After hearing the Von Schweikert Research VR-4 loudspeaker at a local dealer, I was very impressed. Then my fiancee and myself went to the Hi-Fi show in New York in May. We had the opportunity to listen to the Silver edition of the VR-4. All I can say is WOW! I knew I just had to have this speaker. Our speakers at the time were Definitive BP2000s. They were soon replaced by the Silvers. The BP 2000s were not nearly as musical or tonally accurate as the VR-4 is. My system currently consists of an Anthem Pre-1 preamp, Parasound C/DB 2000 Transport, Parasound D/AC 1000, AR ES-1 turntable (long live vinyl), with a Goldring Eroica cartridge. I am bi-amping the speakers with a pair of B&K amplifiers. An EX-4420 for the bottom and an ST-3030 for the top. This seems to work very well. The amps are very smooth and I have tons of headroom. As for cables I am using Audioquest Crystal on the bottom and DH Labs Silver Sonic on the top.(great cables, by the way) I cant say enough good things about the VR-4 Silver, they are excellent in al the usual ways. Imaging, soundstage, dynamics its all there in spades. For the extra grand over the standard speakers I think you get a little more openess and detail. I forgot to mention the difference for those of you who arent familiar with them. The silver edition gives you double runs of Audio Magic Sorcorer internal wire. I think the difference is worth the money. It is definitely what pushed me over the edge. Highly reccomended.

Midrange, detail, bass, natural, etc.

A little bit on the dark side

Well, since Von Schweikert went out of busines (but is now back), people were selling their VRs. I picked these up at a dealer for $1400, which might be a little bit more than you might pay in a private sale, but not much, and I saved the cost/hassle of shipping (had to pay sales tax so it was about even I guess.) Anyway, I don't think you can get anything comparable new in the same price range, and not much used either. These speakers are big, full range, and natural. They produce excellent mids and bass goes deep. They don't have a mid-bass hump (so if you are not used to full-range you may feel you are missing something, that is an artifical boost in the 80hz area that many speakers provide.) Another effect fullrange speakers have is they may sound slightly rolled off in the treble. That is just due to the speaker presenting a fuller tonal picture of the recording. That said, I do think the VR-4 is a little on the dark side. However, you can play with the rear-firing tweeter attenuators to get better response. You may want to turn them down all the way if the speakers are fairly close to the wall, for more clarity in the highs. They give you some flexibilty due to the attenuator. In summary, let me just highlight the strengths of the speaker: Very natural and balanced; full-range; sounds good even at low listening levels; detail;--in fact, they do almost eveything well. They may not be the best in any single area but they are an excellent complete package. Only drawback may be the size/weight, but if you are looking for true full-range speakers, the VR-4 is an excellent value on the used market.

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm, Vandersteen, etc.

After numerous trips to dealers through-out the south I still wasn't happy,really happy, with any of the speakers I heard (and my wife was getting tired
of listening to all those things). On a trip to Miami we listened to some
Thiel 3.6's and liked them but it wasn't "love". I went to see Don Caruso at
Audio by Caruso to audition the McCormick DNA 1 amp. To demo the amp he used
the VR 4's and they blew me away. Every type of music I brought to listen to
(from jazz to classical) sounded like I was having a private concert. I
brought my wife in for "another"listen. After ten minutes of listening, she
turned to me and said: "Buy Them"! Yes, they require some attention as far
as placement for proper balanceand imaging ,but, if that didn't concern you
then go buy some speakers from XYZ discount house. Any state of the art in-
strument should have proper support (DNA 1 power drive, Rotel PA and Rotel CD
with DH Labs speaker wire and interconnects anf BDR cones and THE Shelf under
the amp and the cd player) but what a fantastic sound you get. Want to impress
your friends, play Michel Camilo-"one more once", crank up the system and hold on for the ride of your life. Also, Patricia Barbers "Cafe Blue" will leave
you in awe-you feel like your in the club with her. Another great demo of the
speakers is the XLO-Sheffield Test and Burn CD. All the cuts on the second half
of the cd truely shows the true majesty of these speakers. Are there better
speakers out there? I'm sure-but how deep are your pockets? I never get tired
of listening to them and actually wish that I had more time to sit and listen to them. I have never regretted buying them(nor has my wife and she even tolerates
them taking up some room)and I'm glad I listened to Don and bought the VR4's and not the others. Enjoy them like a fine drinj

The 4.5 is something to behold for this audiophile. It is so revealing of what is coming down stream that it usually is the mistaken culprit of what is the matter in a system poorly set up. Believe me I have been there and done that. This speaker when coupled with the right equipment doesn't need to be evaluated, just experienced. Allow it to dissapear, and enjoy the music. Unfortunatly, audiophiles on the most part are incapable of enjoying the music once they hear something so very good as a properly set up pair of these loudspeakers. You fiddle around with different cables, cones, placement, line-conditioners,etc. We seem to have been born that way. No matter how good it sounds, you just gotta screw it up to get it better. The VR 4.5's in the right setup; Mietner Bidat(moded, built in preamp),Sony DVP S-7000 DVD Player,(Best transport available period! See review in Planethifi.com),Z-Systems Digital Equalizer, Balanced Audio Technology VK 1000 mono's, Electra Glide Power Cords, and a host of other important tweaks. All rounded together in my system it is something to behold. I've had plenty of experienced listeners in NYC say it's one of the best and purest sounds they've heard regardless of price. I know it's very good but what makes it scary is no matter how much I get the front end together, the speakers are always up to the task of showing me exactly what it is that I've done. What more can be said of the Von Schweikert VR 4.5's? There are folks that prefer BMW to Lexus right? Does that mean a Lexus is no good? The VR 4.5's are like the Lexus 400 sedan. New, hard-hitting and taking no prisoners!

Disappointing. I generally prefer panel speakers (e.g., Magnepan, Martin-Logan) because just about every box speaker sounds "boxy". The VR4's are like that - boxy. The bass is deeper than most, but sounds enhanced (i.e., not realistic). Too much hype.

I tested this speaker connected to an ARC ls 15 and d300 and vt100.They were A/Bed against Theil,and the PROAC 2.5 and my old dq10s.
Later compared to sonus fabers.

Overall they are a great speaker! I loved the proacs for opera,
the theil for symphonic, the dahlquists for strings, and the sonus fabers were
very sweet. I then switched amps to the vt 100.

The sound was a superior, any harshness was gone and I'm. confident that I
made the right decision.

Last week I E mailed Albert Von Schwieikert to discuss his new VR4 type 2.

He said that although the footprint is dramatically smaller, they sound better. Cant wait to here them, but it will be tough to convince me that I could have done much better for my audio dollars! (3/1/98)

I've heard the VR4 in several environments. Given the right associated equipment, they offer tremendous value for even twice the money. This includes not just amps and preamps, but speaker cables and interconnects. If you've listened to them and found them to have anything less than spectacular imaging, depth of field, low level detail, tight and controlled bass... try other components or another dealer. I've been most impressed with the Pass amps driving the VR4. Even the Aleph 3 mates well, but again, using anything less than the most coherent interconnects and cables will lose the soundstage imaging and cause the free-standing instruments/performers to be trapped in a bas-relief sculpture with the nuances "spackled" over.

This review is for the VonSchweikert VR-4 and VR-4 Silver.I have owned both of these, and I want to communicate the huge difference between the regular VR-4 and the VR-4 Silver. (The now equivalent model to the VR-4 Silver would be the VR-4.5, which has a few additional changes).
The VR-4 Silver was like putting an entirely different design with the same exterior outer appearance. Most noticable was the dynamics, immediacy, detail, and more clearly defined and faster bass.
I had to call Albert VonSchweikert to assure me that all they had done was replace the regular internal copper wiring with Augio Magic Silver, and they confirmed that it was true! I told them that I felt that the VR-4 shouldn't even be produced with the copper wiring, but they then explained the price difference (over $1000 extra), a fact of which I was already aware.
Both speakers are good, and each requires over 200 hrs+ to fully break in, in addition to careful room placement. But the VR-4 Silver is in a completely different league and should and can be mated to very high end front end and power amp equipment.

I am a young Swiss student of Electrical Engineering. My hobby is High-end (what a coincidence). I have heard quite a lot of different loudspeakers in different classes of price. I must say: VR-4 is - for its price - the best sounding thing in the world (that I have heard). Compared to other - mainly European speakers - I must admit: they have not the slightest chance against this dream-machine from Watertown.For those who want to make the speaker better sounding, try the Von Schweikert active Subwoofer! The speaker will be better in every way, not only in bass, also soundstage, imaging...
My system contains: VR-4, Aronov Integrated, Metronome Tube CD-Player, Rega Planar3 turntable with Transfiguration Esprit, JPS and Marigo cables.
(PS. Sorry for my bad language)

I have had several highly regarded speakers...Alons,Logan "requests",Ariel 10Ts but none of these were as satisfying as the Von Schweikert VR4 has proved to be.They are STUNNING in every regard.I use them with an EAD 9000 III dac EAD T1000 transport and a Genesis Digital lens.Mesa BARON on the highs.500 watt Luxman MO3 solid state on the bass,no elect xover used.The speaker cables are MIT MH750 "tube"and MH750 "plus"The digital cables are a mixture of Illuminati,MIT Digital Ref and Audioquest optilink Pro2.NBS signeture AC cables. It is bliss to listen to !!DAVE M Australia