[Florian]

Hello   ,

as most of you know i am going to purchase a pair of VMPS RM30's in a short while.

We just had the "steamers" in to clean the carpet, and in order for them to do so i cleaned the whole living room out. Once i put everything back in i changed some furniture placments etc... Now when i listen to my Maggies (altough not perfect) it is a full room of living breathing music. The localisation is not exactly the best on some recordings but quite exellent on others.

I really really dont want to miss the "airy, loose, and open" soundstage. Having never heard VMPS myself recently i have a little rumble in my stomach. Do the VMPS 30 have this airy, huge, open and detailed soundfield? I want the players and the event to be happening in my room. I dont wanna to hear the speaker itself and i dont want to watch a puppet show. I really want a room and a stage full of live music.

Do the VMPS 30 do that ? please give me an easy answer. I am going to buy them, and already sold the Maggies. I just need a few more feedbacks to seal myself mentally of doing the right thing.

Thanks

[jackman]

I have a suggestion.  Since you are already getting the RM's, why not get them set up and tell us?  I've enjoyed your posts and look forward to hearing about the new speakers.  You know Maggies as well as anyone on this board because you have lived with them in a very impressive system.  I look forward to reading your comments!

J

[Florian]

Thanks    

    Thats encouraging, and your actually the first one to say something nice about my old system.  Pretty much all the members in the Planar Asylum would only critisize and then explode once i said that i will switch.  

I look very much forward the VMPS and the new cables. I guess i am just a little worried. Once i have them, i will write a nice report and compare them to the 3.6R.

Thanks

Florian

[jackman]

I don't think anyone here will jump on you.  We all have different tastes.  I happen to like the sound of Maggies AND VMPS speakers.  They both have different presentations and both have several proponents who would never own anything but.  I'm a bit different.  There are things I like about several speakers.  

Not to get philosophical but it's a lot like preference in women.  Before I was married I dated a couple girls with red hair, dark hair, blondes, atheletic built, voluptious, tall, short, etc.  No fatties!  Okay, maybe a couple but I was drunk so it doesn't count!  There were things I liked about most of them (okay, maybe not the total psychos) and things I disliked.  Some I liked to hang with even though I knew I would never marry them in a million years.  There were some that I liked a lot but wasn't sure if we had a future.  And some I liked who weren't sure about me!  Fortunately, this last category doesn't exist in the speaker world!

It's the same with speakers.  There are things I like about a lot of designs.  Ribbons, planars, line arrays, actives, passives, monitors, floor standers, etc.  I have even heard horns that I thought sounded good (gasp!).  It's all a matter of personal preference.  I was just in a guy's office who played his Bose Wave CD player.  He REALLY thought it sounded good and when he heard I was into audio wanted to show it off.   Granted, it wasn't for me but I wasn't about to tell him to get his hearing checked!  He really liked it and (like I told my friend who was going to propose to a really sleezy tatood and pierced stripper): "as long as you are happy".   Fortunately, the Bose Wave, for all its faults, will not bang all your friends...but that's a different story!  

I'm not one for advice and don't have many rules but I've got a couple and they seem to be similar to many people on this site who I respect greatly.  Just report what you hear and don't sugar coat anything.  You will always have detractors and people who question your motivation.  Accept it.  Also, there will always be people who feel the stuff you like is crap and the stuff you dislike is the best.  Truth is, to their ears it may be.  There are people with hidden agendas but I like to believe everything evens out in time.  

Like most things in life, the more I learn about audio, the more I realize how little I know!  Good luck.  I look forward to your comments when your system is up and running.  

Jack

[John Casler]

 I really really dont want to miss the "airy, loose, and open" soundstage. Having never heard VMPS myself recently i have a little rumble in my stomach. Do the VMPS 30 have this airy, huge, open and detailed soundfield? I want the players and the event to be happening in my room. I dont wanna to hear the speaker itself and i dont want to watch a puppet show. I really want a room and a stage full of live music.

Do the VMPS 30 do that ? please give me an easy answer. I am going to buy them, and already sold the Maggies. I just need a few more feedbacks to seal myself mentally of doing the right thing. ...

Hi Florian,

Sounds like I should open a VMPS Hotline  

What will the RM30s sound like in your room?  Well from my experience, once they are well adjusted, broken in and set up properly, they will give you many "Adventures in High Performance Listening"

What is HPL?

It is the experience of inserting you Reference CD into your player, turning off the computer and all the lights, sitting exactly in the sweet spot, adjusting the volume and pressing PLAY>

Suddenly musical sounds begin to emanate from a space in front of you.  No they are not floating, they are "being".  

For all sensory purposes, they are making music right in front of you, and your room, and walls have dissapeared.

These life size sounds seem to have all the holographic 3-D qualities of any sighted and aural experience you have had at venues of the past.

Singers, drummers, keyboard players, bass players, guitarists, horn and reed players, as well as many other instruments project them selves into this manufactured space before you.

Will it sound like your Maggies.  NOPE it will not.  If you wanted it to sound like Maggies, you have to use Maggies, but will it give you some of the traits you "liked" about the Maggies?

Most likely.  But you will probably find that the images are far more precise, and palpable, since you will be dealing with less "diffusion" of sound.  The images will be more "robust" and have "girth and depth" in a way that you may not have heard before.  They will appear and exist in a specific space in your sonic hologram.  They will not be surrounded by the "faint hisssss" of the diffused reflections that some call "air".  The will appear and exist in a sonic darkness and then disappear just as quickly.

The RM30 in particualr throws an exceptionally nice, and unencumbered sonic because it has a bit less "baffle" deflection than any of the other VMPS speakers with the exception of the RM/x

This reduction in baffle sound just takes the "disapearing act" to another level.

The Soundstage formation, width and depth will simply be a function of you sitting "EXACTLY" between the two speakers, and havin a room that will not reflect exceptionally large amounts of sound all over the place.

(you may want to look at my latest tweak - LEDE without wall foam)

There is little doubt in my mind that with the front end, amp and cables you will have plugged in and set up, that you should be hearing some exceptional SOUNDS!!

But do remember, they can sound great (or even not so great) straight out of the box, but after you "adjust and train" the room, the system, and the speaker, to your taste, you will totally be in a SONIC FREAK (as in get your VMPS freak on)              

[chiahaochang]

Do the VMPS 30 do that ? please give me an easy answer. I am going to buy them, and already sold the Maggies. I just need a few more feedbacks to seal myself mentally of doing the right thing.

I don't know if they do that, I haven't heard any VMPS speakers myself.  But, you're keeping an open mind and that's the right thing.  

If you want to see some of the Planar Asylum inmates really flip out, I'll go tell them I'm selling my MG1.6s for a pair of horn loaded speakers.    It wouldn't be a total fabrication, I'm considering going the high-efficiency route.  

"as long as you are happy". Fortunately, the Bose Wave, for all its faults, will not bang all your friends...but that's a different story!

Right, I know people using old, entry-level (<$1000 new) receivers to power $5000+ speaker systems through zipcord.  They're happy with it, so who am I to judge?  I couldn't live with those systems (I find them very tinny and bright even at moderate volume levels).  But, I don't have to.  If they like it, all the better for them.

To me, I view audio as hobby as a journey/learning process, I want to experience new things.  Hopefully, I'll think they're an improvement on what I've experienced before.  If not, that's part of the whole experience.

[Crimson]

But do remember, they can sound great (or even not so great) straight out of the box, but after you "adjust and train" the room, the system, and the speaker, to your taste, you will totally be in a SONIC FREAK (as in get your VMPS freak on) icon_eek.gif icon_eek.gif icon_cool.gif icon_cool.gif sm_lyellow.gif sm_lyellow.gif icon_mrgreen.gif icon_eek.gif

It better happen quick, like in a day or two, otherwise he'll go by the name of  Lord I-can't make-up-my friggin'-mind-and-have-no-patience.

[ted_b]

I've owned both.  I owned Maggie MG2.b's, then when I got into large screen video projection, Top Gun on Laserdisc wouldn't cut it on Maggies.  I went the VMPS route and bought the huge cone-crazed SuperTower II A/R special editions.  These behemoths were the antithesis of the Maggies, very dynamic and impactful, but not nearly the air and "fill the room with sound" soundstage of the Magnepans.

Skip ahead 17 years.  I now own the VMPS RM/X's.  To me, they (and the RM-30's, their closest sonic sibling in the VMPS family) embody what was great about both speakers.  They will give you less of a sweetspot, but otherwise will image and present a soundstage that rivals planars and stats, while blowing them away in dynamics, impact and overall midrange guts (some call it warmth, but I don't want to infer tube-ness).  However, be prepared to live with them for awhile, and tweak them slowly and methodically (pots/putty/position).   The soundsatge will be more focused than Maggies, not quite as deep (although Julian claims 25 ft on his) but much more precise imaging (i.e the second guitar is not only in a certain spot, but it's rounder and fuller).   And, of course, more midbass on down.

Anyway, those are my $.02.  Be patient, be excited and be open to new placement and new sonic adventures.  

Ted

[Florian]

But do remember, they can sound great (or even not so great) straight out of the box, but after you "adjust and train" the room, the system, and the speaker, to your taste, you will totally be in a SONIC FREAK (as in get your VMPS freak on) icon_eek.gif icon_eek.gif icon_cool.gif icon_cool.gif sm_lyellow.gif sm_lyellow.gif icon_mrgreen.gif icon_eek.gif

It better happen quick, like in a day or two, otherwise he'll go by the name of  Lord I-can't make-up-my friggin'-mind-and-have-no-patience.

First to you. You must have followed from the Asylum !! My Maggies were over 3 yrs old and perfectly broken in. I adjusted them for a month incl. room treatments. I own another 3.6R + 1.6QR, and .5's. So dont gimme crap and leave me alone.  


As to the rest, thank you very much for all the feedback. Thats what i wanted to hear.

PS: Hey John !! is the hotline toll-free ?    

[chiahaochang]

Florian, just noticed in your sig you have the line "Many ways lead to "Audi Nirvana" choose the best one for you "  Do you really mean Audi Nirvana?  I think an Audi S4 would be Audi Nirvana for me, but I'm not quite sure why you're talking about German cars your sig below all that audio gear.