Initial Review of VMPS RM40s

john1970 · « **on:** 1 Apr 2006, 03:09 am »

To all,

The following is my initial review of the VMPS RM40s. My RM40s came in the stock lite oak finish with the Auricap capacitor upgrade.

THE REVIEW:

Sound: The sound of these speakers is absolutely breathtaking. Voices sound real and live. The dynamics are excellent. The resolution is very good and can easily reveal a poor or overly bright recording. In my opinion this is not a disadvantage because the goal of the speaker is to accurately convey the recording. If the recording is bright than the sound should also be bright. Could not expect more. The sound of the speaker fully met / exceeded my expectations. Note I did not review the RM40 before purchase; I reviewed the RM30 and RM/X.

Finish: The lite oak finish is beutiful to look at overall. However, my speakers have two minor defects that are readily apparant:
1) red glue at the edges between the top and sides where it ran out between the veneers. Note that this would be hidden with a darker finish and is only visible from 6" or less. However, my speakers are in my living room and this is important to me.
2) two cracks in the veneer on one of the speakers
One of the cracks will be hidden by the grill cover and the other can be hidden if I switch the speaker positions (R to L and vice versa).
Also the speaker grills that were shipped were warped such that the center binding post do not attach to the speaker.

Quality Control: One of my speakers arrived with a frozen woofer. Frankly, I don't understand how this can happen if the speaker was pretuned at the factory.

Customer Service: Brian is a pleasure to work with and has already resolved the frozen woofer issue and he will be getting new grills for me when they become available. Unfortunately, I don't think he can do anything with the cabinets unless he wants me to send the speakers back to CA which would be a major pain.

Overall if I were to grade this speaker on sound alone it would be better than most speakers cost more than 2-3x its cost. However, my pair of RM40s definitely has some initial issues. However, Brian is doing everything that is humanly possible to fix the issues and he should be commended for doing so. I've dealt with many larger companies that couldn't care less about their product after it leaves the store / factory.

Overall Grade: B- (due to initial finish / QC issues). Based purely on sound the grade is an A+

Brian Cheney · « **Reply #1 on:** 1 Apr 2006, 05:16 am »

Frozen woofer was caused by our wonderful new glue, applied after burnin, seeping from under the phase plug. Replacing the woofer is easy, however.

The red marks on the cabinet seams are baffling. In 30 years I have not seen such on any finish. If WD40 (a good solvent for glue) does not remove it, a light rubbing with 000 steel wool should take care of it.

Yes, some of our handmade CDWG for the RM 40 have decided to warp in the field. This is discouraging, particularly since it takes two people all day to make a pair of RM 40 CDWG's. I'll see if I can get a local cabinetshop to explain to me why this happened. We will replace with commercially made CDWG's when available.

john1970 · « **Reply #2 on:** 1 Apr 2006, 12:33 pm »

Brian,

The woofer repair / replacement was a piece of cake. The steel wool removed most of the red marks.

John

Brian Cheney · « **Reply #3 on:** 1 Apr 2006, 03:30 pm »

Glad to hear it!

john1970 · « **Reply #4 on:** 1 Apr 2006, 05:55 pm »

Brian,

So am I or Scott Mayo would have gotten a pair of RM40s returned to him!

Thanks for the steel wool tip,

John

Brian Cheney · « **Reply #5 on:** 1 Apr 2006, 06:02 pm »

Still wondering where those red marks came from. We use clear glues to apply the veneer over the MDF.

john1970 · « **Reply #6 on:** 1 Apr 2006, 07:19 pm »

Brian,

I have no idea where the red marks came from. As you can tell from the pictures I sent you they were defintely there. Needless to say your suggestion of steel wool worked wonders.

Thank you,

John

john1970 · « **Reply #7 on:** 2 Jun 2006, 04:19 pm »

To all,

The sound of the RM40s improve day after day. Listening to well recorded CDs is absolutely breathtaking. After fixing some initial QC issues (see initial review) I have absolutely nothing but excellent reviews to say about this speaker.

At list price the speaker is an excellent value. I am frankly amazed that VMPS can afford to sell these speakers at a dealer discount.

My RM40s have the following:
1) Dual WCF woofers
2) Auricap capacitor upgrades
3) FST tweeter
4) std. lite oak finish in std. cabinet (38 mm thick baffles + 28 mm sides and top) with Soundcoat

Thank you to Brian Cheney for producing an excellent product at an excellent price.

John