A review of them I wrote on a Facebook group called Recording Tips;
Made the most extraordinary discovery the other day...while I was conducting a search for some cheapo reference monitors(now that I use my Roland Fantom 06 separately from my PC set-up.) Originally....I was going to settle for a pair of M-Audio BX4 multimedia monitors to save money($128 for the pair)...but then I thought...I'm not going to fully enjoy my Fantom 06 that way. I then ventured out of my comfort zone & opened myself up to new possibilities( then I researched monitors that had always caught my eye...but I never took them seriously, mainly due to them being categorized as DJ monitors...as well as them being so modestly priced.)
The more I dug into studying them, the more impressed I became with them.
They seemed to be very well engineered for budget monitors(aluminum front baffle, a tweeter waveguide that matches the horizontal length of the woofer cone, a proprietary bass port design(Vortex Bass Accelerator)..,class d AMP, auto standby switch, DSP controls, anti-diffraction angled edges and an upgraded aramid fiber woofer(from the conventional paper-lined aramid cones.)
In the reading the specs though, I was skeptical of the LF response of 40Hz(which is unheard of in a 5" budget monitor.)
H-o-w-e-v-e-r though....when I received my VM-50's today and played several preset song demos from my Roland Fantom 06 through these babies....I nearly crapped my pants with delight! A whirling, 3-D wave of audio splashed over me like a tsunami(with deep, rich & powerfully punchy bass...exquisitely detailed and crisp mids & highs.
The VM-50's actually sound better than my Adam Audio T5V's(as the waveguide's girth is incredible and equally incredible, is how tremendously efficient the bass porting is!) The amount of air these monitors push is like a hurricane!
Get a load of this...this is totally shocking....the price for the pair is only $338!!
Granted though...I have not used the VM-50's for critical mixing(so I can't really confirm how accurate they are)...but based on my experience with them thus far....I am SERIOUSLY considering selling my KRK's and buying a pair of Pioneer VM-70's or maybe even the VM-80's!
Sadly though....the Pioneer VM-series is probably the most overlooked, underrated & underestimated monitors on the market. What's also really interesting to me as well, is that the VM-series has a waveguide design that is amazingly similar to that of the old Event Opal monitors from some years back( 2008, I believe.)
