Speaker Asylum: REVIEW: B&W VM1 Speakers by KLee General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

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Model:	VM1
Category:	Speakers
Suggested Retail Price:	$180+
Description:	Stylish but true hi-fi monitors to be used in home theatre setup with matching AS1 subwoofer.
Manufacturer URL:	B&W
Model Picture:	View

Review by KLee ( A ) on November 15, 2002 at 05:10:50 IP Address: 212.2.5.58

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Overview

This is a (January 2002) review of the new B&W ‘Leisure Monitors’ – the VM1 speakers in 5.1 home theatre (h/t) configuration i.e. five identical VM1 monitors and one AS1 subwoofer. The package retails at a recommended retail price of £800. These speakers were released around the end of December 2001 and joins the already established sibling the LM1 monitors. Having worked and moved around a little between countries, and having had good hi-fi stereo kit I wanted to have some fun in 5 channel and get a whole new set-up to satisfy the following criteria:
· 2-channel high-fidelity stereo vocal performances that I could listen to hour after hour
· Scintillating home theatre performance – if I turn it up I want it to shout and sing instead of cough
· Ooze lifestyle designer looks for when one does gaze at it and when the sleek widescreen comes along and discreet enough so as not to swamp the entertainment area
· Around £1000 as a reference diminishing returns point that was within my acceptability – so the search for best in class was on

Aesthetic Descriptions

VM1 is 52 cms ~ 20 inches tall (1.5 times a ruler) and narrow at 12 cms ~ 5 inches (width of your palm) and unconventionally flat at 9 cms ~ 3.7 inches deep. The front view is very Bang&Olufsen – J this is the quickest way to visualise it. On the other hand it does look like an upright cricket bat without the handles – curved top and bottom edges. The grilles are fixed alloy being cool to the touch. The B&W silver logo is slightly recessed and will rotate to allow for centre channel horizontal speaker placement. The cabinet is the sturdiest of high-strength polypropylene and includes tactile elastometric trim – rubber-like wrap found on some laptops – very reassuring and oozing modernism class. A definite looker with the ladies, at 2.7kg ~ 6lbs each it feels nicely weighted.
http://www.bwspeakers.com/images/photoItem/VM1_Silver_spec.jpg

AS1 is 37 cms ~ 14.9 inches tall, 25 cms ~ 9.8 inches wide and 38 cms ~ 15.2 inches deep. Its all curves this sub – no sharp corners, its front Flowport ported and firing a 16.5 cm ~ 6.5 inch woofer with detachable grilles which is best left on for aesthetics. In dimensions and looks it’s stylishly slim width-wise not the usual squat boxy affair as with the other subs. It is almost like an upside-down Acoustimass. At 11 kgs ~ 24 lbs and 16.5 litres ~ 5.5 cubic ft its pretty well grounded. The controls are easily accessed being on the top in a cutout recessed square space – Input Level, Movie/Music toggle, On/Off switch. This sub does away with standby modes and doesn’t auto detect incoming signals – one less obstacle in the signal path really. There should be no issues leaving the sub on always. When switched on a relay clunks reassuringly into action.
http://www.bwspeakers.com/images/photoItem/AS1_angled.jpg

Have Listened To (5.1 configurations)

B&W VM1 (rrp £800)
KEF KHT2005 (rrp £800)
Ruark Vita 100 (rrp £1500)
Elac 301 (rrp £1299) I think aka Cinema 3
Bose AM10 (rrp £700) in Jan 2002 was £590 with tradein offer
Bose AM15 (rrp £1000) in Jan 2002 was £880 with tradein offer
Mission f2s (NXT panels)(rrp £800) but then dropped to £600 and now £400

Not heard yet…
Energy Take 5.2 (~£900) could have been revamped
Energy Encore (£1299) only briefly in London Hi-Fi Show
Acoustic Research HC6 not widely available in the UK

Review Equipment and Material

Marantz DV4100 OSE DVD player
Yelo 800DVD player
Pioneer DV-350 player (new in July 2002)
Marantz SR4200 receiver DD/DTS/DPLII/5CH-STEREO/2CH-DIRECT
Denon AVR-1602 receiver DD/DTS/DPLII/5CH-STEREO
Music – Nat King Cole, kdlang, Toni Braxton, Diana Krall, Annette Lowman, Naim Sampler2
DVD – Crouching Tiger (swordfight quadrangle), Swordfish (hostage wrapped with ball bearing explosives exploding), Mummy Returns II (raising the mummy in the museum), Gladiator opening battle scene especially those massive catapults vaulting the fireballs through the air and exploding, Amadeus (the music, the emotions), Pearl Harbour (those engines!), Fifth Element (the net shot out from the gun towards you)

Musical Review – 2 Channel Stereo

The dealer kindly left all units powered to warm them up. The first thing I always do in 5.1 tests is to just play it in straight 2CH stereo - no sub. First up - Toni Braxton’s Un-Break My Heart loaded up in 2CH mode, sinking back I was slightly dishearten as although the midrange came through stunningly the bottom end sounded a little shallow even boxy – it felt cut-off. The volume of the enclosures promised more than this though. I continued to listen to the whole track resigning to the fact that as with other stylish non-conventional compact enclosures the sub is going to be required. Then it dawned that I should check the receiver’s speaker settings – thank goodness I did as they were all set to ‘small’. Switching to ‘large’ crickey it was like night and day as Toni Braxton’s vocals sounded rich and full and those bass lines (limited to 75Hz of course) made themselves known! Oh boy was I excited once again. Let me re-assure you in 2CH stereo these £125 units are an absolute joy to behold with accurate full-bodied midrange, sweet treble, and brilliant off axis presentation resulting in a wide soundstage. I experimented with placements and found interestingly that it’s a matter of personal taste whether it was closer to the wall or well into the room. One wasn’t necessarily better than the other. In the end I personally leaned towards having them out into the room (for now!). The fronts were on the purpose built Danish made stands, which I got as well. So do move them around.

Housed in such slim enclosures, first impressions make you drool. Keep in mind the type of enclosures these are – compact lifestyles, very stylish monitors going against the norms. And lets not forget the target audience its been developed for – a difficult sector I believe as manufacturers struggle to create the speaker package to please all critical music lovers and their (in-house) interior-decorators! The vocal midranges of these VM1s are definitely in the echelons of hi-fi. The usual B&W hi-fi traditions are firmly present – no compromises in hi-fi stereo presentation and performance from these enclosures that ooze bags of style.

Always keep in mind the context in which comments are made. In these hi-fi pages mention performance and its always in relation to the outlay. Budgets are capped otherwise go for the B&W Matrix series for example. I believe, after having listened to various other h/t speaker packages involving styled monitors / satellites and a sub at their respective price points, the VM1 presents the best bang for the buck. ‘Bang’ which myself and I’m sure every self-researching audiophile knows and recognises as important and expect from conventional boxes. And so we strive to find the same ‘bang’ from these VM1s:
· vocal midrange accuracy,
· sweet treble,
· scale - widest musical picture,
· snap and attack - dynamics,
· reproduce sensible decent/tuneful low notes (nominally around 80Hz without the sub, the sub itself goes down to 30Hz so keep in mind the context again)

Of course at £125 simple physics will dictate that a full sized bookshelf like the Diamonds 8.x will comparatively be a better sonic performer. I agree but none of them are as good lookers as the VM1s are they?

The VM1s being such unconventional speakers will need bass reinforcement – do buy the sub. Unless you were planning to get say the £500 RELQ150 or the newly available MJ Acoustics entry sub (or I hear REL releasing a new sub-£500 sub), the AS1 fits the bill so well it’s a set-and-forget affair. So lets bring in the subwoofer to the equation. I switched the sub on for the rest of the 1½ hours auditioning – still in stereo. The sub was switched to Music mode and the Input Level set to 10 o’clock. With each music CD I fed, the combination sounded more and more complete – the sub integrated so well bringing depth and further scale. I loved every minute of it. I was having so much fun I ran out of CDs to listen! Every note I expected and know in my CDs came through. With this level of enjoyment I knew this is hi-fi guaranteed to please me especially for that asking price! This is a far superior product at this asking price and could have been priced in the next price bracket (say > £1300). This is the sound and vision I’ve been looking for in ‘leisure speakers’.

Nat King Cole’s voice is a staple test for me – hear his tuneful deep voice with distinct edge and distinct pronunciations come through. Of course only use good recordings of him – I used the gold DCC Compact Classics CD ‘Love Is The Thing’. Diana Krall’s ‘Frim Fram’ Sauce had me foot tapping along bringing a smile to my face. Her piano notes were a joy to listen to – you know how it is, some speakers just aren’t able to reproduce a real piano key being struck – you cringe because you know you couldn’t live with knowing this just isn’t the sound of piano notes. When you expect to hear piano keys come through and it does, boy you can’t help feeling all fuzzy and warm inside. These are the joys of hi-fi. This is certainly true of the VM1s.

KEF KHT2005 / Elac 301 / Vita 100 / Bose AM10 / AM15

A direct comparison with the KEF KHT2005 was possible in that same room. Performing A/B comparisons the KEFs are softer due to a lower db rating. Turning up the volume, I still found the KEFs didn’t have as grand a scale as the VM1s. Maybe I didn’t turn it up enough but Nat’s voice was certainly not as full in the lower registers. Whilst there was no difference in detail retrieval, the slight lack of musical scale swung me towards the VM1s. With the KEFs its like you know you are listening to smaller speakers. Be assured though that both reproduced the recordings faithfully. Its all very hi-fi.

I heard the KEFs and Elacs at another dealer with similar equipment and in A/B comparisons with Nat, voices on the Elacs was no doubt more ‘steely’ with all high frequencies more emphasized whilst the KEFs were much more natural. In that demo, in stereo music with sub, the KEFs midrange is more believable / natural than the Elacs. I was a little disappointed with that result, as I really wanted to like the Elacs. In movie mode as you’ll read later, the Elac creams the KEFs when grunt and action is asked for. But the Elacs are £500 more so you can re-jig your priorities. Detail retrieval for both was again very good – nothing missed. In fact perhaps I shouldn’t even mention the Elacs, as it isn’t in the same price bracket at all. The VM1s, KEFs, AM10 and AM15 are all below £1000.

The Bose AM10 and AM15 shares the same 5 speaker cubes but the latter has an active bass module. (I hear some of you cringe at reviewing Bose – but I’m not biased, they have a product offering so lets see what it can do.) If you close the bass module’s port, you’ll get very little of the musical picture. So the bass module must always be on. In stereo don’t crank the volume up on the AM10 as when this happens no matter what I played it sounded shouty. Bose has good imaging with things dead centre or steered well into either speaker. Whilst the MkII cubes (all current AM range is MkII) have bettered their midrange, its presentation is more akin to the Elacs. Nat sounded way too raspy for my absolute liking – especially at their original price points. Perhaps one could combat this with turning the top cube outwards etc. The idea is flexibility – but this begs the question if the speakers aren’t designed out of the box to produce sounds as recordings are supposed to sound, then what chance does the user have of tweaking unless he also has a reference to tweak to. At £700 the AM10 is pitted at the likes of the KEFs and the VM1s. Bose dropped the prices to £590 with trade-in of an older working audio system: read marketing move as without it I’d say they would definitely be out of competition. At £590 I’d have to say the AM10 started looking very competitive – as when I heard the AM15’s in movie mode, it was impressive (same cubes). Having lots of zing everywhere with thunderous bass. The AM10s wouldn’t thunder as much due to a passive sub but you can influence this with sub placement. In stereo, especially with vocals, both systems cannot compare to the VM1s even at lower volumes. At £590 if movie surround is higher on your agenda than music than you have till end of Jan to make your move. But let me just tell you now that with the AM10s you must ensure your a/v receiver is able to turn the LFE output ON for all 5 speakers as it is not a true 5.1 speaker system – only the AM15 is. All 5 cables from the a/v receiver are wired into the bass module where a crossover filters out the bass frequencies. This is the ‘summing’ Bose speaks of.

Ruarks’ Vita 100 is the most expensive compact h/t package in this group. It is also the only one here with a larger centre speaker consisting of dual cones. This in itself allows it to produce a relatively weightier centre stage with voices/punches/bullets in comparison with the other speaker packages. The sub is also well integrated with the satellites. In stereo, the Vitas are very good with vocal accuracy and do all things on the right side of hi-fi. Comparisons to the KEF in the same audition reveal one notable difference – the centre speaker. You can’t argue with a dual coned unit that is also pretty compact to boot. The KEF was also again a little softer, imaging and scale was the same, but the last word in midrange punch and vocal accuracy belonged to the Vitas. The drivers are slightly larger so let us not kid ourselves. Nothings for free and here you pay almost double for that extra. In quantitative terms you get the larger centre and a higher specified sub. In my books I don’t think the Vita is £700 that much better, perhaps £300 more – which by the way goes a long way to buying you more things. Another sub perhaps, I would recommend the MJ Acoustics Pro 50 or stretch to the REL Q150. Even get another pair of VM1s for centre-rear duties if your a/v receiver permits it. Get the picture? (If you still want the Vitas for its last word in midrange, fine, but please ensure you have the near-perfect room to host them – unless you just have £700 to burn.)

For £800 I’d put my money on the VM1s over the Vitas quicker than you can swap the banana plugs between speakers!

Musical Review – 5-Channel Stereo & Dolby ProLogic II

With the advent of 5-channel stereo I was surprised to find myself enjoying it all in the name of fun and adventure. If the rear speakers are behind you, you’ll be surprised how engrossed you get with each recording, as you will hear more of and into the music. With the rear speakers by your sides, lean back and you are instantly transformed to being right in the midst of the recording – the music appearing to hang above you as though there is a massive dome above you. Its almost like having on a set of headphones – that’s how personal your experience becomes. Move the rear speakers in front of you to flank the outsides of the front speakers (like a semi circle) and although imaging is a little confusing it makes up with a huge soundstage! Having fun is the name of the game with 5-channel stereo. Brilliant stuff.

In DPLII Music mode (DPL comes in movie and music modes), surprisingly the material is served up ‘al dante’ and digested pretty well, thank you. Dolby did some fine work here. The vast volumes of back catalogue Dolby Surround and Stereo material helping it to serve up palatable late night sessions. Like 5-channel stereo, these newer algorithms have lept forward tonnes and thoroughly enjoyable. Brilliant again. Try it.

I’m all for whatever makes you smile, though I did find after many moons playing around with the surrounds, that as good as Dolby has tweaked DPLII, in the end when you do switch to stereo, suddenly the music does snap into place and clarity is abundant. Go have some fun.

Home Theatre Review

Chapter 24 – the quadrangle sword fight scene in Crouching Tiger confirms the VM1s excellent tweeters serving up the twanging vibrating Green Jade. And when Michelle Yeoh’s stick comes crashing down on the table obliterating it I almost jumped out of my seat. The thump and wallop was tremendous! I swear the KEF centres weren’t able to produce that same thump. Wood breaking like that is akin to the attack on snare drums and without decent cones a speaker would struggle. There’s something special about the VM1’s midrange.

Try the Gladiator opening battle scene and just feel that catapult swoosh the fireballs screaming into the air and explode on impact. You will be scared. Brilliant.

I feel the Elac is far more comfortable with movies than music at its own price point (even more so when compared to the KEF and VM1) while the KEF has the right ingredients to please most – let down only by that lack of scale. The AM10 and AM15 are also movie systems with the AM10 price drop snapping it back into consideration. In the company of the KEFs and VM1s both lack the finesse of stereo replay. In action movie soundtrack, the Elac creams the KEF and Bose while its treble sting and that JET-technology bass module gives the VM1 a gentle shove too. At £1299 its also £500 more and given it isn’t that true to stereo, I leave it to you to figure out your preferences.

When it comes to action movie soundtrack, all the systems here do very well. Of course in A/B comparisons you can just about tell which ones you prefer due to handling of lower or higher frequency extremes, the sub frequently being singled out for criticism since a dedicated LFE channel is present, the vocal midrange from the centre speaker and perhaps how atmospheric the surrounds sound to you. If you do have a huge entertainment area and able to play movies very much louder than conversational volumes - when explosions demands it, perhaps the abilities of different subs come into play. Upgrade the sub if you feel the need to, as the AS1 is after all an entry-level unit. In my auditions there wasn’t a time when the movie performance of any of these speakers caused me concern – it’s the price bracket thing – at this level there are no duds here. Buy with movie surround confidence. If you are reading this with earnest then you are in the right frame of mind to enjoy music and movies. Music moves your soul; but the wall of movie soundtrack can move you off your seat!

Go get one and enjoy!

Those of you who might email me about which a/v amplification to use with it – let me say that because the VM1 is easy to drive at 91dB spl, go with any of the entry level ones with confidence unless you have heard and must have 6 channel – wait and soon they’ll all be 6 channel anyway! You can buy extra VM1s separately. Of course with each amplifier model higher up the range the amp section usually serves up cleaner watts and the VM1s will return the favour. But hey these VM1s are going to give you real world volumes without the need to push the amplifiers hard. So unless you jump straight to the top 2 models in the a/v amplification range, the only difference you’ll hear is the little that you yourself perceive in your mind.

I’ve enjoyed writing this review. I hope you have enjoyed reading it and got something out of it. If anyone remembers reading something else I wrote in 1998 hint: Musical Fidelity X-A1 + X-A50 in the AudioReview.com web pages. Thank you so much for your responses and kind words. I still keep in touch with some of you now and again, else feel free to drop me a line.

Finally I meant to post this review on AudioReview.com – but this site hasn’t quite got it right. After that switch by ConsumerReview.com to ‘improve’ the home theatre speaker section with the entire backlog of reviews and categories, I think they are in over their heads as it’s been a couple of months now. The speaker review section has been static. AudioAsylum.com and AVForum.com have kept going and will get this review instead.

Keith Lee

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Product Weakness:	Upgrade the sub if funds permit for ultimate bone shaking LFE, otherwise the AS1 suffices. Certainly no eye popping weaknesses at this price.
Product Strengths:	True High-Fidelity vocal reproduction for such slimline speakers, looks you cannot argue with, everyone drools at them on the Danish stands. Scintillating home theatre / cinema performance. High ownership satisfaction.

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Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	Marantz SR4200
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	-none-
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Marantz CD-63SE, Pioneer DV-350
Speakers:	B&W VM1
Cables/Interconnects:	Audioquest Ruby, Monster Cable coaxial
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Primarily Vocal Jazz
Room Comments/Treatments:	Carpeted, Brick Walls
Time Period/Length of Audition:	2 Weeks
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

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