check it out yourself

none i guess...lol

It took me a while to decide a VMPS tower 2 SE or SF Amati,JM Lab Utopia or Proac response 4.After a friend brought me to audit his VMPS Tower2 SE,my mind is already made up.This is the speaker I've always wanted.I was lucky to audit his simple yet very good systemHis whole system only cost him like 15K.All items are preowned but the cd player.Sound like he brought the whole band group home.I was shock like some one really singing in front of me.Highs was really silky,liquid airy n rounded....grainless Mid very textured yet open and a little sweet very warm but not boxy talk about the bass WOW ...I swearI've never heard such tone which keep changing this is what i call real deep tight bass.Focus real tight separation and layering excellent.By the way,is this speaker recommended?If not,I think all these reviewers must be deaf or corrupted.I got much more than I bargain for.I agreed with that guy who said this speaker can easily beat speakers below 50k

Bass, soundstaging

Power hungry, size, midrange and treble response

One of the previous reviewers captured the essense of these speakers: 1. They have excellent bass response when properly adjusted. However, properly adjusting them can be a daunting task. 2. They image extremely well. It baffles me to see such good imaging from so wide a baffle. 3. There midrange and treble response is average. The mids are smooth but there is a definite "recessive" nature about them. The trebles are way too sharp, necessiating the liberal toning down of the level controls. However, in all fairness the latest versions of these speakers offer ribbon mids which may address this defect. 4. They need lots of power. They are less efficient than my 86db/w Tannoy speakers. 5. They are monstrous. A sight for sore eyes indeed. All said and done, better sound can be achieved for $2000 than these speakers, not to speak of better looks and a higher spousal acceptance factor. The VMPS are a sure way to get divorced.

Similar Products Used:

Tannoy, Wharfedale diamonds, M&K subs

Only 25w to drive it to full potential,slot loaded

Big size

Believe it or not,I Sold my MBL 101D for this speaker.The best speaker I ever heard after 20 years spending load of cash on brand.VMPS have every right to sell this speaker up to 20K.Listen to believe the deep tight bass,textured mid from the magnetic ribbon drivers so is the silky,liduid highs.

great speakers,can't find any fault

Speakers too huge but doesn't need room to support

This is the bes speaker i ever heard so far.I've own lots of hi-end speakers like Apogee Duetta Signature,Diva,wilson wattpuppy 5,B&W silver signature 30, 801 Series 3 Martin logon Quest etc.None can come close to the deep tight bass,midrange texture,layering,tranperancy,silky hi warm mid best of all is you only require 25w to drive this speaker.I personally any speakers less than 50K will not be able to beat VMPS SUPER TOWER 2 SE

Similar Products Used:

Sonneeter int. amp & cd player

Stunning bass, huge soundstage, transparency, dynamics, price, SPL of 126db!

Few: plain appearance, possible +/- 2db infomation flux at x-over from mid/woofer, possible soundstage exaggeration[?]

In all fairness, this is the super tower/r the sucessor to the st II. There was no category so I put it here:
Specs: Subwoofer: mass-loaded 15" PR, slot-loaded, user-adjustable damping
Lowbass woofer: 15" polypropylene cone, high-compliance, phase-plugged
Midbass woofer: 10" woven carbon fiber cone, phase-plugged
Midrange: (2) planar magnetic Dynaribbons, isolated – adjustable w/in .5 db via pot.
Tweeters: dual 1" Focal metal oxide inverted hard domes adjustable w/in .5db via pot.
Supertweeter: spiral ribbon, 15 kHz crossover, with antidiffraction mask
Crossovers (dynamic version): 6 dB/oct at 450Hz, 6 kHz, 15 kHz, in-phase, 100%
polypropylene/Axon/Kimber/Wondercaps
Internal wiring: 10 gauge Powerline II plus for bass, multigauge Teflon-insulated
silverplate stranded (mids and tweeters)
Impedance: 4 Ohms nominal, 3.6 Ohms minimum
Power Requirements: 25W to 350W rms into 4 Ohms
Dimensions and Weight: 52"x18.5"x 19" (HxWxD), 220 lbs.
Cabinet: genuine oak veneer, light or dark oak finish, or satin black, removable black
cloth grill: high gloss piano black finish on special order
Sensitivity: 90 dB/1W/1m
Distortion: no more than 0.5 % THD 20Hz to 30kHz with 1W drive
Biamp or fullrange operation switchable with no external crossover required (dynamic
version), biwiring or single wiring switchable, OR biamping with external electronic
crossover (two amplifiers required)
Limited Warranty: all VMPS speakers are warranted to be free of manufacturing defects for a period of five years from date of purchase. Repairs will be performed without charge for parts or labor provided defective drivers are returned freight prepaid to authorized warranty station. Units which have been damaged or subject to abuse (i.e. burned-out voicecoils) are excluded from warranty protection. Trade up’s at retail value for other VMPS products within 12 months.
**Disclaimer: This review is from a laymans perspective. Blue-collar income, white collar tastes. I was in the market for a loudspeaker system that had potent bass impact like the kind I heard growing up with the likes of Klipsch Cornwalls, K-horns and [ugh] Cerwin-Vega. I was after that sense of high spl, huge, but controlled bass, and clean mids. I was looking to do this without resorting to horns. I am not overly qualified to point out loudspeaker weaknesses unless they are glaring like fuzzy bass, forward and harsh midrange or treble. For subtle problems, I need more time to pick them out. These speakers [like all others] are not perfect. I don’t want anyone to think this is “A perfect review” but rather personal emotional joy at experiencing MUSIC.
Models I looked at: NHT 3.3, Vandersteen 4, Legacy Audio Focus. Of the group so far the NHT’s had the most prodigious bass, the Legacy had the biggest sound and the most drivers. The NHT’s didn’t sound as big/nuetral on top, the Vandys, were sweet, but not producing that “rib-bruising” bass. The Legacy, after 3 different auditions sounded too uncontrolled in the bass region, and in truth: were more money than I wanted to part with. I wanted about a $4,000 cap.
I read about the VMPS large sub first, which is the basis for the VMPS Super Tower/R. I read the raves about it’s tight and powerful bass, with a 115db output at 20hz, with nominal distortion. HMM, I thought- is this for real? What---a passive sub that outdoes servos?

I did a showroom demo at Brian Cheney’s [Big B’s] on 3429 Morningside Dr, El Sobrante, Ca. (This is very close to San Francisco). He has about a 31’ long LEDE room that is larger, and better damped than most peoples real-world listening room. He has a Krell cd player for the demo, a 250 watt [$9 kilobuck] Plinius power amp connected to a Jadis tube preamp. I thought, well, even though I don’t have a $9,000 amp, this will give me an idea of how they should sound in a closer to Ideal setup that I have. I made sure I brought a decent selection of music that would cover instruments, voices etc. Big B has a decent collection of cd’s for demo anyway.
Let’s start at the bottom and work our way up. These are refridgerators! Weighing in at 220lbs each they are furniture! There is some *serious * timber used to construct these. The cabinets are solid, and dead thanks to the inherent density of the wood and bracing, along with a borosilicate speaker coating that is said to dampen cabinet resonances –10 to –15db. These babies didn’t rattle anyway…not even a little.
We don’ need no steenking servos! Looking at these, Stonehenge, or the monolith from 2001: a space odessy comes to mind. BIG, Black, and imposing. No sir, no narrow columnar monitors here! The bass section’s active compliment is a 10” woven-carbon fiber mega woofer [midbass coupler], a 15” polypropelene sub and if that isn’t enough sheer displacement: a 15” slot loaded mass-adjustable passive radiator! These already looked like they could pump the air out of a small room in a hurry! This is essentially a passive subwoofer, and you need good current to get the most out of them. Since servo-subs use their oft class- G and H amps and accelerometers to correct errors AFTER the fact, this gives you opportunity to get full on bass…no servos attached. 20hz? VERY loud and clear. 16hz? You bet! Lower than that? Maybe….
Judging from the variety of acoustic bass, synth bass, world music gong-drums and classical instruments, these not only produced the bottom octave, the did so with incredible authority. “Full orchestral slam” has been used to describe lesser bass. This system in it’s entirety can pump out a lease-breaking 126db!!! Weather it was a soft pluck of a string bass or a hard pick of electric, I listened to how the bass stayed totally controlled, while sounding effortless. The power and size was appearent without exaggerating the source. Drums sounded like drums here, not softened or diffused. The crack of a snare, or the kick of a bass drum was a palpable experience. Nothing laid back here. Never did this system seem strained. I can’t wait to hear “The matrix” “T2”and such on DVD.
The dynaribbons, are a push-pull driver that is manufactured in Japan. It looks like a circuit board in blister-pack plastic wrap. But it sure does not sound that way at all. Vocals were incredibly huge and glorious. The speed was there, and no chestiness was appearent. The image was rock stable- never floating or fading. Saxophones sounded lush and realistic, not woody, steely or honky. Timbre and harmonic reproductions were immediate and very realistic. There is a potentiometer to make adjustments to the mid level in .5db increments to customize output.
The tweeter compliment consists of two focal titanium-oxide [tioxid] inverted dome tweeters topped with a spiral ribbon tweeter- the same unit used in top-end Genesis and Infinity kappa speakers. There is a potentiometer to make adjustments to the tweeter level in .5db increments to customize output. This combination of mid-tweet-supertweet-tweet-mid was a nice line source. The dispersion was very wide! The instruments had a clean presence and clear separation. What can you really say: instruments sounded very natural, with a load of energy from such a large array of drivers. Pianissimo to Forte’ dynamics were just stunning! The soundstage pretty much recreates the “ball of sound” you get sitting in front of an orchestra. The drivers all integrated very seamlessly. Transparency was the order of the day: these monolithic juggernauts disappeared on good recordings.

Summing up: Likes: I love the bass, I can’t praise it enough! Sounds like a whole lot of high quality subs! The midrange is fast, smooth and natural, the treble is crystal clear and detailed. I like the fact you can trade-up at VMPS within one year of purchase if you want the next model. I like the massive dynamic kick in the abs you get from these monsters. Don’t like: The weight…but I can live with it. I can wrestle around 220 lbs. The design is basic. This is not a 3rd-party artsy design, it is a straightforward, if plain loudspeaker that is very well constructed. It is average-looking, but the woodgrains it comes in are a nice touch of class. If you want design for the sake of it, buy Revel Salons, Legacy audio Manhattens or the like. As of this review, I am not sure what weaknesses are present, other than a possible -2db loss at the ribbon/midbass crossover region. This seems to be well masked, and it is not very audible on most material. Judging from what I heard in the competition, and others, these are true high end, and don’t sacrifice nuance for spl or neutrality. Do they exaggerate the size of the image? Maybe slightly but room acoustics and electronics vary. Please- do yourself a favor and audition them before buying anything in the $3,000 and up category.

Similar Products Used:

Legacy Audio Focus, NHT 3.3, Vandersteen 4, Snell, Dunlavy, Duntech and Quadriture

Great dynamics and bass, very good sound-staging, great value

They are not as good as speakers costing 5-10 times what they cost and they're pretty large so won't fit into every setting.

I purchased these speakers in kit form ten years ago, after reading reviews by Anthony Cordesman in Audio and Tom Norton in Stereophile and getting to hear them at the Itone showroom in El Sobrante, CA, near where I live. Right away upon hearing them I knew they were high-end speakers. It was a great pleasure putting them together. Did anyone else every assemble Heathkits? The instructions were pretty good although I did call Brian Cheney, designer a couple of times to clarify one or two points. He was very helpful. I later had him upgrade the mid-range drivers and he was very helpful in the areas of setting up the speakers in my home. I've never had any problems with them.

My tastes in music are all over the map - at this point I listen to classical and jazz the most, with a healthy dose of world music (mainly acoustic like music from the Andes). I also listen to rock from the 60's and 70's and contemporary rock with my teenage daughters. I prefer what used to be called American (versus British) sound - full range, realistic reproduction of the dynamics of a performance. A good soundstage is important. Imaging, while nice, is not as important to me. These speakers fulfill my listening preferences very well. They have great bass - I've measured real output to 20 Hz with my Radio Shack meter using one of the Stereophile test CDs.
I am constantly struck at how controlled the bass is too. These are not boom boxes. In fact, sometimes I wonder if something is wrong because if there is nothing to reproduce in the low bass, they do not sound heavy or clutter up the mid-bass or midrange. The midrange and highs are on the sweet side, but I never sense that something is missing or rolled off. Soundstaging is very good. I have heard other speakers (most recently the Sonus Faber Concerto, Hales and Dunlavy V's) image better (a lot better to be honest), it is true, but the first two can't touch these speakers in the things that I consider important and the Dunlavy's are great speakers and should sound better at something like $15,000, whereas the Tower II SE's are listed at $1,876 in the last Audio Equipment Directory. I don't think anything can touch them at their price.

I've attended a number of the Stereophile sponsored hi-end shows and when I've returned home and turned on my system, I've never felt dissappointed.

Recently, I moved up to the Super Tower SE's, the bigger brothers of these speakers. A friend sold me his pair because he was moving. There is a strong family resemblance. I think the Tower II SE's are a better value.

So if your listening tastes are similar to mine, I strongly recommend that you investigate these speakers. They have a webpage (stereophile.com has a link to it). There are dealers around the country.

bass response, soundstaging

evrything else

I borrowed these speakers from a friend two weeks ago to demo them. I wanted to buy them from him if they worked well.

While the bass response is excellent, and the soundstaging is good, the rest of the speaker is mediocre. Shows that exotic materials, e.g., Carbon fiber and fiberglass (tweeter) do not necessarily make good sound.

I agree with the previous reviewer that while the bass response is close to the best I have ever heard, the rest of the sound, especially in the midrange, is far less refined. In fact there seems to be a strong suckout effect in that some midrange frequencies are totally non-existent. Furthermore, adjusting the level controls only makes matters worse. Boosting midrange levels overly exaggerates some frequencies and in fact makes the suckout more apparent.

The trebles are a touch exxagerated too, but can be adjusted using the treble level controls. The bass damping is a painful procedure and is very difficult to get right.

Another point of concern: these speakers are power hungry. You need at least 300-350 watts into 4 ohms to drive them respectably. If you dont have such an amp, add that to the cost of the speakers. My friend's power amp (which I also borrowed) puts out 165wpc into 8 ohms and over 220wpc into 4 ohms. NOT ENOUGH.

However, if you value bass response more than overall timbre of sound, and if you have a powerful amplifer, these speakers are an excellent value. If not, look elsewhere.

Similar Products Used:

theil, RA labs

Excellent all around speaker. These have no weaknesses except for there preference for a reasonably sized room, 300sqft or larger. With the imput of a upgraded system these speakers provide unmatched sound quality and performance especially for the $$$.
VMPS allows the purchaser to assemble the speaker at home at considerable cost savings which enables the enthusiast the opportunity to have a state of the art speaker for a significantly lower price than the competition.
These match up well to the likes of Thiel and Martin Logan. Outclassing Vanderstein and the like.
If you like crisp, accurate yet capable of any Rock these are highly recommended.
I will never buy another speaker set, just may need to continue to improve the imput.

These are large speakers which require proper placement and a well designed room to maximize there potential. Not made for the average apartment. Rest assured that you will aggitate the complex let alone the neighbor.

If you can find them I suggest you buy them. There are few dealers and you may need to special order.
They will be well worth the wait and the effort.

Similar Products Used:

TDL, Theil, Vandersteen and Snell of similar quality.

Great Bass, Outstanding soundstage, good overall sound quality at a reasonable price.

Size, There are the Super tower II SE with the carbon fiber mids and bass, Kevlar tweeter and ribbon super tweeter.

I have had these since 1992 and really love them. At one time I had them set up in a differnt house in a large room. This was nice for great sound but I really could't get into a sweet spot. About 5 years ago I moved and set them up in a dining room(as my listening room) which has a bay window area. I have this room tunes with corner tunes etc. I have the speakers almost half way in the room and I have it set up for one chair in the sweet spot. I am running a Threshold Fet 9e and Threshold S 350-amplifier. I also have the speakers be-wired with Straight wire virtuoso with the platinum on the bottom and gold on the top. All of the interconnects are Virtuoso platinum.
I am very pleased with the sound I am getting and would not trade these components for anything. Even the wilson watts which I have brought home since.
You can't beat these speakers for the money and nothing is close.

Similar Products Used:

I upgraded from the Tower II SE for these. I listened to numerous speakers costing upward of 8,000 since buying these and cannot part with them.

After 2.5 years of listening to my VMPS Tower II Special Editions I am still very impressed. They replaced Vandersteen 2C's. The low end is very accurate and powerful, mids are very good and clean as are the highs. For the money I don't know of anything else competitive. A friend has KEF 107/2's which are 3 times the price and certainly have thier strong points but I certainly would not trade. Also I have two friends with Vandersteen 2C's and they agree that the Vmps is definitely a step above. These speakers play loud and clean unlike anything I have heard. Also the dynamics are amazing. Anyone who is looking for speakers in this price range would be glad they searched these out for a listen. BTW there were reviews in Stereophile and Audio on the VMPS tower II, the model below the Special Edition, both favorable a few years ago.