Nothing
else since 1977
 VMPS (Veritone Minimum Phase Speakers) delivered its first production run to dealers in January 1977. Since
it started out, hundreds of competitors have come and gone.
VMPS survived 35 years because it not only provided a good product at a good price, but give the audiophile something rare in today's marketplace: fullrange, floorstanding speaker systems with first-octave bass response, wide dynamic range, high sensitivity, and a neutral tonal balance suited to any kind of music (or home theater, for that matter) at prices that are a fraction those of other name brands.
It was Bert Whyte, late Senior Editor of Audio Magazine, whose April 1980 review ("Towers of Power") of the
198cm, 113kg VMPS Super Tower IIa/R put VMPS on the map, validating a unique design philosophy which emphasized full spectrum reproduction at intentionally, often spectacularly low prices. The STIIa/R, with its 16 active drivers including four of the most expensive tweeter extant, the Focal T120 harddome, retailed back then for a very affordable $3,876/pr.
VMPS aspired to the highest levels of transducer technology, sound quality, ruggedness, and cabinetry and are undaunted when it comes to spending the money necessary to achieve those high levels.
Speakers were not priced to mislead the consumer, who naturally assumes price and quality are related. No automobile selling at Ferrari prices would dare offer VW performance, but that is precisely what is happening in many instances with audiophile speaker systems.
Brian Cheney found such pricing practices a shame and a scandal, the cause of endless confusion and grief for music lovers who want the best but do not have six figures to invest in sound equipment.
 The VMPS program
included Subwoofers, all passive (i.e. no builtin amplifier), all quite substantial size and
weight (the
"Dedicated" Sub is the baby at
38kg), all requiring no equalization to pump out bass in the teens and twenties, and all easy to add to any system via the existing main amplifier and our optional Passive Crossovers, or via the biamp route with an outboard Electronic or Passive Crossover and a separate drive amplifier. Typically,
the distortion of VMPS Subs is an order of magnitude lower than the competition.
VMPS invented the slot-loaded passive radiator in 1979. It
remained a feature in all VMPS Subs and Towers, a push-pull, high efficiency means of generating first octave bass with high input sensitivity.
VMPS was proud of its great reputation for solid, clean, extended bass in nearly every speaker
it made. However, there is more to good speakers than just bass, although bass is the foundation of all music and a third of the keyboard lies in the bass range.
Year 1998 saw two new drivers arrive from VMPS that have never existed heretofore. The
190cm tall push- pull, transformerless, unobstructed, high impedance (6 Ohms), high output 100Hz ribbon panels in the acclaimed
Special Ribbon Edition Super Tower III (see Anthony Cordesman's review in Audio Magazine Aug 98; the reviewer also purchased the system for his home) are nothing short of a new "Absolute State of the Art" (Audio). Matched up with the unique synthetic granite, quadruple
30cm woofer towers and 15cm free- swinging ribbon supertweeter, the SRE/ST3 is the best speaker you can buy at any price. This is no mere repackaging of a few hundred dollars worth of cones and domes costing megabucks: our system includes the speakers, outboard electronic crossover and massive associated power supply (one million
microfarads!). In Nov 1998 we began delivery of the exclusive floorstanding Ribbon Monitor series
which feature no less than the Holy Grail of highend audio: the first practical short (7" ), push-pull, high impedance, unobstructed, high power transformerless 500 Hz ribbon midrange, the
X7! Ingenious design shrinks the huge SRE panels to a size and cost suitable for high quality
25cm and 30cm threeways. Spiral ribbon supertweeters handled the 5 kHz to 30 kHz range; woven carbon fiber woofers and slot-loaded passive radiators supply bass well into the first octave (32 Hz at -3dB for the RM 1,
20Hz at -3 dB for the RM2.)
VMPS never made any changes to our speakers for the "refreshing" reasons, but at the beginning of year 2001, X7 ribbon midrange became "obsolete", and therefore replaced by even better sounding
20cm Neo panel with neodymium magnets and incredible 166Hz-10kHz bandwith. RM models thus evoluted to respective Neo versions.
RM2 includes 12" WCF Megawoofer and Soundcoat as standard. Latest development in RM series,
after award wining RM40
and exquisite RM/X -
is RM30. RM40
won the "Best of Show" prize in
"High-End Audio" category at 2002. winter
CES.
Check out our latest designs
which marked our 30th anniversary, RM V60 and
new subwoofers - Very
Solid Sub &
Very Large Array.
 From
2009 VMPS exhibited through very demanding and
quite unique Live vs. Recorded sessions where
musicians performed and being recorded in front
of showgoing audiences. These recordings were
played immediately afterwards to these same
audiences with great success. Pinnacle of these
events were those with VMPS latest creation - RM50. VMPS is permanently
closed from 17th Nov. 2012 after 35 years of existance and fruitful work.
VMPS
loudspeakers were manufactured at Itone
Audio/VMPS, El
Sobrante, California, USA, from 1977 to 2012. Founder of VMPS
Mr. Brian Cheney passed away at 7th Dec.
2012.
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