Pros and Cons of Ribbons

I have the newforms. I found the nordost red dawn cables were too much of a good thing in my sytem[SS]. With tubes this might be different...but the sheer speed and transparenty of ribbons requires the right match that doesn't give you too much of the leading edges of the notes and too little of the timbre or the fullness of notes...with RD the notes were litterly zinging with too much sibilence. It was ultra detailed and I couldn't live with the mix. For me the cure was the acoustic zen satori and matrix mix...the siltech gen3 were awesome but out of my reach..take your time with the cabeling and you will be hugely rewarded. Good ribbons can float images and notes and make for long listening sessions. You'll be buying lots of new music and listening to all your current collection with awe. You'll stop looking at other speakers....it just gets better...happy listening.

If they're anything like ribbon microphones, they're probably a little more fragile and may require more gentle handling (like not turning your amp up to 11?).

I am not familiar with VMPS so this comment may not apply to these speakers. One of the problems with using a conventional cone woofer with a ribbon/planar midrange and tweeter is that sometimes the bass doesn't sound like it integrates seamlessly with the upper frequencies. Bass will sound thick, slow, or "muddy" when compared with the rest of the higher frequencies. I would definitely audion ANY ribbon with cone woofer hybrid before you buy! Happy Tunes!

Another good source of ribbon opinion is www.sequerra.com, he's not unbiased but it's interesting reading anyway. They are better than dynamic drivers in most ways except efficiency, power handling, and fragility. If these don't concern you, go for it!

The biggest downsides seems to be reliability and integrating with regular cone drivers. I've heard some great ribbons, (Maggies and Apogees). I guess the key is to really listen and to get a feel for what the company is like that manufactures the ones you're interested in.