Von Schweikert Research VR-4 gen II Floorstanding Speakers Reviews

Summary:
I was listening to speakers costing up to $10,000 and these nearly won - to my great surprise! Easily the best all-around speaker I've ever heard in the sub-$5,000 price range. Despite their being rather large boxes, sonically they disappeared right into the room. Had the transparency of Maggies & Magneplanars and the bass depth and tightness of a good $6,000-$8,000 dynamic cone speaker. I eventually went with a speaker that listed at over $9,000, but not without giving a second thought to these.

Strengths:
Open, transparent sound with wide sweet spot. Good, firm, accurate bass without mid-bass heaviness that is so frequently found in today's speakers.

Weaknesses:
Not wild about styling. Needs a medium to large room.

Similar Products Used:
Aerial Acoustics, Vandersteen, B&W, NHT, Thiel, PSB

Summary:
I'd suggest that something is amiss with the particular pair that Jyrki owns. I got very deep bass with my set. If I play the "Tiger" Track from Paula Cole's "This Fire" CD, the wall joints shake. The Gen II is a very nice speaker. I upgraded from PSB Stratus Silvers, and got big improvments in both bass and midrange. Detail, image, and soundstage are all excellent, and the sweet spot is much bigger than with any other speakers I've heard. I updated my set with the new VR-5 drivers, crossover, wiring, etc. and they aere even better now: tighter bass and sweetened mids and treble.

Price Paid:  $3500.00

Summary:
I got these speakers spring 2000 and I had them about 7 months. All the time I tried to find the right place for speakers to have decent sound, well I didn't find it.
There is a major bug in bass, sometimes I heard something that could be bass, generally I didn't hear anything.
Bass stops in 40 Hz, below that nothing.
Mr VonSchweikert was trying to do something exotic by mixing transmission line and reflex, I say He failed.
I quess He doesn't know much about room acoustics.
When You have listened a couple of months these speakers, You notice that there is also lot of coloration in midrange
and tweeter is sometimes too sweet. I spent a lot of money and I got crap. Fortunately I managed to sell them, I hope new owner enjoys more than I did.
Equipment I used: McCormack SST-1 cd and DNA-1 amp, Lexicon DC-2 preamp.
Listening room 32 m^2 made of wood.

Price Paid:  $4000.00 from Music Lovers

Summary:
I fooled around with solid state amps/preamps and the VR4 gen2 performed well. I switched to tubes and the VR4's assumed a new personality, which seemed to take them to another level entirely. I just purchased a second Conrad Johnson MV55 Amp for the purpose of bi-amping. That with the CJ preamp and valved CD player, sets the stage for an audio experience that must be heard to be believed. The VR4's truly exceeded my expectations, which is rare.

Strengths:
Amazingly lush vocals, brilliant sound stage, powerful yet unobtrusive lows.

Weaknesses:
I've seen better looking...

Similar Products Used:
MB Quartz

Summary:
We spent 18 months looking for a speaker we could live with that would take us beyond the Vandersteen 2Ci's, now ten years old. We covered the range from $1000 to $15000 in our area, and preferred the VR-4 II's to anything else we heard. We had passed on the earlier VR-4's (larger and harsher sounding), but the VR-4 II's were a significant improvement. They cover the music spectrum in a very integrated fashion with no noticeable resonances, and reach up very high without exciting any unpleasantries in our acoustically bright music room (12 x 22 x 8, oak floors, hard walls, bow window). My wife is a bass freak, so it's rare for us both to like the low end of a speaker. She's also extremely sensitive to highs, and the VR-4 II is one of the rare "hi-fi" speakers she can tolerate. I suspect the popularity of some "high-end" speakers is due to exaggerated highs that help aging male audiophiles relive the sounds of their youth (what they call "detail," might be compensation for eardrums buffeted by too many rock concerts). The VR-IV II's might not appeal to them.

Strengths:
Very smooth, non-fatiguing, yet extended, highs. Lots of bass, but no boom. Don't need a separate subwoofer unless you're heavily into very bottom-end organ music (I'm not). We get to about 22 Hz in our music room. Orchestral bass is very realistic. Fussy about placement, but it's not hard to find the best spot for them. Very nice imaging.

Weaknesses:
Temporarily out of business due to an uninsured flood, but are due to return to the market early in 2000. Pricey for middle-income folks like me, and there are reasonable alternatives that are lower in price (e.g., PSB Stratus Gold i, used Carver Amazing Platinums, NHT 2.9's), but also much more expensive ones that are no better. Solo piano and vocal music sold us on the VR-4 II's, nonetheless. Break-in does take a week to two weeks, although bass was good right away. Highs had very slight edge that tamed down (the store sample was broken in, so we knew they'd be OK after a while).

Similar Products Used:
Vandersteen 2Ci--excellent, and still in the family, but weaker at both extremes than the VR-4 II's. Fried H--the best (and lowest) bass I ever had, but not even close in the mids and highs to the VR-4 II's. RTR-ESR 6 electrostatic tweeters--I've never heard better highs and upper mids, but I could never find a suitable mate for the lower frequencies with these speakers. The VR-4 II comes reasonably close, and it's tweeter/mid matches well with its subwoofer.