New speaker cables arrived today. These were custom made for the VMPS RM/X (would be identical for FST'd RM/40 and RM/30) by Robert Lee. I spoke with him at length at CES about my system and surprisingly he actually knew quite a lot about about VMPS loudspeakers. The set consists of two separate mono-wire runs of modified Hologram mkII. The full Zen name sounds like a pretty lethal weapon, the
Custom Hologram mkII Double Barrel Shotgun 
The low-pass cable is optimized for the bass system with 166hz crossover and is made entirely of zero crystal 7N copper. It uses different strand sizing and windings compared with the "stock" cable for no compromise low frequency performance. The high-pass cable is a hybrid of the Hologram II and new "Absolute", using zero crystal 7N copper and zero crystal 7N silver. It is tweaked for best performance in the mid-bass through treble, and its strand sizes and windings were optimized for the crossovers at 166hz and 7khz.
In some ways these are similar to the Kimber Select KS-3033 (copper) and KS-3035 (copper/silver) which I also considered. But they are very pricey, even used. Kimber does hold its value well, though, so may have been a better investment in the long run. Also the only "zero crystal" wire from Kimber is the KS-3038 cable with "Black Pearl" silver which costs as much as the RM/X. I figure there is probably some merit in customizing the cables for the speakers, since any standard cable has stranding and geometry designed for full 20hz - 20khz frequency response.
Although definitely of the "garden-hose" variety of speaker cable, the Hologram mkII are quite flexible and
very nicely made with a special reflective jacket and netting. All 16 spades are zero crystal copper plated with gold.
These were just installed tonight but already surpass their predecessors, two mono-wire runs of well burned-in, stock Acoustic Zen Satori. The Satori are really superb considering their very low cost and non-customized design. I'm hoping with some break-in the Hoogram Shotgun set will be worth their (significant) extra cost.
Arriving soon will be an Acoustic Zen MC2 AES/EBU digital cable and a BMI Whale Supreme 20amp power cord for my JRDG 302/4. Also a Pure Note Cerulean XLR interconnect, a 7N zero crystal silver ribbon wire... it will go head to head with the Pure Note Epsilon Reference rev4 I have now. I may challenge the winner of that dual with the Argent/Roomlens Pursang, the cable which has so impressed Zybar and some of the Cable Asylum inmates/crazies.
