[refmedia]

I may well have performed final assembly of the speakers pictured here, unless they were originally kits.

Those suckers rock.  Better have snacks & pop ready to make buddies w/ the cops, who you may get to know on a first name basis! 

I am 99% sure these are not kits, so these are a testament to your fine work.
Even check out the setup stickers on the back.

Lucky for me my room is subterranean with foundation thick walls so I can play at any volume level I want.

[refmedia]

This system produces concert level dynamics at all frequencies....no really, I'm serious here.  The subs  I thought would be too much but we had to try, right? Well glad we did cause the subs are in and are staying in, the added clarity and authority to the system is absoulutly out of this world. The best low frequency reproduction I have ever heard reproduced off a CD. Oh my gosh! More to follow here are some new system pics.
Matt

[Brad]

That's a LOT of cubic inches of driver area.
WOW

[James Romeyn]

During the cone midrange era, Brian employed several different drivers.  Some would come & go.  sometimes the ones employed were determined by the impedances of the drivers in stock & the number of drivers in the array.  The mids in this pair were the best of the lot.  For a cone mid, they are very musical, fast, dynamic, very enjoyable to listen to w/ little to no fatigue.  As per VMPS policy till circa '02-'03, a low-pass xo pole was never employed on the mids.  Of all the cones used while I was there, the ones in this pair had the most natural & musical hf rolloff.

The FF1 & FF3 cone series were the next large Tower series after the STIII pictured.  Somehow, some way, I know not exactly why, I never warmed up to the FF cone & Dynaribbon series untill the full SRE's arrived.  The cone & Dynaribbon FF series never did for me what the subjects of this thread did. 

I'd love to have this pair of speakers.  They could arguably be called the highest & best performing evolution of the original Super Tower IIa/R, of which the late Bert Whyte of Audio said in the late '70s-earliest '80s: "It's not whether the Super Tower IIa/R is ready for the digital age, but whether the digital age is ready for the Super Tower IIa/R."  Remember this is the era when there was very little if anything between the heralded Celestion bird-coffins & the then-$65k Infinity IRS III.

BTW, the FF/SRE series was heralded similarly to the ST IIa/R, by writers such as Mike Kuller of TAS & others. 

PS: Please post pics of your friend's faces (with their permission) after playing a huge, dynamic musical selection, then telling them you paid $1500!    

[Berndt]

nice tutorial, Jimbo

[refmedia]

Now for a mini review as these speakers are still new in my room.

First my room is about 15ft wide by 8ft  high by 22 ft deep and is basically mostly under ground so I can play in excess of a 100db if I so choose.
System now is set up with a whatever Sony CD player connected with RCA Monster reference series 1ft cables into a Behringer minimon as a Preamp with 30ft TRS to XLR out with Monster Studio Pro 1000 cables. In we go to a Behringer Super XO splitting stereo at 40Hz at 24 db (making a six way system) with Monster reference series XLR and MIT XLR cables to amps. A pair of Behringer A500's in bridged mono @ 500 into 8 ohm go to the Super Towers and two channels of a Bryston 9bst at 200 into 4 ohm each for the lows. The speaker cables are Oval 9's to the subs and Monster Reference 2.2's to the towers. That is a total of 1400 watts in my system as of now.
 The speakers super tweeters are 7 feet apart and about 4 feet from the back wall and 4.5 feet from the side walls. The subs are on their sides 2/3Rd's the way behind the Towers with the passive radiator firing into the side walls. I have home made room treatment and acoustic foam to help control my boxy room  with placement for mostly first reflections and back wall control. This is the best sound we got out of about three different setups we have tried so far. I'm sure I will experiment more in the future. Cables, amps and pre amps we swapped around and seem to make very little difference, moving the speakers 2 inches changes the sound more.

Tuning and setup
A chore but not difficult one trick that really helped me is switching the system to mono. I was able to tame some left/right tweeter issues in mono I could not really other wise hear. I may try and get Brian or someone to help with the putty, do you guys like BBQ and red wine? Four 15 inch passives is  a lot of putty to deal with!

The soundstage and Imaging
Huge might be a good word to start with... the room treatments and subs on their sides as they are make the room sound about 10 feet wider. Sound is distributed evenly over the horizontal plane with uncanny accuracy, depth and width with just a hint of vertical smearing from the array steps. The phase relationship in general is really good and for so many drivers is unbelievable.  The ability to push the sound forward and back, left or right is as I have never heard before in my room. Also sounds great and maintains most of the sound stage through out the room, though the true sweet spot is rather small but any listening distance of 9 to 14 feet is all good and I say sit to taste. IMHO there is just uncanny accurate horizontal imaging. If a snare is panned to one side by the smallest margin it is so clearly audible, similar to a nice set of point source near-fields.

Tone
These speakers have that VMPS tone, I would describe VMPS tone as I know it to be smooth tuneful and extended.


Dynamics and frequency extension
This is where I think VMPS bass is just so amazing the fundamental frequencies are delivered with equal impact and clarity. The integration with the subs is scary smooth I have taken the crossover up to 200Hz with little change except some loss of bass impact. These speakers also clearly extend well beyond any CD in the upper treble. Did I say these play loud with out a hint of distortion? Well the system plays so clean at volume you can't even tell it is very loud, I think that distortion is what really hurts hearing.

Thanks for reading and I will continue to listen carefully!


Left


Right

[James Romeyn]

Thanks, William.  

Must update: I forgot about the wcf mids, which were even more natural & smooth.  But the Achilees heel of wcf is that it's self-damping properties, which contribute to the above, also remove some of the dynamic snap & pop.  Still no free lunch...Probably the Audax wcf drivers had better overall performance than the Asian-sourced Versa-Tronics we used, but whether the Audax justified 3x the cost depends on whose wallet is to be gored...

[refmedia]

Jim Thanks for the inside info.
 I am beyond happy with these bad boys. I feel like I got a new music collection. Oh and rest assured I have put a few jaws on the floor and already brought my wife and good friend Marcus to tears. On a couple of spaced omni recordings I swear it is better than bieng there. Also on some hip hop you get to cleanly hear what those guys turn up 20 db in their cars. This system acually pressurizes the room like a car too! Stunning on any good recording in any genre I have tossed at it. Also some recordings I thought were amazing are revealed in their true colors every flaw is there as is everything that is right.
Wow!

[James Romeyn]

Long-time members have heard this before.

Brian had a customer in Marin right on SF Bay.  The guy owned Landmark greeting cards.  Virtually everyone reading this has purchased a Landmark card or calendar.  

B gives me the address & tells me to meet him there for a delivery.  This is NOT a slum area.  Every house has a great view of SF Bay.  It's wooded & average prices several million $US today.  I find the address & park my bike on the carport above the house below, near the red Ferrari & black Rolls Royce (oh, & Brian's beat up van!).  I'm walking down a lot of steps to what my best estimate tells me is the front door (much hidden by trees & shrubs).  I look through the glass door & see Brian & another guy staring to my left, but straight ahead.  I am curious what they are doing.  I get closer.  I hear music getting louder w/ each step.  The door opens.  I look left & see the four huge, towering rosewood columns in all their shining glory, that comprise the legendary & all-conquering Infiinity IRS III ($65k then).  Many read reviews about them but I got to hear them properly setup in the home of an owner.  

The room was plenty large enough.  Huge ceiling, plenty of room to breath.  Sony top-line CDP & also a Sony DCC (digital compact cassette).  The woofer towers were powered, a then-$5k Onkyo Integra 100 lb Stereophile class-A rated stereo amp was sited in the basement below the room, powering the ribbon towers.  We played Stravinsky's Firebird Suite, & let's just say the expanse of the sound was breathtaking.  Drum whacks just gave you a completely new reference point for overwhelming impact.

What did such a discerning audiophile purchase, to insure as much of the performance in the main audio room was available in the living room while entertaining guests?  Why VMPS' ST IIa/R of course!  (I still remember Brian w/ his hands on his hips staring out over the wide expanse of SF Bay beyond the wall to wall windows: "Let's just say this is a view enjoyed by not too many people.")  Not quite the visual impact & less detail & resolution vs. the IRS, but something interesting in comparing the bass:  Yes, the IRS probably did have even more bass impact.  But unless my ear was mistaken, it seemed you could discern a time lag & change in the sound when the IRS played big drum whacks.  Like there was a slight duration of time between the first transient impact in the bass, then an "overdamping" effect while the servo brought the driver back to what it thought was the correct output.  

Servo-controll technology must certainly have evolved & improved since that time.

Oh, the ST IIa/R were about $3695/pr back then, if memory serves.       

[warnerwh]

I had a feeling you'd be pretty happy with your 1,500 dollar speakers. The importance of dynamics in the audiophile world I believe is underestimated. To convey live music the best we can using small 2 way speakers just can't cut it.

The laws of physics are pretty difficult to circumvent and big multi driver speakers tend to sound better to my ears. Many though argue the problems with such a design but it seems to my ears to be closer to live sound. In other words the benefits outweigh the downside.

Glad you like them. For 1,500 bucks they were a steal!

[refmedia]

Wow Jim I have been in that area a bit and can only imagine the view, what a great story. Must have been an incredible sound in that space, gee whiz.

Thanks warnerwh I could not agree more.

This just goes to show you how certain things are consistent with sound and music. I will list few "soundbite size" truths that these speakers help reveal and reinforce to me about sound and music. These cliches I am stealing from some one I'm sure but like a wise man told me if you think your original it means you are just not good at research.

Please correct me if I am wrong but...

Cars are like bass there is no replacement for displacement

Sports are like music you have to have the fundamentals

Stereo is surround if done right

Most people don't know what high fidelity sound is cause they have never heard it

Physics dictates

Music is an art and so is listening

Measurements only get you so far in achieving any aesthetic

Tubes, solid state, digital, or analog doesn't make music sound good people do

[warnerwh]

Great points and well put. I've been in this hobby for over 3 decades and alot of what is new is not necessarily that much better if better at all. Your speakers are an older design but are still capable of excellent sound.  One of the advantages of having so many drivers isn't just dynamics but low distortion.

Speaker design is full of trade offs. I've personally enjoyed the way Brian voices his speakers. You'll notice too that the flagship speakers of many companies employ many drivers. I must assume they think the trade offs are to the overall advantage to the sound quality. That's what you're hearing, low distortion, limitless dynamics and full power bass.  Your imaging is probably excellent even though the speakers are not exactly mini monitors.

[refmedia]

Great points and well put. I've been in this hobby for over 3 decades and alot of what is new is not necessarily that much better if better at all. Your speakers are an older design but are still capable of excellent sound.  One of the advantages of having so many drivers isn't just dynamics but low distortion.

Speaker design is full of trade offs. I've personally enjoyed the way Brian voices his speakers. You'll notice too that the flagship speakers of many companies employ many drivers. I must assume they think the trade offs are to the overall advantage to the sound quality. That's what you're hearing, low distortion, limitless dynamics and full power bass.  Your imaging is probably excellent even though the speakers are not exactly mini monitors.

I feel Brian gives the user the ability to tune his products to their taste and or environment. This ultimately gives some of that voice or tone to the consumer. I also do a lot of recording so I have many examples of live shows I have been to and recorded. And this sytem recreates realistic levels of these performances.
Real dynamics are really only possible with low distortion levels.
A good Marriage and good sound both require good compromises


Oh another set up trick and another reason I love the L-pads on these Towers. I had as you could have guessed a Behringer DEQ in line and made several measurements but instead of making adjustments with the DEQ I am able to dial in the L-Pads to get a flater response, then I remove the DEQ and enjoy.
Matt

[Marcus_Buick]

I am the Marcus Matt referred to earlier.  As a part owner of this system, I wish to provide my experience of 34 drivers in one acoustic space.  Yes, I was one of the people brought to tears.  Twice.

Matt has done an excellent job of defining this system.  The only thing I would like to add has to do with height information.  With such large standing columns, their height does come into play acoustically.  It doesn't matter if you're standing or sitting, these speakers still dwarf you. 

There is a general feeling of being surrounded even though it's just two channels.  It could be the room is compressing the sound at high volumes, but I think because of the sheer mass of air moving in this space, there's an interesting pressure zone being created, not unlike in real life.  Let me explain.

In any environment, air pressure tells you where you are (above ground, below ground, outside, inside, etc.)  The accuracy of this system allows for that pressure information (which is recorded, but almost never reproduced) to exist, and that information gives this system a validity I have never experienced in any other sound system I have heard, short of one really nice listening room I have been in, The Dolby Listening Room in San Francisco.

Suffice it to say. . .This system makes listening to music, or any sound, fun.