Ribbon Monitor V60

Ribbon Monitor V60 (shown in MLS rosewood)

"I talked to over ten attendees about the VMPS room. All were very impressed with not one bad comment. Looks like Brian Cheney has another winner." - Positive Feedback

The new VMPS RM V60 floorstanding speaker is a unique amalgam of new technologies and design philosophies that provides a higher performance level for home sound reproduction than previously achievable, even from price-no-object systems.

Immediately apparent and most striking to anyone encountering the V60 for the first time, is its sculpture-like appearance, a 68” (173 cm) tall, open-baffle swept wing with an array of mid and treble planar panels standing on an integral triangular base housing its three 6.5” (16,5 cm) midbass woofers. Our show speakers are finished in Piano Rosewood high-gloss veneer for a look most viewers describe as “stunning”. Indeed if this system never played a note some audiophiles might want them as artwork worthy of the most stately mansion. With its slotted waveguide in place there is little to indicate this is a speaker system.

Speaking of our patent-pending waveguide, the mid/treble ribbon array is diffraction-slot loaded towards the front for 180 degree dispersion full-range, making the V60 a sit-and-enjoy anywhere reproducer.

Two distinct sounds are available: very broad dispersion with extraordinarily smooth mids and trebles (waveguide on), and a narrower, more concentrated soundfield with a very forward and tactile soundstage (waveguide off). Owners are encouraged to try it both ways and see which presentation suits them.

While the three woofers reside in a sealed enclosed (with a cutout nesting the easily-bypassed outboard passive crossover box, standard), the midrange rear wave fires into a reverse horn internally damped by a user-adjustable foam wedge, intended to kill reflections inside the horn from causing the horn-throat colorations collectively known as the Megaphone Effect. The wedge can be moved forward for quasi-sealed back operation, or rearwards away from the panels for partial or full dipole use depending on listening environment and personal preference. The rear wave path length is sufficiently long to eliminate cancellations from the Dipole Effect, a major source of nonlinearities in many open-baffle speakers. By folding its wings back the V60 achieves a front footprint of only 7” (17,5 cm) opening to a 22” (56 cm) rear.

Lowbass has been intentionally removed from the main column to cut down on surface-born modulation of the extremely low-mass (900 mg) planar mids exclusive to VMPS. Trebles are handled by the 20 mg moving-mass G3 ribbon tweeter. Sensitivity is high: 100 dB/1W/1m for the tweeter, 95 dB for the mids, and 94 dB for the woofers, allowing even small amplifiers to power the system to good levels. Output is very high (over 110 dB SPL at 3 m with a 100 W amplifier before clipping) and dynamics are explosive. The speaker fills the room with sound like few two-channel systems ever have, and is comfortable both in small or large listening rooms, close to side and back walls, or far away from them.

Accompanying the main columns is our new woofer, the Very Solid Sub (VSS) with a new high-acceleration 15” (38 cm) driver, 15” (38 cm) slot-loaded bottom passive radiator, and built-in 1000 W amp with electronic crossover and single-band parametric EQ which allows the user to notch out the floor-to-ceiling room mode (71 Hz with an 8ft ceiling). Indeed the system crossover is situated around 70 Hz to permit anyone with a good sub to eliminate this otherwise-intractable “room bloom” simply by moving the hinge frequency slightly lower.

Best of all, the V60 is affordably priced: the pair of wings/bases is $8900pr in standard rosewood, macassar ebony or piano black finishes, with capacitor and wiring upgrades available at extra charge. The VSS is $1650 per each. Users wanting to step up can do so to the new Very Large Array ($4950ea), a 6ft tall powered bass column with five 12” (30 cm) and one 15” (38 cm) woofer. Use one or two as desired. The VSS weights in at 160 lbs and is 30”W x 23”H x 18”D. The VLA is 72”H x 14 ½”W x 19”D and weighs 300 lbs.

Positive Feedback 2007