Nothing else since 1977
VMPS (Veritone Minimum Phase Speakers) delivered its first production run to dealers in January 1977 and we are now into our 34th uninterrupted year. Since we started out, hundreds of competitors have come and gone. We have survived because we not only provide 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 us 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.

We aspire 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. We do not price our products 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 today's audiophile speaker systems. We find 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 includes 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 our Subs is an order of magnitude lower than the competition. We invented the slot-loaded passive radiator in 1979. It remains a feature in all our Subs and Towers, a push-pull, high efficiency means of generating first octave bass with high input sensitivity. Look at the competition, particularly the "powered" subwoofers, and see why we point with pride to our products. The amplifiers in virtually all "powered" woofers are dreadful Class B or (even worse) Class D designs which no self-respecting audiophile would tolerate anywhere else in his system. Indeed, the high power Class D amps in some very expensive subwoofers, which we have examined and tested at length, are the worst measuring, worst performing (unable to reproduce even a good sine wave), worst sounding amplifiers we have encountered in the past 30 years. Cheap, bad amps combined with equalization (which robs the sub of dynamic range), limiters (100dB to 104dB max SPL), and high moving mass (up to two pounds in some subs) make most modern powered subwoofers little more than a joke, suitable only for reproducing sound effects.

VMPS is proud of its great reputation for solid, clean, extended bass in nearly every speaker we make. 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. In recent years VMPS has introduced three novel midrange designs which are finding their way into our entire product line. 

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.)

We 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.

In summary, this is our message: you don't have to listen to cones anymore! VMPS ribbon or push-pull planar dynamic mids and tweeters far outperform the best cones, domes, or single-ended planars, and you should never shell out premium prices for such again.

VMPS loudspeakers are manufactured at Itone Audio / VMPS, 3429 Morningside drive, El Sobrante, California, USA, since 1977.