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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

I was dissappointed with these speakers. They were very accurate in the high-end, and they imaged well, but they were so forward in the high-end, they practically overwhelmed their own bass response, and they were very finicky about placement. For the money, you could do a lot better with a pair of Dynaudio's. 3 stars for sound, 2 stars for value (too expensive!).

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.

Just got these speakers three weeks ago. They sound wonderful in thehigh end, not fatiguing like the NHT 2.9/3.3's, and with an expanded
sweet spot, as compared to the NHT 2.9/3.3's. They can be driven with
very low powered amplifiers too. Even a receiver would probably be OK as
long as the receiver is not too wimpy. I listen to organ music and the
low frequency seems to come through loud and clear. Not quite as sharp
as much low frequency impact as the NHT 2.9/3.3 but MUCH more impact than
PSB Stratus Gold i's.

I got these after auditing the VR 4's and concluding that the VR 4's take
up too much real estate. The Gen II's are significantly smaller.

They do take many MANY hours to burn in however. When I first got them,
they sounded extremely anemic. There was almost no bass. Then after about
20 hours I heard some bass. After 50, more bass. After 100 hours, it
seemed to be pretty much fully burned in and that's a good thing since
I didn't want any MORE bass.

The only bad thing about it is it's a little expensive but hey, you only
live once and for those reading this post, probably they will turn up
used, in time, and at a heavily discounted price. One Call sells them
new, at a slight discount. Enjoy!

I recently bought a pair of VR-4 gen 2 and I've been more than satisfied. Even though they haven't been broken in yet the imaging is breathtaking! Bass goes DEEP without being over emphasized and you can't hear any turbulence sounds from the vents. There is no audible box colorations and the treble is best I've heard on boxed loudspeaker yet.Only negative things I have to say are related to my room, which is too small for these speakers. According to manual VR-4 gen 2 can be placed 15ft. apart without losing central image (mine are about 6ft. apart). I also have problem with cancelling standing wave which sucks up some midbass (I cannot move my listening spot enough to get rid of the effect).
To make a long story short: If you have enough space, you simply can't get more value for your money! Compared to VR-4's the gen 2's are remarkably smaller yet giving better performance!

Von Schweikert VR6Absolutely the finest speakers I have ever owned. Besides being a very stunning looking speaker in beautiful natural cherry accented with black the imaging & soundstage is as good if not better than anything I have heard to date. They have a very natural and accurate sound with great detail. The bass which is the same unit at a VR4.5 is excellent, fast and very good. The mid and highs which are the same unit as their VR8 is the absolute best I have heard. They are not inexpensive but provide more bang for the dollar than anything I have listened to in their price range. A big thumbs up and five speaker rating.

As a new owner of a VR4 GenII pair,I can say for sure that this model is 30% better than its prodecessor,in overall performance.I noticed big improvements in bass control,midrange speed and clarity,as well as in upper band smoothness.All these features are pacing with a tremendous soundstage.The best words to characterise this speaker are,allgraph homogeneity.One of the best speakers worldwide and a must hear equipment for a hi-end enthusiast.
Considering it's price then it sounds a chance twice.

How can a speaker be "very accurate in the high-end" while also being "so forward in the high-end"? By high-end I presume you are talking about the treble? All I can say is that I have never heard the treble of the Gen 2 to sound forward, nor has any mention of this been made in any of the rave reviews the VR4 Gen I and Gen 2 have received. As far as being expensive, I paid less for my Gen 2 than I would have had to pay for a pair of Thiel 2.3. There is simply no other speaker other than the Gallo Nucleus Reference, Meadolark Heron and Joseph Audio RM50si that even come near the Von Schweikert at this price-performance category.
What did you end up with James?

Unfortunately Von Schweikert is no longer in business. These replaced a pair of Martin Logan SL3's in my system and were a significant improvement. Better dynamics and imaging. While the SL3's are transparent, I found the genII's to have a better top end which added to the clarity of the music. The rear tweeters can be adjusted and have an effect both on the treble balance and feeling of ambience. The dipolar design makes the imaging excel for these speakers. The bass exceeds what I could get from the SL3's. It isn't punchy bass, but integrates seamlessly with the upper modules. From what I've heard placement can affect the bass quality quite a bit.
These speakers are smaller than the original vr4's but still require some breathing room to open up. If you're looking for new/used speakers they could represent a good value on the used market.