Brian got a lot right. His use of ribbon drivers, simple crossovers, tuneable speakers, subwoofer design, golden ears, and his educating us to be better audiophiles set him apart from the rest.
Brian educated us on room treatments decades before it became commonplace. His article in 1991 in Stereophile “Hi-Fi Retailing: The Avid Audiophile’s Advisory”
https://www.stereophile.com/features/548/index.html described in a humorous way how to make simple changes to improve the sounds of our room.
Brian was not afraid to call out the industry he spent his life working in in articles like “Money and the High End: The Price is the Product”. Brian bucked that trend and provided great value never gouging the customer.
His use of simple, low parts count crossovers is the key to his speakers ability to image so well. That was the “minimum phase” part of Veritone (Minimum Phase) Speakers VMPS.
Integrating his speakers with different environments, as our rooms are different, by providing tuneable speakers (the V in “Veritone” Minimum Phase Speakers) with the use of L pads to attenuate different sections is another example of what set Brian apart from other manufactures who provide one size fits all.
His subwoofers are nothing fancy using a 12” and 15” driver with a large passive in a decent sized enclosures works well. With that much surface area pushing air the drivers do not have to make large excursions resulting in clean bass. Simple, but effective.
For me, what Brian got right and why I cherish VMPS speaker is the use of ribbon midrange that goes down to 250 Hz in the Ribbon Monitor series of his later speakers. The imaging and speed of these drivers are why I love VMPS. Challenging to integrate a ribbon driver that disperses sound in a column with standard drivers that disperses in a cone, particularly since their sound pressure rolls off differently as distance. Not an issue with one seating position, but with rows like in a show not sure how Brian pulled it off which brings me to my last point.
Brian’s ears were incredible! He could not only hear, but knew how to make corrections based on what he was hearing. The sound he was able to achieve at shows is legendary! Winning Best in Show in 2002 at the Consumer Electronics Show with a $5K speaker competing against all price points shows his talents of not only designing great speakers, but making them sound good in any environment.
