PRODUCTS

"Style, power, flexibility, a superbly coherent sound A great "designer" system from B&W that sounds very good indeed.

B&W's VM1/AS1 combination is large, but very likable. If you have room in your life for a sub-sat system of this stature then you can't do much better than this set-up." - Home Entertainment - Aug 2003

"Great looks, impressive sound and a frankly ludicrous price tag make this a great system" - T3 -Jan-2003

The permanent magnets used in the motor systems of moving coil drivers cause stray magnetic fields that can extend at significant strength beyond the walls of the cabinet. If the speaker is placed close to a normal TV set or computer monitor (not a plasma or LCD screen), these stray fields can distort the picture on the screen. To prevent this happening, the individual magnets of each driver must be shielded. In the most common type of structure, using a ring magnet, this involves glueing an extra magnet on the backplate of the main magnet, magnetised in the opposite polarity. A steel cup is placed over the whole magnet structure, the inside of the base being glued to the rear of the second magnet and the sides extending close to the top plate. Unfortunately there are currently no effective standards that govern how well shielded a speaker should be, or how immune a screen should be. Certainly the Lucasfilm THX requirement that the stray flux at the boundaries of the speaker cabinet should be no more than 3 gauss is woefully inadequate. The B&W standard for a shielded speaker is 1.5 gauss, about twice the strength of the earth's natural magnetic field.

Technical Specifications : Model VM 1

Description 2-way vented-box system
Dimensions Height: 522mm (20.6 in)
Width: 124mm (4.9in)
Depth: 93mm (3.7in)
Net Weight 2.7kg (6lb)
Freq. Response 75Hz - 20kHz ± 3dB on reference axis
Freq. Range -6dB at 65Hz and 22kHz
Sensitivity 91dB spl (2.83V, 1m)
Normal Impedance 8ohms
Power Handling 25W-100W continuous into 8ohms on unclipped programme
Drive Units Unit 1: 1x 125mm (5in) bass/mid
Unit 2: 1x 25mm (1in) high-frequency
Unit 3:
Dispersion Description: Within 2dB of response on reference axis
Horizontal: over 40 deg. arc
Vertical: over 10 deg. arc
Harmonic Distortion 2nd & 3rd harmonics <1% 100Hz - 15kHz (90dB spl, 1m)
Crossover Frequency 3.5kHz
Max. Recommended Cable Impedance 0.2ohms