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Boston Acoustics VR-M50 Monitors Review

  • Thread starter Thread starter Seth=L
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Seth=L

Seth=L

Audioholic Overlord
Sep 26, 2006
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I've trying to take my time to post this and even in doing so I'm not fully prepared. It's late, I'm tired, and I'll only get to touch briefly on this and I'll probably come back to this thread later to add more.

As some of you may know I've been searching for a suitable upgrade from my trusty Infinity Interlude 10 bookshelf speakers, or at least that's what they keep calling them. I think the 70s are over, but some folks still prefer to place their speakers on shelves. I can assure you that no matter the "bookshelf" speaker you will always get better performance if you stand mount it (preaching to the choir). I'm getting off topic. The Interlude 10 "stand mount" speakers have been with me for over 10 years and have served me very well. Every time I've gotten other speakers I've had to get rid of them for an assortment of reasons. Usually it's because they're too big. I recently had to pass on a deal on some Definitive Technology BP 3000 TL floor standers for $800 because they're just too massive, for me and my listening space. Well, I didn't have to pass on the deal. There would have been a day I would have picked them up for the purpose of flipping them for a mint, but now I only dabble and those days are pretty much behind me. I have to exercise some level of self control even if I have absolutely none.

Now you all are pretty much aware that I shop almost exclusively used, I find it difficult to buy new. I don't have time to visit dealers and just the same I don't have the money to buy what I would want from the dealers. Like a vulture I just hover around eBay and other used avenues in hopes of finding some scraps. Based on some information from another thread I started here as well as other sources I collected a long list of products to keep my eye out for. Plenty items show up, and most are either not in my price range or worse not even a good deal. Well after a few months I finally had the right speakers come into my cross hairs at a price I could afford. Enter the Boston Acoustics VR-M50s

I didn't realize these speakers came in a real cherrywood veneer, which I will say is quite lovely. The first thing I noticed unpacking them was how chunky they felt. Given these speakers diminutive size they weigh in at 12 pounds. For comparison the Infinity Interlude 10s weigh 18 pounds each and are almost twice the size of the Bostons. The first thing I noticed when hooking them up was how much smoother the treble was. I thought the Infinity Interludes had smooth treble but the Bostons completely undermined them in that regard. Another thing I immediately became aware of is the lack of an unnecessary bass hump on the Bostons. Because of that, there is not a lower midrange excess that's very present on the Infinity Interludes. The only thing that I would miss would be the extension of the Interludes if it were not for the aid of a subwoofer. Simply put, the Bostons are in another league entirely.

Now moving on to today. I setup a music only listening area in my apartment. I tried something I had been experimenting with in my bedroom with a set of M&K S-80 satellites. I've read quite a few times that the farther the speakers are from the walls the better performance potential there is to be had. In my testing in the bedroom I found this to be largely correct. Interaction with the room is reduced and I am able to get a more involving soundstage, stronger center stage, and more depth out of my material.

So when setting up the VR-M50 monitors I started at about 1.5ft from the walls, 6ft from listening position and maybe 5ft apart and heavy toe in. I wasn't overly impressed. Everything was kind of smeared all over the place. That's largely a fault of a mostly empty listening space. I not so gradually moved them closer to the seating position and now they're about 3ft from the back walls, more than 5ft from side walls, 4.5ft from seating position and about 4ft apart with heavy toe in. Wow, I mean wow. What a huge improvement. At times I felt like I was listening to a good set of headphones with certain effects, but rather than having someone's voice in my head it was floating in front of me. I've experienced center staging before but I've always had to hold my head in a specific spot which would become uncomfortable after only a few minutes. So long as a stay within the center of the speakers I could move my head a decent amount before the center stage collapsed. Reclining back and listening to the whole of Depeche Mode's Violater album without a hint of stress in my neck or any agitation from prolonged listening. They blended with the Paradigm PS-1000 well with a little tuning and I'm in amazement.

I'm going to have a lot of free time on my hands starting March on up to June and I'm looking forward to enjoying more music and relaxing in the coming months and I'll likely be back here to post more of my thoughts and pictures as well.
 
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Nice review - continue to enjoy the new adventure.
 
I'm working on uploading some photos, but I've seem to run into a restriction on a 5 megapixel image. :confused:
 
Seems I've had better luck this time. The image quality is not the best due to poor lighting and the old iPhone 4 camera sensor being quite long in the tooth. The arrangement includes the Boston VR-M50 monitors, a Paradigm PS-1000 subwoofer, a Teac CR-H220 CD/Receiver for amplification, and a Sony DVP-S7700 as the CD player.

IMG_4097 (1024x765).jpg IMG_4099 (1024x765).jpg IMG_4100 (1024x765).jpg IMG_4102 (1024x765).jpg
 
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Nice review! Thanks!
One idea/question I had about your moving the speakers out from the wall is whether it was actually moving them from the wall vs moving them closer to yourself.
If you get the chance, move the speakers back to 1.5' from wall and move chair up to same relative position it is now.
I remember once taking a pair of 3" one way speakers and putting them about 1' apart and about 1.5' from my head and I was amazed with the clarity. These were undeniably crappy speakers in any normal application, but they sounded much better up-close!
 
KEW said:
Nice review! Thanks!
One idea/question I had about your moving the speakers out from the wall is whether it was actually moving them from the wall vs moving them closer to yourself.
If you get the chance, move the speakers back to 1.5' from wall and move chair up to same relative position it is now.
I remember once taking a pair of 3" one way speakers and putting them about 1' apart and about 1.5' from my head and I was amazed with the clarity. These were undeniably crappy speakers in any normal application, but they sounded much better up-close!
Click to expand...


I may try what you suggested, but it's my general understanding the farther the speakers are from the walls the less they interact with the room and color the sound.
 
Well I didn't move the monitors, but I did move the subwoofer. It's not easily localized in the corner but I wonder if it will blend better when it's between the two speakers. I don't want to lose the impression of lower extension from the room gain of corner loading so I'll see how this works and determine it's final position.

IMG_4104 (1024x765).jpg
 
Seth=L said:
I may try what you suggested, but it's my general understanding the farther the speakers are from the walls the less they interact with the room and color the sound.
Click to expand...


This is very much true, but it is (in my experience) the case that listening near-field also improves SQ (as long as the distance between woofer and tweeter does not become a distraction).
Just as for FR measurement a Mic is located close to a speaker to mimic anechoic chamber (minimize room effects).

I am sure both effects are working together, but how much is which? But, no worries, just curiosity. :)
 
KEW said:
This is very much true, but it is (in my experience) the case that listening near-field also improves SQ (as long as the distance between woofer and tweeter does not become a distraction).
Just as for FR measurement a Mic is located close to a speaker to mimic anechoic chamber (minimize room effects).

I am sure both effects are working together, but how much is which? But, no worries, just curiosity. :)
Click to expand...

I'm getting too tired to experiment further tonight, but logically I have to concluded I've only been messing with it for a couple days so I believe I can get it to sound better.
 
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