VL-208s for home audio

Funny you should mention this, Tom - I've been doing some serious home repairs (stripping wallpaper from 120 year old plaster walls, patching, sanding, painting, etc...) this week, and have been using an iPod into the effects returns of the Focus II through a VL108 to keep me company and keep the energy high. It sounds amazing, and really packs a punch! My guess is that you'd need a small stereo power amp (stewart, etc.) , and as long as the impedance was a good match, any line level signal would probably do. The mid and tweeter controls on the VL series speakers come in handy for balancing the sound out at higher volumes.

 

One of the techies will have to answer this one as regards impedance matching, but my guess is that if the input impedance of most power amps is anything like the effects return of the Focus, the answer would be yes. Alternately, you could use a small mixer like one of the lower end Yamaha units (I got mine for about $100). I use a bigger Soundcraft board as an input mixer in my music room, but upstairs, the little Yammy mixes the signals from a CD player, an Imac, a sound module, and the R-09 and routes them to a set of powered monitors. I can't imagine why you couldn't do the same thing with a power amp feeding the VL208s.

 

A couple of the Cincy guys have invited me to come do just that when theirs some in. I hope we can work out the schedule this summer when those gents and the Toad can all be present. Only this this time, somebody's gotta bring some sodas so the BQ will be higher this go-round. I love the idea of an 18 lb replacement for the 208, but I need to to HEAR it before I'll believe it.

 

A lot of the gigs I play are trio/quartet hits at a club where the 108 isn't quite enough but the 208 seems like overkill. I was hoping that the Wizzy 10 might be a sort of tweener volumewise in comparison, which would allow me to substitute it for the 208. Am I far off?

 

My question is: does it have more clean headroom than a 108? You'd think that with the increased surface area, it might.

 

Ric - on paper it looks great. In reality for me, it comes down to voodoo like, "how loud can it get and still sound relaxed and/or good?" I have no doubt that it's a hell of a lot more efficient than the VL series, but the beauty of the VLs is that they retain their sonic character as the volume goes up better than any other speakers I've ever seen. We'll see about the Wizzy...