I was meaning to get back to here to write up my thoughts on these speakers.
Firstly I would just like to say that I have in no way designed these speakers from scratch. all the internal cabinet volume, crossovers, drivers and driver selection was done by Visaton. So my comments below are testament to there expertise and fine drivers. I purely added an aesthetic twist to what was already in front of me. So I can take no credit to the fine sound of these cabinets.
With that out of way, I can get onto the important stuff and namely the sound.
This is all going to sound a tad contrived and I'm sure most of you will have heard it all before. Afterall I have invested a good deal of time into the construction of these so I would be expected to have a somewhat biased view. I have however tried to stay subjective and not just gloss over the weaknesses of the design and magnify the good points with rose tinted glasses.
I'll start off with what I feel is the most impressive feature and what that simply defies all preconcieved notions of small driver units and indeed physics themselves. And that would be the bass.
Never before I have heard such beautiful and downright well defined and extended bass from such a small driver, 4" in this case.
I really would like to have every sceptic come and listen to these. They will surely change there idea of big driver equals big bass.
I've been switching through my collection of music and every track with even a slight amount of bass is a pure delight. The basslines just flow effortless with tons of detail and texture, some tracks really made me sit in awe the first time I heard them with Vista's.
Of course its the fancy transmission line bass loading technique that gives the vista is remarkable bass and without it would surely be a much missed asset.
I can also tell you that after some running the definition is a little better and deeper, I'm sure theres more to come too since they have only seen around 20hrs usage now.
The bass isn't the only asset to these speakers though, treble or the high frequencies is what gives music its breath IMHO. And these speakers can rival anything I've *ever* heard, not exagerating, its the truth. You can sit and listen to music and the soundstage is immense, moving sounds far out of the room and giving you acoustics which are totally believable.
There is also the unmistakable quality of 'air' to the whole sound, now I've said this before and its also been said of the design in the professional press but its very true. Air is difficult to describe but I would say that its an unflustered quality where everything sits within its own space, no blurring, no merging, just very precise and natural sound.
Midrange is perhaps the weakest point on these speakers, I'd say its a tad laid back but still natural. Compared to the rest of the sound its doesn't quite have the grab you quality. Its still a good sound and would still be a goal of many other lesser speakers but its not quite as 'special' as the other parts.
Now for the downers:
Sensitivity is low on these speakers at 80dB 1W/1M, so you can guess that these speakers will not go loud. They aren't a hard load to drive since they are 8ohm with 60w power handling.
I struggled to get to reference level on my Lex MC1 with distortion being present with crossover set at 40hz and only when I backed off to 80hz did the sound regain its composure. Its all a little too much to ask of the 4" driver to do the bass duties at these levels. I can tell you that the ribbon tweeter just never lets up with the volume and remains totally beautiful despite some serious volumes. In 3 or 4 way design I expect it would make quite a esoteric highend and high volume loudspeaker.
So I would definitely steer the volume loving HT crowd away from these.
Another sad fact is that the ribbon is quite directional, it must be at ear height and within an arc of 25 degrees on the horizontal, preferably on axis if you are to hear is true potential.
So another cross for the HT crowd as dispersion is high up the list for most people. Unfortunately with these speakers you are limited to a smallish sweet spot
IMO the downers are far, far, far outweighed by the ups but this is me and some people would, I suspect, feel deeply let down by dispersion and sensitivity.
Positioning:
Not very fussy about positioning which is lucky because I have to have each in a corner. I did however experiment with other position to see what the impact of this was. The general concensus was that for the best bass position these around 5" from the rear wall. Moving them out resulted in loss of bass but better projection of vocals and the midrange in general. I chose the bass because of room aesthetics and general preference.