Bioman, I have had lot's of experience with VMPS and have visited with the designer Brian Cheney often. He is an interesting guy, a little tempemental, but detailed in his design and his product. My neighbor was a reviewer for the Absolute Sound and reviewed a VMPS speaker recently and I was there to set-up, listen and critique. The speaker reviewed had the ribbon attached to the inside of the cabinet and from what Brian told me, he bought the order of ribbons Arny Nuedall (SP?) of Genesis decided not to accept. I believe the model reviewed is the one you are looking at, but you may want to read the TAS review by Mike Kuller. The first night the sound was okay. Later Brian came back and added larger magnets to the woofers, played with the positioning and changed the solid state amp on the low end. The adjustments were amazing....the sound incredible. All the depth, speed and imaging of ribbons, with the incredible low end VMPS is known for. No subwoofer needed here. If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, Brian would probably come out and set them up for you and make any adjustments to get the best sound. For the money spent, you will have a difficult time finding a better sounding loudspeaker, especially in the low end. My brother has the older Tower II's and the criticism of that design is the tweeter is too high and the sound goes over your head in a seated position. Brian changed the configuration on the FF-1. The speakers my brother owns were bought from a woman whose husband passed away (also a friend of mine) and he powered the Tower II's with Meitner M-101(100wats/ch) monoblock amps to very loud levels without any problem, so the speakers Cheney designs are VERY efficient. By the way, VMPS reproduces classicl music wonderfully with great top to bottom dynamics and all frequencies reproduced. The only drawback is the size. Like the Dunlavy's (Have you considered Dunlavy's 5's? Also a great speaker for the money)VMPS really are eye sores. I hope my two cents helps.
VMPS line of speakers
Can anyone give me feedback on the VMPS FF-1 SRE; I believe these are the new 52” ribbon models or for that matter the VMPS line in general.
My system consists of a Melos tube CD player, Melos tube MA-333 preamplifier and Melos Triode mono block tube amps 90watts; I also have an Audire Forte I have used for driving subs 200w/ch.
Just to give an idea of where I am coming from………..I listen to Classical (large orchestral) and Rock/pop primarily with some jazz…lots of listening to local symphonies and choral groups live over the years.
My listening room is 27’ by 24’ with a 10’ ceiling.
As far as my taste in speakers goes, I value soundstage (width, depth and image placement), the ability of a system when large orchestral crescendos play to maintain cohesiveness and sound clean, fast deep base response with ability to move large amounts of air and to a degree, reasonable ease of placement (wife factor). My previous speakers were large line source ribbons…with separate subwoofers that did this well.
My system consists of a Melos tube CD player, Melos tube MA-333 preamplifier and Melos Triode mono block tube amps 90watts; I also have an Audire Forte I have used for driving subs 200w/ch.
Just to give an idea of where I am coming from………..I listen to Classical (large orchestral) and Rock/pop primarily with some jazz…lots of listening to local symphonies and choral groups live over the years.
My listening room is 27’ by 24’ with a 10’ ceiling.
As far as my taste in speakers goes, I value soundstage (width, depth and image placement), the ability of a system when large orchestral crescendos play to maintain cohesiveness and sound clean, fast deep base response with ability to move large amounts of air and to a degree, reasonable ease of placement (wife factor). My previous speakers were large line source ribbons…with separate subwoofers that did this well.