The Ultra 11s are and were impressive at the FL Expo this past weekend. They were driven by VAC electronics. While they can fill a room, there are two elements that I struggle with this speaker: a very tight sweet spot; and, sometimes instruments sound too large and not real. However, they are impressive.
MJB - Really! You know, I've listened to nearly every VSR/VSA speaker to be released since the mid 1990's, when the original VR-4 was introduced. I've owned eight pair since that time, the VR-4 Gen II - 1997, the VR-4 Gen III - 2001, the VR-4 Gen III SE - 2002, the VR-4 jr - 2004, the VR-5 Anniversary - 2008, the VR-33 - 2010, the VR-55 Aktive - 2014, and I lived with the ULTRA 9's in my 600 ft2 (or some 4300 ft3) room for three months last year while writing the The Absolute Sound review, and am taking delivery on my own set of ULTRA 9's this month.
I’ve heard the ULTRA 11’s, with extended listening time, on at least five occasions (AXPONA ’17, High-End Munich ’17, Capital Audiofest '17, in the amazing Potomac room (50’ by 50’ X 10’ – arguably the best room on the entire annual tour circuit), at AXPONA ‘18, and at Capital Audiofest ‘19). I’ve heard ULTRA 9’s on at least four occasions, (RMAF ‘18, in the Maroon Peak Room (30' x 25' x 10') of the Marriott Convention Center, at AXPONA ’19, at High-End Munich ’19), and for three months in my own listening room just before AXPONA ’19, as mentioned.
Not only have I never, not once, not EVER, heard any model, let alone the ULTRA 11’s, project a tight “sweet spot” like my eight foot tall ELSs did in their day, the entire VSA lineup of products in fact, as a brand, consistently project the most honest and authentic soundstage (with remarkably accurate width, height, and especially depth, even into the rear corners of the stage), with the most realistic and life-sized images of any brand of loudspeaker I’ve heard in the past 35 years, when paired with the right electronics and sources!
In fact, this is what I said about the ULTRA 9’s when they premiered at RMAF in 2018.
“During the product launch, in the Maroon Peak room at RMAF 2018 in Denver, the Ultra 9s were set up along the long wall (the room is 750 square feet, 30' x 25' x 10'). It was while speaking with Kevin Hayes of VAC, sitting against the side wall, at what could only be described as an extreme listening position, about eighteen feet from the front wall, some twelve feet behind the plane of the speakers and roughly eighteen feet from the left, and twenty-five feet from the right speakers, that I heard something that made my jaw drop. Kevin (Hayes of VAC) didn’t miss a beat; he looked at me with that Cheshire-Cat-like smile and said, “You just noticed!”
Normally, in such an extreme off-axis position, you will hear the closest speaker, period. Yet here, I not only heard the proximate left speaker; I also clearly heard the more distant right,
and a significantly dimensional soundstage between them. The stage was obviously skewed, with the center being closer to the right speaker, but it had an astonishing degree of depth and instrumental specificity. This was not a one-time fluke experience, as I was able to duplicate this in my room for dozens of visitors during the review period. But it clearly demonstrates and validates the effectiveness of the remarkable capabilities of VSA’s unique Ambient Driver array and dividing network.”
Further, I’ve not heard an even remotely similar remark from anyone, at any showing of any VSA speaker, anywhere, anytime! This leads me to ask, are you sure you were in The Audio Company, VAC, VSA room? ‘Cause if you were, you clearly weren’t paying attention to what was going on in there.
By every account I’ve heard so far, including the beautiful testament from LampizatOr’s Digital Maven, Lucasz Fikus, this system was so clearly best of show, so much more refined, natural, and involving than anything else there, that it knocked everyone out with its authenticity.
