Don Bingaman is a retired aerospace engineer who has dabbled with DIY audio projects for forty years. Jeff McCabe is a retired Industrial Technology and STEM Educator and an expert cabinet maker who has built custom speaker cabinets for over 30 years. Jim Moellering is a semi-retired business executive who has owned and managed an audio retail business, and understands finance, operations and supplier management. 

Our engineering, design and business operations are conducted in St. Louis, MO, and our cabinet build and component assembly is done in Alvo, NE.  Dayton Audio, miniDSP, Eminence, Cube Audio and SB Acoustics provide our drivers and electronic components. VPE Electrodynamics and our suppliers have the collective capabilities to engineer, build and market anything, but we have chosen to build loudspeakers which address the real world problem of achieving realistic sound inside domestic listening rooms, (as opposed to anechoic chambers or showrooms). We have selected two design philosophies to accomplish this: 1) low diffraction designs which minimize nearby reflections off side walls and floor through the use of tailored radiation patterns and floor coupling of the bass, and 2) abandonment of the Thiele-Small bass enclosure filter analogies. We linearize woofer bass response via use of digital signal processing (DSP) and slot-loaded dipole woofer configurations.

Our product portfolio consists of three products and an ongoing research project. These products consist of 1) the Little Dipole Woofer (LDW) Model 1 DSP designed to provide superior bass performance to panel loudspeakers such as the Magnepan LRS/LRS+, the Magnepan 0.7 and the Magnepan 1.7 when used with Magna Riser stands; 2) the VPE Model 2 Dipole Woofer designed to provide superior bass response for larger panel loudspeakers, including the Magnepan 3.7 and 20.7, as well as the Quad Electrostatic 2812 and 2912 loudspeakers; 3) the VPE Crystal Dipole which is a full-range bi-amplified open baffle dipole loudspeaker featuring the Cube Audio F10 Select full-range driver, and; 4) the VPE Airfoil which is a three-way powered modular loudspeaker using an advanced DSP-based electronic crossover and equalization processor from miniDSP. Our business model is "factory direct and build-to-order (i.e. bespoke)". All our speakers offer excellent sonic performance, but their color and finish is customizable by the customer using superior cabinet paints, laminates, wood veneers, and cast acrylic cladding in a variety of colors and textures.

So why abandon Thiele-Small which has been a highly successful math model for both sealed and ported direct radiator speaker enclosures for nearly 50 years and which dominates current speaker design ? Many critical music listeners prefer enclosure-less electrostatic or planar-magnetic panels or open-baffle dipoles, (e.g. Linkwitz). The reasons for this preference are complex to explain but plain to the ear.

While conventional wisdom holds that the piano is the hardest instrument to record and reproduce accurately, we contend that the bowed and plucked string double bass is actually harder for conventional direct radiators to reproduce cleanly due to speaker cabinet resonances which are coincident with the harmonics of the double bass spruce body (or “soundbox”), itself.

It is obvious to the musician’s ear that something is wrong – except on planar and dipole loudspeakers. Dipole speakers simply sound more natural and more capable of reproducing the rich harmonic structure of the double bass which is both the foundation of the Symphony Orchestra and the time-keeper for almost every jazz combo – hence our cabinet-less design approach.

We offer three unique loudspeaker products for factory-direct sale on this website. They are the Model 1 Little Dipole Woofer DSP for $ 845.00 (each) + $75.00 S&H, the Model 2 Dipole Woofer for $ 1590.00 (each) + $125.00 S&H and the Crystal Dipole Full-Range Loudspeaker featuring the awesome Cube Audio F10 Select driver for $5900.00 (Pair) and $250.00 S&H. These products are offered in a painted finish at their base prices, but we can finish them in any veneer, laminate or painted configuration your specify to match your audio system and listening room furnishings at nominal additional cost for materials and labor.

We know that buying high-end factory direct is uncomfortable for many music-lovers. With that in mind we have a 100% money-back satisfaction guarantee for all our products. Our guarantee will provide 100% of your purchase price back to you promptly - no questions asked. All we require is that you exercise this option within 6 months of your receipt of order and that you ship the product back to us in good condition and in its shipping box(es) at your expense. Please note that shipping and handling costs to you are not refundable.