[ScottMayo]

First off, by way of fair waring, I'm an owner/agent now, so unlike the first two parts of the review, I'm reviewing speakers that I sell.

Frankly, that's not going to affect this review. If I was reviewing a toaster oven, there  might be temptation to inject some hype into the review to generate a few extra sales. That won't work with speakers of this type; anyone who cares to, can (and should) come and hear these speakers in the same room I reviewed them in. Given that, there's not much point in making exaggerated claims that won't stand up to scrutiny.

Still, caveat emptor.


I'm reviewing these with the following gear:

Denon DVD-2900/modWright
Bryston SP1.7 pre/pro
Bryston 6B-SST (~315W/channel)

The SP1.7 gives me several ways to take input from the Denon: the important one is Bypass mode, which cuts out all processing and makes the SP1.7 a straight analog preamp, equivalent to a BP-25. I also have the option of taking the digital output into the SP1.7, bypassing the Denon's D/A and doing processing in the SP1.7 - which also allows me to direct low frequency stuff into a subwoofer. I'll get to that in a bit.

The room is 28x25x11, with a lot of treatments on the walls but not so much as a carpet on the (unfinished, plywood) floor.

Speakers are against the short wall, about 32" out from the back wall and about 42" from the side walls. (That's deceptive - the side walls in this case are angled masses of OC 703, the actual reflective plaster wall is further back than that 42" suggests). There are diffusers on the front wall, ranks of flat trap absorption on the side walls, 2' diameter tube traps in the back corners, and a soffited ceiling with absorption built in.

All in all, the speakers and listening position are roughly an equilaterial triangle, about 13' on a side. The speakers are toed in so they cross about 2' from my nose.

The upshot: the speakers are being a given a reasonable shot of doing the Imaging Thing. Reflections and bass are well managed, except for a hump at 100Hz. Despite the bare floor, I would not characterize the room as overly live. It’s perfect for holding a conversation in, which is a good test for any large room.

I listen at about 75db at the listening position, except where noted.


--- The Speaker Setup ---

When setting the system up, I plunked the speakers into place, did some toe in, and then started adjusting the preamp so it would do proper delays on the center and rear channels. In the course of messing around with the delays, I noticed something unexpected: it sounded wrong. When I played just the RM/x, imaging seemed unfocused. I opened the preamp settings - and found I had specified the left speaker a foot farther away than it was. The resulting extra millisecond of delay wrecked the imaging.

I experimented with some blind tests, and yes, I could reliably tell when the speaker delays were properly set, to within the accuracy of the preamp's settings (1 foot). When correct, the sounds snapped into sharp focus. That was the first hint of what I was in for. In a well-treated room, these speakers have two configurations: right and wrong. Once you've heard right, wrong is wrong. These speakers need, demand and deserve a room where you can place them to advantage.

I've listened to a lot of music on these already - about 4 hours a night on average, since I got them moved in a week ago.

Pot and putty adjustments are as Brian sent them, plus a few extra clicks on the treble pot. This might reflect the fact that my room is awash in absorptive treatments.

--- The Review ---

I love these speakers.

I started by cranking _Savage Garden_. Yes, it's a guilty pleasure, pure trash pop, gobs of synthetic sound, frequently dumb lyrics, and cheap tricks in post-processing. But it's fun.

_A Thousand Words_ starts with a synthetic mellotron sound and then a guitar riff that, I'm sorry, makes anyone of my age instantly thinks of _Shaft_. They should have been sued for borrowing that sound without being black.

It's a mix of over-close miking of pop singers, thick orchestration, wailing guitars, and dim little ringing triangle/bell that you never noticed when you heard this cut on the air because it's buried well in the background. A speaker that can keep all straight is a decent speaker.

Score: Dynamics, A+. The speakers never got lost, and played the quiet clearly with the loud.

_Break Me Shake Me_ has a fun percussive effects. Listening to the snaps in the beginning, and the bizarre, distored snare/rain-stick effect at the first break, are a great test of high frequency response.

Score: A. Crystal clear and sharp highs. Some haze in the singer's voice, which I suspect is the fault of the mix, not the speaker.

_To The Moon and Back_ starts with an opening rumble, quietly, in the background. (Quietly is relative - I cranked the chorus up to 80db for this one.). Good reproduction of bass noise here. The couch was vibrating from the bass throughout the song. No need for a subwoofer: good tight sound pouring out of speakers. Nice.

Score: Bass, A. I had to check to make sure the sub was off, always a good sign. Very little bass roll-off apparent in this configuration. This speaker can stand up as a rock-and-roller.

On to some more highbrow stuff. _Norah Jones_, _Come Away With Me_, title track. This is a speaker review, so I chopped out the back channels (it's a 5.1 SACD).

Normally, imaging requires suspension of disbelief. If you stop and try, you can usually get your ears to pick out the speakers as the source of the sounds.

Not this time. Norah was about 4' to the left of the right speaker, and she stayed there, even as I tried to pick her out on the speakers. The illusion was perfect. Note that 3' out of the sweet spot, the illusion collapsed: in that position a speaker was firing straight at me and I could find it.

On _Shoot the Moon_, the cymbals were discernibly center stage and different cymbals were discernibly a few inches apart. Tat’s the first time I ever heard such precise placement. Midrange was effortless and blended perfectly with the highs - with Norah doing breathy singing, if you don't get smooth integration of the voice fundamentals and the high frequency breathy sounds, you get a mess. (Try her on mid-fi speakers - it just doesn't sound right.) No haze, no grain, no strain. Nothing is smeared.

On _Turn Me On_, she wasn't miked quite right. You can tell; fine detail and intonation which is so clear on the other tracks is muted here. The bass was well recorded though; there's a quiet rattle of string on fret that was recorded so clearly I thought I had a rattling cable in my racks.

There's a caveat here: given a clean audio chain, the RM/x are going to reveal every recording flaw. There is absolutely no darkness or warmth being added above 200Hz whatsoever, and nothing has anywhere to hide. The resolution is such that I can pick out the difference between using the Bryston's DAC and the Denon's, in digital playback.

Score: Imaging, resolution and handling of open, simple arrangements: A+. Perfect handling of voice, ideal imaging.


For something a little more fanciful, I put in _As Falls Witicha, So Falls Witicha Falls_, title track. This is a great right-before-bedtime cut.

This was recorded awhile ago, and to quote the old warning about CDs, yes, it's possible to pick out the limitations of the mastering process. A lot of synthesized sound here, laid down in the sound stage haphazardly. But the sounds themselves are fascinating, strange, and draw you in. Too far in: I was up to 85db and had to make a conscious effort to turn it down. If you add more power to these speakers, they just resolve better.

The quiet click which introduces the "lyrics" - if you know the track, you're grinning - is reproduced perfectly. For laughs I played this again through my old Infinity QLS-1s; despite having more tweeters available, they were unable to get this across as cleanly. Mays' synth sound fills the space and seems to wrap a little beyond the speakers.  Everything just floats. Even the mysterious lyrics, whose meaning (if not purpose) I finally divined a week ago.

Score: effortlessness, A+.

For fun and sheer oddness, I put on _Switched on Bach_, a cassette I had left over from a  previous epoch. This was recorded in 1968, the era when synthetic sound was new and different, and people were trying to decide if it had a future. This particular album was an attempt to make Bach sound cool and modern; someone neglected to explain to the arranger that Bach is eternally cool and does not need to be modern. But it's an interesting tape, at least as a curiosity. Planetarium music to be sure, but audacious.

I have to say it's never sounded better. The idea was to get as synthetic a sound as possible, which makes a good test bed for a speaker - some of the waveforms get funky. The RM/x were up for this; the whole wierd, eerie "I never existed on a real sound stage, I was never anything but voltages" came across with eerie, startling, clinical precision. I was starting to get into it when the tape jammed. Oh, right, that's why we all abandoned cassettes...

On to _Appalachian Spring_ (Copeland; Bernstein, Los Angeles). For some reason, on a recording that bills itself as digital, there is what sounds like tape hiss on this recording. And a fair amount of background (restless audience?) noise. The oboes and triangles are perfectly recorded, but the violins sound diffuse; maybe a result of the tape hiss. And I don't know whether I just have issues with Bernstein's style or not, but this just sounds overly sentimental: morose and brash by turns. It should radiate quiet power and playfulness. I forgive it all when the _Simple Gifts_ movement comes in; if it's wrong to say a Shaker hymn rocks, forgive me. But there's the openness and power and just plain purity that's been missing. (Note to self: Tilson's San Francisco version is better, even in mono over the internet; buy it.)

Oh, yeah, the speakers did a great job.

I toss on one of my own digital compositions, and as expected it sounds wretched. I paid no attention to imaging when I bolted it together, and the synthetic “slow strings” are a horror. It sounded passable over my computer's speakers, but it's going to have to be completely reworked now.

It occurs to me that I'm no longer reviewing the RM/x. I'm diving into the music, picking out details, listening to what the composers and musicians did, instead of the speakers. I'd get to a certain point in a song and think, "oh, right, I'm supposed to be describing what the those big black things are doing."

That's probably the highest praise for a speaker there is. These things get out of the way. Music flows like a river from the space between them. If they weren't gleaming 6' tall black pillars, you'd forget they existed.

Are they perfect? No speaker is perfect. I don't think they would handle a vast room; the power handling probably isn't there to fill a large auditorium. They fill my 25x28 without effort, though. I don't think they are the last word in razor flat frequency response. To get them rocking, you have to give them wattage; Pink Floyd in a 10W triode setup will not make it in a large room.

(edit: I had a whine here about the binding posts, but Brian just announced improved binding posts on the RM series speakers, no charge, including the RM/x. That's my experience with VMPS - Brian goes the extra mile. Every time.)

And figure a comfortable chair into your purchase, because the sweet spot is not large.

If you want to rumble mightily in the deepest depths of the sub-30Hz netherworld, you'll consider adding a subwoofer, something at least 15" across. The RM/x have plenty of reach, but the side firing design of the RM/x might or might not rock your world, depending on your room setup. I get “wow” bass out of my setup with the Bryston preamp set to “Bypass”, and for any serious listening, I do not engage the sub. (For movies, I do). But my wife still prefers the (heftier) woofers on my Infinity QLS-1's for their sheer "make me shiver" power, even though they aren't as accurate.

The piano black finish, while gorgeous, can't be recommended for houses with inquisitive toddlers or unkind cats (both adjectives being redundant, now what I think about it.). And if you have a love of older kinds of recorded music, you'll suffer through every shrill distortion or muddy microphone hack job - something people fond of early era recordings of classical music may want to consider. They are not glossy, warm speakers and they will not spraypaint any syrup or haze over the ugly details. Just the facts, ma'am.

But at 14,900$ list, I simply don't know of anything that comes close. If you finally want to settle on a speaker that won't be the limiting factor in your music, and you don't plan to spend $100,000 on someone's my-ego-is-my-god design, I can't recommend anything else. And that's why I'm an owner/agent. Buy these and I'll sleep well, knowing you are absolutely getting more than you paid for.

I ended up finishing up the editing on this review with an internet recording of Tilson's San Francisco _Appalachian Spring_ in the background. It’s a 44kHz mono recording, played though my external Audigy soundcard, with an optical pipe into the SP1.7, which was told to synthesize up 5 channels with some reverberation (The ‘Natural’ setting on the SP1.7)  Not much imaging this way, and not the last word in sonic purity (some grain and some curious artifacts from all the processing), but still extremely musical. I kept forgetting where I was in the review. The music draws you, and you forget the world exists for a while.

Color me black, polished and happy.

[zybar]

Great write-up Scott.

Glad to see you are enjoying the speakers and the room.

Also, best of luck in being an "agent".

George

[John Casler]

Great Review Scott,:thumb:

I know it has been a long road with the room, speakers and electronics, but at least it gave you something to write about

You are one of the lucky few with one of the Premier Speakers available today for critical and High Performance Listening.

But I can say you have many wonderful hours of tuning, tweaking and listening ahead of you.

PM me your address, I have a list of "Reference Cuts" to send you, that I have found sound pretty good on all models of VMPS speakers.

[jermmd]

Scott,
Nice review. I assume since you've been listening at four hour clips that there's no listener fatigue? Did you play with the putty at all? Isn't this somewhat room dependent? I'd love to hear your setup some time.

[Bingenito]

How about some pics?

[ScottMayo]

Scott,
Nice review. I assume since you've been listening at four hour clips that there's no listener fatigue? Did you play with the putty at all? Isn't this somewhat room dependent? I'd love to hear your setup some time.

No fatigue. I find lack of detail fatiguing - I keep straining to make out things that aren't there - and that's not a problem here. That said, after a few repeats, _Savage Garden_ got a little old - it's just not that well recorded. My workaround for problems like that is to pipe it through the processor and use some setting with a lot of artificial ambience; you lose inner detail but for some discs, that can be a good thing.

I have not been tempted to play with the putty yet. Bass response is full, but not overwhelming or too warm - no real reason to tweak it right now. I might fiddle a little once the room has all the cosmetic work done (like getting the bamboo flooring down), because that's certain to make small changes in the room's liveness.

>I'd love to hear your setup some time.

Open every evening and generally on Saturdays, email for your appointment.

[warnerwh]

Happy to hear you have your room and system up and running.  No doubt the effort is now well worth it.  It's very nice to have a dedicated and treated listening room.

I don't know if your speakers were sent before or after Brian started tuning them for people. They may already be quite close.  If not I'd go ahead and remove about a pea sized piece til you get time to dial them in.  

Enjoy your system!

[ScottMayo]

Happy to hear you have your room and system up and running.  No doubt the effort is now well worth it.  It's very nice to have a dedicated and treated listening room.

I don't know if your speakers were sent before or after Brian started tuning them for people. They may already be quite close.  If not I'd go ahead and remove about a pea sized piece til you get time to dial them in.  

Enjoy your system!

Brian tuned them, and in fact he had access to the same amp I use and a room that isn't too different from mine by all accounts. Out of the box, it's been good enough that I haven't wanted to fuss with it. When I'm done with the room, I plan to experiment a little, but the room still has a little ways to go.

For example, in the front half of the room, on the two side walls, I have about 100 sqft of exposed OC 703 mounted, floor to ceiling, angled, to form a bass trap. It's been just standing, open to the air, in the frame of 2x4's, looking yellow and unattractive. Last night I finally got the burlap mounted over one of these, and when I fired up the music, the room sounded subjectively different. It might be my imagination, and I hope it is, because burlap isn't supposed to make any difference to absorption, and I didn't expect it to. (I'm not about to take it down again to compare.)

There's nothing else for it; I'm simply going to have to spend another four hours today, listening to music.   Then I'll write the definitive essay on why Everything You Know About Burlap is Wrong, and get it published in 6 Moons, next to someone's passionate defense of iridium in speaker wires.  

[ScottMayo]

How about some pics?

I'm going to wait until I get the flooring down and the rest of the treatments burlap'd before it's camera time. The bare plywood just doesn't do it cosmetically - though I've been surprised at how benign it is acoustically. The aimable tweeters really do the trick when it comes to keeping the sound where it needs to be...

[flintstone]

Nice review Scott

I listened to a pair not long ago and while I thought the room they were in was to small...I was still impressed! As an Apogee speaker user who also owns two pair of the older VMPS models (Supertower/R's and 626's) I'm always interested in VMPS.

My room is dedicated and only slightly smaller than yours (My son and I built it.) I was thinking while listening how I would love to take them home for a shoot-out against my Apogee Duetta Signatures. My wife would have flipped when she saw those monsters!!!

Dave