac (mass produced big box grade, but hey, it's from 2013)
Rega P1 Turntable
Sanus stands - Too tall @ 29 inches
Synergistic speaker wire
Mapleshade interconnects

Room:
Brick walls, hardwood floors w/rug, 13+ foot ceiling, modest room treatments, pretty big volume for the Breeze to fill.  Traditionally difficult to tame "vibrant & lively" room.

Initial Impressions:

As I feared - I AM NOT WORTHY!!!  Clearly the rest of my gear is not in the same league as the Vapor Sound, but the taste I am getting is enough to push me down the slippery slope of acquiring electronics worthy of these speakers.  I am just now re-entering the hobby after a 10 year absence. 

Buzzwords leaping to mind:

-  Decay - Now this is what a well integrated RAAL sounds like!  Fantastic "decay" on the highs as they just fade in a way that is so natural, with an air of ease and delicacy.
-  Holographic - Air & Ambience combine with a wide soundstage that punches well beyond the lateral edge of the speakers add up to a holographic sound I have not experienced in my room.
-  Naturalness - These things just sound "right".  A drum sounds like a drum.  The resonance is right on wood instruments.  Vocals are well defined and have an ease to them.
-  Resolution - Related to "naturalness" in that they do not strike me as a "hi-fi" speaker that is overly detailed and etched but there is a fresh window into my collection that allows me to peer into the music with at least one layer of cloudiness removed allowing the natural recording to come through in a way that does not feel over-extracted (to steal a wine term).