Sheer output, Bass power, imaging, efficiency. these will make the best out of EVERY upgrade and increment in power. Also Will dominate a room like no other.

needs a large room, or bass power will fall off below 25hz. these things are huge.
No factory support when the need drivers.

After owning many highend systems i decided to give these a try.
The vr-8 consists of a audax 13" woofer, audax 10"woofer, 2 audax 5 1/4" mids, and 2 focal tweets 1 front 1 rear. ( the drive units on these are Not available any longer so if one goes out your SOL) I had a 13" go out Albert had no idea were to get one and wanted to cut these open and install 15" woofs.Also the veneer on these tend to crack.
Sound. These are big speakers. these need a room at least 16X20 to get good bass out of them. If you play at low volume or you want something better then other Vonschweikerts look else ware. If you like To be brought to the actual performance these can do it. With good Tube amplification and high power these are about the best ive ever heard as far as tru rock concert levels with maintaining excellent ease and imaging. these thing can chuff air with 100 watts and stand 1000.
imaging can be staggering. there are other fantastic systems out there some better but I will never forget these

Customer Service

Cannot get exact rplacement drivers. This is important and ill never buy VS speakers again because of this.

Similar Products Used:

B&w 801#2,#3. Von schweikert vr-4#3SE Vandersteens very large JBL pro monitors 4350, 4435 L300 ect. K horns
Rougue 120 monos (GREAT) Rogue Zeus, VTL 450, Canary CA-339, Cat JL-2,
Belles 350 (GREAT) plinius sa250 (NOT GOOD MATCH),, Krells ($%^&),,
Best solid state was BELLES 350, Best Tubes are Rogue Zeus.

Presence, detail, accuracy

Difficult to position, takes a lot of time to set up for optimal performance

I've had the 8's for just over a year now. I have the last pair built using the older style rounded cabinets that Albert started with and was having production problems with. In fact, I may have the last pair ever made as the factory flooded shortly after I took delivery.

Anyway, I have Proceed AVP/AMP5 doing all the work with Harmonic interconnects everywhere. I'm not sure that these things *still* aren't broken in because it seems they sound better every month. The bass extension problem noted earlier does not affect me. I've demoed Wilson with Levinson AMPS and No 39 processors and yes this rig is slightly more real, but for the money........

Even against the BAT demo room with the new Hales "super-speakers" at Chicago show last year, my system seems more present and clean. Though the BAT/Hales combo was up there with the best.

With proper spacing and positioning, these are one of the most transparent transducers I've heard, period. Definitely top 3.

This speaker is not quite in the league of Wilson, Dunlavy or the Duntech line, but its getting there. For the money, you can do better. It looks like the Wilsons, but with the Wilsons utilizing a sub-wofer, you can't beat the sound, except in comparison with the Duntechs. 5 stars non the less

To the Duntech Dealer at 206.50.137.13 with at least 6 different names.
Enough already. Duntech's entire line is ANCIENT. Even in their heyday, they were not state of the art. They barely manage to compete with modern speakers half their price. VR 4.5's (not to mention VR8's) will outperform anything in Duntech's line.

I have had the speakers in home for exactly 3 months, so they are probably still breaking in to some degree, but have been hit hard with the Purist Audio break in disc to hurry things along. The front end is all Krell, KPS20-iL CD player directly into the FPB600 amplifier. Speaker cables are Transparent Reference, with XL Reference jumpers from the mid/tweeter modules to the bass modules. Power cords are turning out to make big differences. I have eevolved to the excellent Electra-Glide Reference glide cord for the CD player and the equally excellent Magnan Signature cord to the amp. Set up of the VR-8es was not extremely painful. The major hassle from front to back placement relative to the front wall. After a lot of messing around trying to optimize mid vs. low bass response, I ended up with the about 24 inches from the front wall and only slightly angled in, with about 11 foot spacing center to center. I have played verything from jazz and blues to pop and classical music. The judgment aftr on sound is that Harry Pearson's review in Fi Magazine earlier this year had it about right. These are great speakers for sound staging, resolution and speed. They give excellent off axis response such that the sweet spot is not as restricted as with some speakers. The speakers are extremely revealing--for instance, I evaluated several speaker cables and, boy, the differences were pretty amazing--no imagination required to sort out the best ones. The speakers are built like tanks and perhaps for that reason sound as 'boxless' as any box speaker I have ever heard. some of the credit for their open, airy nature also is due to the use of Black Diamond Racing Cones and 'those things' between the mid/tweeter module and the bass module for isolation. HP was also right in identifying the speakers one weakness--low bass extension. Bass down to about 30 Hz is the best I have heard from any speaker--well integrated with the mids, clean and fast, and powerful is called for. However, below 30 Hz, response drops off rapidly in my quite large room, just as it did for HP. In fact, I am off about 20 dB at 20 Hz with a SPL meter (C weighted) relative to 63 Hz. Albert Von Schweikert has a bass extension module that is purported to fix this and which I may try. I had hoped bass extension would improve as the speakers broke in, but thus far it has not. The other, rather unappealing, option is to try and integrate one or two high quality subwoofers. Overall,however, the bass extension problem notwithstanding, these are among the best speakers I have ever heard.

The VonSchweikert VR-8 would be a very impressive speaker for those who have not heard really great sounding speakers. These speakers are quite large and so they have a big sound, but they do not image well. As with all audio equipment one must trust one's own ears. I find that younger listeners are more impress with this speaker.