davidc

Yes, I was actually going to start up this question again, as I've purchased two VMPS "Original Subwoofers", which are 12" drivers with 15" passive radiators. I was researching were to place them, and exactly how I should run them as part of the home theater, and as part of the two channel music reproduction with the same system. I 've been watching some video's of this with Audioholics.

True...I guess I meant to "repost" it .

You might want to move your post to another one of the more applicable sections of the forum.

Yes, these were the original top of the line from him. Updated to the similar Super Tower III. People look at these and are shocked at the quality sound they produced. Most of the editors at Stereophile and The Absolute Sound thought that they were some of the best sounding speakers they had ever heard. As time went on, Brian incorporated true ribbons for the midrange on up. But he never gave up on making sure his speakers had the best base. On our forum, allflehisequalwhenburnt has these. (sorry, not sure how to make it a link) and I have the next model down...the Super Tower)

I came into the thread pretty late, so I'm not sure if you found your speakers yet. If not, not sure what size may be two big, or what your budget is.

Oh Boy...this may be what you are looking for. VMPS was a speaker company run by Brian Cheney. My two favorite heroes' in the audio field were Bob Carver and Cheney. I sort of thought of them similar as upstarts with new ideas that nobody thought could work, and then they proved them wrong. Just like Bob proved he could make any amp sound like Conrad Johnson's that cost tens of thousands....Brian could make a speaker that had high efficiency, low distortion, bass response down to 20Hz (-3db), could play with low distortion over 118db (some models), And yet sounded good enough to win multiple CES Best in Show Awards for sound quality. Like Bob Carver did his TFM were he could make his amp sound like any other...Brian used to run a demo at the CES called "live or Recorded", were his goal was to try to get people to guess which blindfolded. (Admitidly, that was pretty tough, lol, but, that's what won him Best in Show)

Have you heard of VMPS?

Actually, for a good audio cable it's actually pretty negligible. For a 3-ft long cable, of good quality, you would expect less than 50 pF. However, I don't really know what the recommended loading is for today's phono cartridges, especially moving coil. Back in the day, people rarely used moving coils simply because of their extremely high cost, very delicate nature and the fact that we had plenty of moving magnet cartridges that were outstanding. The selection of cartridges today is dramatically smaller. RIP Shure V15 Type V MR I have two of the above with the stylus in excellent condition, but my guess is the rubber compliance parts after 30-40 years are probably not in good condition.

From Denon's User guide: Load Impedance 100 ohms min. (40 ohms when using a transformer) On my 1980 Pioneer SA-9800 integrated amp, there are also settings for capacitance. Do you have to worry about that? The settings available for moving magnets are: 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 pF 100, 10k, 25k, 50k, 100k Ohms

Ok, so I know this is a year old, but I felt I could contribute a little since I have speakers that are like the OP describes. First, I don't quite agree with DaddyJT about phase. It's easy to check phase, and it makes a difference, so when you hook up a sub, you should routinely make sure phase is correct. One of the easiest ways, if the input of your sub allows, is just connect a 9V battery to the terminals and watch the driver to see if it moves in or out. Do the same with your main speakers, and just make sure both move either in or out the same. I don't believe a whole heck of a lot about absolute phase, but you can make sure that is correct also. Meaning connect the + terminal of the battery to the + terminal of the speaker and make sure the speaker moves out, not in. The designer of my speakers, Brian Cheney, thought it was very important. But then again, this guy could tune his own crossovers by ear. As far as his ears go, he was a savant. I sort of think of Brian Cheney as the Bob Carver of speakers. Much maligned for his views, but always proved the other "golden ears" wrong. His VMPS line of speakers won Best High End audio at the CES about 3-4 times. That should tell you something. Brian and Bob are my audiophile gurus. So, regarding speakers with multiple bass drivers...it is possible, but expensive and difficult, to design a speaker system have what you want in bass. What you want, which is sort of the holy grail, is: A very low cutoff (think -3dB down at 20Hz) Able to play that low at a loud enough level (think at least 105dB at 20Hz) Able to play that loud at a low distortion level (think less than 0.5% at 1watt at 1 meter) High efficiency (think above 93dB/1watt @ 1 meter) Now, getting some of these things in a single speaker is easy, getting them all is very difficult. Just because you have multiple bass drivers does not mean you can get all these things. So, it's hard to give an answer to your question because it depends what speakers you have. VMPS used to make floor standing speakers that satisfied all these requirements, but they have been out of production since 2012 when Brian Cheney passed away. You can still get them on the used market though...usually for pretty good deals. Interestingly, allflehisequalwhenburnt above has the biggest VMPS speakers, as well as the second biggest, as well as several subwoofers as he stated. All powered by Carver amps and my guess is he has probably at least 3000watts RMS. I think he's finally satisfied! LOL. I heard his system the other day and it's probably one of the cleanest systems I've heard, yet the bass is phenomenal. But, I think the average guy doesn't need that much...lol. But Ray loves it and it sounds great. If you have no compromise speakers like this, I don't feel you need a subwoofer. But, everybody has different tastes as well. If you like to play your music loud, you have to have lots of bass drivers if you want extended and low distortion bass. Here's a picture of Ray's Super Tower II and my Super Towers. The main improvement since we bought them is mids and highs are now reproduced by ribbon drivers. The cost of these speakers was reasonable as well. Brian Cheney also made that a requirement of his stuff. But...as the years went on, he improved his speakers and made absolutely beautiful cabinets and the cost went up...way up. Most people don't realize this, but nice beautiful cabinets usually cost more than the drivers to make. When you look at these you'll think...OMG how can that many drivers sound good? Well, remember, it's gotta be done right. He won best in show at the CES quite a few times, and was very favorable reviewed in all the magazines, even the esoteric ones, back in the day. Without bribes of free equipment...lol Here' s some VMPS paperwork for the "smaller" of the two https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ixvf72l261w5wwd/AACFEDE3y4G7P2_dIU4rhlf4a?preview=VMPS_Super_Tower_R_Brochure_B%26W.pdf Here's all their old brochures before the cost went up secondary to the ribbon drivers and cabinets https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=113199.0 And here are some pics of the smaller Super Tower and Brian standing next to the Super Tower II's. (I think it's Brian)

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