VMPS Home Theater

Audiophiles who have never experienced the excitement of near-subsonic bass, palpable rear-to-front motion, or the emotion generated from a well-reproduced music track, should consider a true high-end Audio/Video system such as VMPS Home Theater. 

Speaker systems designed from specifications supplied by the motion picture industry (such as THX) do poorly when reproducing music rather than dialogue and sound effects. Many salons even gone so far as to warn its customers not to expect good music reproduction from Audio/Visual speakers. We at VMPS view such statements with dismay. Why should anyone interested in sound reproduction buy two systems, one for music and one for home theater? And how many can afford such separate installations, or have the space to house them? 

The main reason virtually all speakers designed for home theater sound bad on music is the requirement for high output levels and extended bass. Traditionally, the audio industry has split into two camps: high-efficiency, high-output public address-type manufacturers whose main goal is delivering sound pressure into noisy environments like clubs and stadiums (plus some homes), and makers of low-efficiency "reference monitors" with restricted output and double-digit distortion at levels over 100dB/1m SPL. Faced with the unique challenge of the Home Theater specification, the quality High End manufacturers have produced raucous, unbalanced, thuddy speakers bearing the cachet "Home Theater Certified", often paying hefty royalties and licensing fees to do so. Many hi-fi shows are revealing the extent of the problem. We visited the Home Theater demonstrations of the biggest names in Hi-Fi only to be blasted by trebly, harsh-sounding dialogue, screeching sound effects, poor fidelity on music tracks, and boomy bass of the one-note, one-thud variety sufficient to scandalize any brand of good reputation. And the cost? Invariably these systems ran very high (bolstered by the aforementioned licensing fees), excluding the video monitor/projector and amplification; quite an investment for what was basically bad sound.

We have designed VMPS Home Theater around different objectives. All components in the system are full-range, high output, high fidelity speaker systems. All have dynamics more than equal to demanding soundtracks. All maintain low distortion at sound pressures above 110 dB / 1 m SPL. Main speakers and subwoofers all produce undistorted bass well into the first octave, equal to the bass levels demanded by special effects movies. The entire system including dialogue speakers is smooth and well balanced. Music tracks play with full fidelity and imaging worthy of high-end audio. Voices are natural, sound effects impactful without harshness. It is possible to switch from A/V to audio-only on this system and hear no falloff in reproduction quality or listening pleasure.

Large Ribbon Center FST

For the main speakers in the system you can select our 626R bookshelf system, or floor-standing speakers such as our Ribbon Monitors 2 Neo or any larger system right up to and including the enormous Special Ribbon Edition Super Tower III. Any of our Subwoofers features response flat into the 20's; our Larger Subwoofer, in its elegant round-corner lowboy cabinet, churns out 17 Hz at levels 10 to 15dB higher than those of which the typical expensive powered subwoofer is capable (due to builtin limiters, no powered sub we know of will play louder than about 100 to 104dB!). In our recommended configuration, the woofer stands at the rear of the room, either along the far wall or in a corner, and is wired so when the main woofer cones move out, the Subwoofer cone moves in, allowing bass to roll through the room likes waves on a beach. The result: ultra-clean lows tapping the soles of your shoes! Of course it is also possible to place the Subwoofer in the front of the room, near the mains and in phase with them. This is the standard SMPTE 5.1 setup; however, we feel our arrangement more dramatic and ultimately more satisfying. 

For the all-important rear and surround channels, which in Dolby Digital carry a full-range signal, we have developed the VMPS Ribbon Dipole Surround.

Ribbon Dipole Surround

VMPS Home Theater is compatible with DTS, Dolby Digital, Sony and Pro Logic encoding systems; if you have a separate processor, or an A/V receiver which allows you to choose mode, we recommend settings which process the signal the least. 

For a complete A/V system, start with the best main speakers you can afford. Add the center channel, then the Subwoofer, and finally the surrounds.