Speaker Asylum: REVIEW: VonSchweikert Audio VR 2 Speakers by Goyescas General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

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Model:	VR 2
Category:	Speakers
Suggested Retail Price:	$2500
Description:	4 Driver Tower Speaker
Manufacturer URL:	VonSchweikert Audio
Manufacturer URL:	VonSchweikert Audio

Review by Goyescas on September 20, 2003 at 15:47:37 IP Address: 68.34.147.12

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NOTE: This review is fairly comprehensive and covers some territory not directly related to the VR-2's, so if you only dig sound bites then by all means please limit your reading to the initial summary and then fast forward to the last 3 paragraphs.

[SUMMARY: Following the natural disaster that brought down his New York outfit, Albert Von Schweikert re-establishes and strengthens the Von Schweikert line with an affordable entry-level, full-range, high-end loudspeaker. A hybrid transmission line with tunable bass, the speaker also features his versatile and smooth sounding front- and rear-firing tweeter, complementing a truly world-class midrange. High quality crossovers and responsive, non-ringing and well-integrated drivers work in concert to achieve a no bullshit sound with stunning coherency. In fact, every compromise appears to be deliberate, refreshingly based on years of experience and research, resulting in one of the most balanced designs I’ve ever heard, proving there are good values that present the rare opportunity to disembark the loudspeaker merry-go-round.]

Electrostatic, bi-polar dipoles (!), single driver, time and phase aligned, transmission line, bass reflex, acoustic suspension, liquid cooled titanium tweeters, handmade carbon-fiber resin-encased drivers…I wish it were as simple a choice as “paper or plastic.” Still, with so many options, too little time and never enough money, choose we must. My purpose here is to (try and) put into some meaningful context my experience with the VR 2’s, enough so that you might be able to decide if an audition is warranted as you make your own choices.

Loudspeakers are like automobiles. No matter how impressive a production run is in terms of its design, engineering and execution, in the end, at least for most of us, it all comes down to real world performance. For a loudspeaker, this obviously means the sound. Now I’ve a modicum of knowledge about speaker design, but not being an engineer and instead a professional musician, I will focus on the sound of the VR 2 in terms of my own application, experience and listening biases. If you are looking for technocratic musings please do as I would and look elsewhere.

But before I get to the VR-2’s and in order to place this review into perspective, please allow me to digress. As a critical listener with some twenty odd years of experience as an audiophile, I have “only” owned 14 different pair of loudspeakers, almost half of which are still in my possession. Still, I do have acquaintances that seem to change speakers more frequently than I do the oil in my car, and therefore I’ve heard a fairly representational mix of what the market has to offer. Listening to much of the latest breed of speakers is akin to watching Paul Simon act: most are embarrassingly awkward performances, sometimes painful to endure. So while I have heard some very good sound, I still have to wonder what the hell speaker designers have been doing for the past ten years.

In my experience, it appears the dispassionate focus of all but a handful of manufacturers is directed solely to net profit margins. Pricing strategies are based on some perceived associative cost to benefit ratio, where ignorant but wealthy consumers relate high prices to high quality and state of the art performance. But nothing could be further from the truth.

One example of this involves a recent visit to a ‘by appointment only’ dealer, who demonstrated (among others) an expensive pair of German made R2-D2ish omni directional conversation pieces, which made about $500 worth of sound and were offered at the demo price of $4k. Our questions about their efficiency, impedance curves and construction were all met with blank stares and references to having some marketing materials lying around…somewhere. This one-man operation floats on the disposable income of local physicians, lawyers and other wealthy patrons. Imagine his fright as my friend and I rang the buzzer only to walk in armed with a selection of LP’s. Astonishingly, a turntable was not on location, although the dealer later told us he would be happy to order any number of high priced tables, all offered at list price. Hmmm. No wonder some asylum threads lament the audio store of yesterday!

In any event, from this and several other auditions I gather not much has happened to advance the state of the art in terms of sound (although there certainly seems to be enough boutique action to go around). So, instead, new taste cultures have been established, further propagated by the good writing but poor judgment of most high-end magazines, where product placement now trumps just about everything else, including common sense ($10,000 for speaker wire!). Add to this the excess of shill garbage often found here, there and everywhere, and it is a wonder any of us are able to weed through it at all. So I was not really expecting much in the way of the VR-2’s, but a friend to the north encouraged me to give them a listen, telling me that, marketing hype aside, these really were worth my time and energy in as much as they represent an alternative to what I’ve just described.

A transducer holds little interest unless it can at the very least properly render the human voice, and this is where I start when evaluating loudspeakers, formally or otherwise. For me, that wonderful aural illusion that is imaging - while important - takes a back seat to the proper frequency, timbre and amplitude of pitches. I also have a strong enough interest in time and phase coherency, but that’s another topic altogether (check out the thread on the Audiogon.com speaker discussion forum).

The listening room, basically a modern living room dedicated toward this end, is fairly large, measuring 22 x 14w x 8-10h (the ceiling is “vaulted”). The room is not closed in, as the longest stretch is really a half wall (12’ long) that opens into a tiled dining area that in turn spills into an adjacent galley kitchen. All of this area shares the vaulted ceiling, with the half wall (12 feet in length) reaching only 8 feet in height, leaving about 20 inches of open space at the top, left open to the aforementioned kitchen, which lies behind this wall. The opposite side of the room gives way to a small hallway that leads to my music studio on one side and a small office on the other. Thus, an asymmetrical room with some serious cubic feet for sound waves to travel.

The floor is bamboo over concrete, and large wool rugs cover the area in front of the speakers and extend to the listening position, where you would find a large leather sofa 12” in front of the wall behind it, itself adorned with a very large painting. The back of the speakers, which sit ten feet apart and fire straight away, are set three feet in front of the 22’ wall behind them, which has at its center a large picture window to the outside. RPG diffusers line the lower portion of this window, which scatter some of the rear reflections. The right channel speaker is five feet from the nearest side wall, the left speaker a good seven feet away from the opposite side wall. The speakers are spiked and loaded with lead shot. For other details and associated equipment please refer to my system details (listed under the moniker “Goyescas”), found in the “inmate systems” area of the Asylum:

http://cgi.audioasylum.com/systems/1291.html

I took delivery of the VR-2’s in early June, and they were aggressively broken-in using the Prodigy CD that is touted on the TNT site toward this end. A couple of business trips meant I could aggressively discharge this CD for up to 60 or so hours at a stretch, and within just a couple of weeks I had already logged in a good 200 hours of said punishment.

I won’t elaborate on the importance of break-in except to say it makes a world of difference, and in my experience this cannot be ascribed to an ear/brain adjustment, as I was not present while break-in took place. Short of break-in the overall sound is a tad ragged and weak, the bass especially one-dimensional and almost synthetic sounding. Put another way, the pre-break-in period makes for some dull listening, although from the perspective of scientific inquiry there is a lot to experience in terms of how some speakers transform as the drivers and crossovers are put through the paces.

Listening

For this review, I attempted to choose well-known and well-recorded artists at their best, if not the very pinnacle of their careers. In addition, this review is in some ways shaped by the ears of others, primarily those of two close friends, one an accomplished classical pianist, the other an incredible professional concert organist and choral conductor (and one of best musicians I have ever had the pleasure to work with). My ears are 41 years old, and those of my associates 50 and 48, respectively.

New loudspeakers I purchase are but days away from becoming glorified spectators in an Audiogon.com ad unless they can absolutely nail the human voice. This is difficult territory to negotiate let alone write about, so let me just say the sound of a well-reproduced human voice is like pornography - difficult to define, easy to recognize.

Given its tessitura, the baritone voice is in some ways especially difficult, so I started with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau singing Schubert Songs, with Gerald Moore, Pianist (Angel 35624, Mono Only, Red Label). Here I was astonished that the lower end of “Fish-Disk’s” range was, for the most part, left uncolored and evenly balanced. This is no small feat, as many speakers at this price point feature an exaggerated mid and/or upper bass to give the listener the impression of full range sound. Not here. Honestly, I sat glued to the chair and listened to this entire record, and this on a Friday evening following a grueling week, when I am most intolerant (just ask my students). I’ll deny you the hyperbole; if you know this record - and if you care about Schubert songs at all, you probably should - then you will know the meaning of the word astonishing as I use it here to describe what I heard. Bring this recording (LP or CD) with you to your audition and listen, for example, to “Im Abendroth” to hear what the VR 2’s can do with micro-dynamics. Oddly, I paid no attention to the accompanist as I was instead pretty much mesmerized by the affect, not to mention effect, rendered by this amazing talent. Things were looking very promising indeed.

Shifting gears, I turned to another great baritone, Frank Sinatra. His reading of “I Won’t Dance,” a cut from the record titled A Swinging Affair (Capitol W803), showed off that indescribable resonance of ole blue eyes while the Nelson Riddle arrangement barked appreciable blasts from the horn section. Here is a great example of just how “right” this speaker is, sort of the equivalent of one of the ubiquitous chocolate brown leather chairs you might be fortunate enough to own and that I always climb into when passing by Restoration Hardware. Again, the entire range of the baritone voice was fantastically realistic, intelligible and engaging. Perhaps that nth degree of detail that a speaker like the Triangle Celius seems to provide was lacking, but I didn’t miss it. If there is a trade-off here, it is one I am eager to make, so natural a sound did I hear.

For the next few evenings my friends and I spent our time running down the great tenors. This was particularly fun, because while we were all familiar with the singers per se, I was able to pull from my collection of LP’s some rare but representational recordings of some of the greatest voices of the 20th century at the height of their individual artistic powers. de Stefano (!), Bjoerling, Carerras (in light voice), Pavarotti (early), even Caruso; one after the other we sat in awe. Whether Bjoerling’s musicianship, Pavarotti’s formidable technique, Carreras’ brilliant lyric tenor, whatever, we were simply listening not to the speakers but the performances. The only speaker I have heard in recent years that can come close to being this uncolored and transparent are the Quad ESL 63’s. The midrange at times reminded me of speakers from Spendor or Harbeth, but this based on aural memory and not a direct comparison.

The female vocal test included the lyric coloratura of Anna Moffo, (get the RCA Living Stereo LP of the same name, also now on CD), then Caballe (singing Spanish songs), Tebaldi, Callas, Jessye Norman and the latest sensation that is Rene Fleming. A diverse group for sure, but held in common are amazing diaphragms and the ability to control and move prodigious amounts air. Like Lance Armstrong, they were genetically predisposed to excel at what they do, and oftentimes that is to show off a set of pipes that alters the pitch from a soft but round whisper to a full-out forte at the end of the vocal range. With some of this material I have heard many other speakers break-up, beam or otherwise render a headache inducing top-end that has most listeners, especially other women, running from the room. Not here. The VR-2’s made it easy to distinguish one singer from the other, with tonal degradations, vocal gymnastics and diction all clear and intelligible.

For violin I grabbed the familiar but always captivating Heifitz performance of the Sibelius Violin Concerto. Mine is an RCA first pressing mono recording, and if there ever were a case for listening in mono, it is records like this one. Here again, the top end was at times appropriately biting, but what shocked me was how well the more sensitive passages were rendered, with just the right amount of air around the instrument, maybe just a little less than I have heard on more revealing speakers.

What is more is that this speaker reproduces the cello like no other, getting the nasal resonance just right without erring on the side of being too heavy. Better still, things are never too thin, something which drives me mad on many “high-end” loudspeaker systems. Elgar’s Cello Concerto with Jacqueline Du pre and Barbirolli on EMI comes across fresh, exciting, warm but full of body. Remarkably, that incredible bow-arm of hers comes through in spades, meaning this is not what many often refer to as a romantically “euphonic” or “warm” loudspeaker, which tend not to provide this level of speed and resolution. This is not a dark sounding loudspeaker, nor is it bright.

The late Ray Brown’s last trio and the CD they play on, “Walk On,” is a fantastic recording that vividly captures the sound of the string bass. The track “Lined With A Groove” is especially revealing. Likewise, Ron Carter’s latest offering, “The Golden Striker” from the CD of the same name, exposes the intricacies of this wonderful instrument. Things are not so much “in your face” as with other, larger systems, but what is there is close enough that I for one rarely use my subwoofer. This is an important point, as the harmonics are not overly emphasized as they are on so many loudspeakers, which in turn make the double bass sound more like a baroque viol or some other bastardization of the real deal. (I think these are both great CD’s to test any full range speaker.)

Much has been made of this speaker’s ability to throw a deep soundstage and image like no other. But to my mind, even better is the incredible way they mange to combine the resolution of detail with the separation of voices. Perhaps others will spin this back around depending on their own priorities, but I have always found the imaging and soundstaging abilities of a speaker, after a point of course, to be more about placement and other room related factors. It is instead the balancing act of this insanely gorgeous midrange - I don’t know how else to put it - and the VR-2’s ability to resolve details without sounding remotely analytical that keep me engaged.

Goosebumps and tears can both offer physical proof of our emotional response to music, and there is a fine line between the sonic merits of a high-resolution system and its ability to allow the listener to focus on the music and not the sound. Here one can usually count on the message found in Beethoven’s c minor symphony - the 5th - with Eric Kleiber conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra (Decca, LXT 2851) to help sort things out. Kleiber’s is one of the all time great Beethoven recordings, so well does it capture this orchestra in that incredible hall. The double bass lick in movement three is as aggressive as it is full bodied, and the rest of the strings get just the right amount of weight. Bassoons, clarinet, piccolo, horns and even the trombone are crystal clear and their individual colors right. Listening to this recording reminded me that the VR-2’s will put you in the hall, but not on the podium, more to the back of center hall, which is where I invariably choose to sit anyway (recording microphones themselves are usually elevated a good 7 meters above and behind the conductor, so who knows what things really sound like from that perspective?).

My favorite stereo versions of this symphony include the 1962 Karajan and the ca 1982 Bernstein outing, both with Vienna on DG. In all three of these cases, and generally speaking, listeners will be able to discern plenty of the nuance and drama when comparing otherwise similar readings of a given work. The only thing missing is the sheer power and weight of that bottom ½ octave (given the size of the drivers, this is not surprising). But so what! The rest of the range is so right, and even at very loud playback levels things never became strained or congested. I would love to participate in a blind test pitting the VR-2’s against the Wilson Sophia, because the VR-2’s are so non-fatiguing, so focused and controlled.

I end my impressions here the same way I concluded one late Saturday night listening session, with the new CD from the Tord Guastavsen Trio. This, arguably the best small jazz ensemble release of year, is music that draws you in, chock full of nuance and color, and as emotionally revealing as anything I’ve ever heard (however easy it may be to foolishly dismiss it as Keith Jarrett inspired dinner music). All of this is perfectly communicated through the VR-2’s. Bring this to the audition and insist on hearing the cut “Where Breathing Starts.” If the speakers are properly set up, sit back and close your eyes and you should hear their strengths in equal measure (tonal “accuracy,” sonic transparency, lifelike imaging, a deep soundstage and that incredible coherency).

On the versatile rear-firing tweeter: The last pair of speakers I’ve heard with this feature in my listening room were a pair of Snell Type E/II’s. I wanted to put a sock over that tweeter. We all know how laser precise high frequencies are, sort of like miniature aural pool balls ricocheting around the room. So when I first learned of this rear-firing tweeter on the VR-2’s, I thought it was pure gimmick, and once I took delivery of the VR-2’s I really had no desire to press it into service. In the end, partly because it is adjustable, I have found it to be incredibly useful on many recordings and downright necessary on others. For example, on many recordings of solo piano, it can help bring out that top harmonic; on poorer recordings (overly bright ones), I simply turn it off.

I imagine it can be put to good effect in a room where the first reflection of those frequencies might be better absorbed (a “Live-End, Dead-End” application, for example), to open-up the soundstage or offer more presence. In my room, this does not work as described, as my environment can hardly be described as highly damped. Instead, I have come to use it as a tone control of sorts. This is a great way to handle differences in room reflections when it comes to the high frequencies, and an even better way to deal with overly bright recordings. Clearly, the device alters the overall sound, and depending on the environment, may never need to be deployed at all. But in an overly damped room, or for those who just like a little more energy in the treble, crank it on up. I knew immediately that I would never enjoy the rear tweeter on its highest setting, and after a few months I find myself with it a third of the way up, mostly because of the way it renders the sound of the piano (otherwise the fundamental and second partials are somewhat overemphasized). Setting this device and forgetting about it, I rarely find myself reaching to adjust it - much like the VTA on my turntables.

The user can choose to bi-wire and/or bi-amp this loudspeaker. In my view, given that most of the frequency range is covered by the lower drivers, “bi-amplification” does not provide a critical edge nor does it greatly improve the sound, if at all. Because I was once really in to some of the real science and sound of various wire, I have more speaker cable than I care to admit, so I started straight out of the gate with them bi-wired, and I have not looked back since. But unless the rest of your system mirrors mine right down to the length of IC’s and speaker cable, listing what wire I like best won’t help any (well, okay, it’s the Audioquest Agrent+).

I did try a horizontal “bi-amp” with the Musical Fidelity A300 on the bottom (150WPC) and my KT-88 based Rogue Magnum M-120 Monoblocks on the top (120WPC). In comparing this sound with the straight sound from either, a friend (an electrical engineer and budding audiophile) and I found that the sound did not really change that much, and certainly not enough to warrant the resources involved (amps, cables, IC’s, power, space, etc). Based on my experience with other loudspeaker loads, I guess I expected a little too much of a good thing in the midrange from the tube gear, but short of a slightly polite treble, nothing really changed.

I just found this odd. So in muting the MF-A300, which was driving the low pass connection, and leaving just the Rogues to have there way with the hi-pass signal, we discovered why. It turns out the “low-pass” includes those signals that feed the midrange driver; the low pass signal feeds both the bass and midrange drivers. This is probably great news for those who cannot or do not want to apportion all the extra wire, power, space and money such “bi-amping” commands. [As I understand it, the principal benefit of bi-amplification is neither the added power capability nor the lowered IM distortion (that is already at the vanishing point), but rather the lower coloration and distortion of the woofers resulting from elimination of the x-over series resistance and the consequent increase of the effective damping factor.]

Adding lead shot to the dedicated chamber at the base of the speaker was far more sonically rewarding. I have not seen this feature on other loudspeakers at this price point, and taking advantage of it meant a tighter, more defined bass, which seems to have freed up the midrange a bit as well. This tweak - 25 pounds is fine, but there is room for 50 or more - is really less of an option and more about finishing off an integral part of the design.

I used 15 cups of what I think is #2 lead shot in each cavity. The shot filled each cavity to about 85% of its capacity, which was probably overkill. Use too much shot and you may find yourself ripping the spikes off the base when moving the speakers around (I obviously did not test this theory).

The occasional “one note bass” that I noticed as they broke-in took leave, and everything just seemed to tighten up. A good test is the bass and percussion line on Rismky-Korsakoff’s “Sheherezade” (RCA Victor Living Stereo, LSC-2208). The timpani have definition and will now sound very good instead of “huh, what is that supposed to be?” That is, representational at the very least (not the easiest thing to recreate!).

Parts on the VR-2’s are first rate, and for my money, the build quality is right where it should be at this price point: strong, with a nice enough veneer, but the real dough is put into the drivers, crossovers and even the binding posts, which are excellent and easily accept bare wire, spades or bananas. As I mentioned, this is a balanced design and, for my thinning wallet, just the right amount of cash goes into the cabinets and grills, meaning the speaker is handsome but not garishly presented.

While this is informed speculation, I do think they need at least 150 watts per side in order to really sing; I would love to hear the 500WPC Spectron amplifier with these, just to see if they sound even faster or become more dynamic.

Complaints: Not a plug-n-play loudspeaker. Tuning the bass requires you to know how your room is loaded, and requires patience and understanding. They are subjectively not as dynamic as some speakers I have heard, although I wonder if more than 150WPC might help with this (all of the speakers I remember as more dynamic are of the higher efficiency type). Finally, because of their good response down low, I continue to notice standing wave related anomalies, and while they are infrequent, I am reminded from time to time that I have room related issues to deal with; if not then more experimentation with tuning the bass is in short order.

The 14 page owner’s manual is first rate, and covers a range of placement and equipment related suggestions to assist the buyer, including different room configurations (long or short wall), flooring, wiring, bi-amping, the use of pink noise to “dial-in” the focus, and how to deal with standing waves and bass response tuning. The speakers come packaged with good protection, and the cabinets are wrapped in a black silk-like fabric, much like a giant version of that little blue one finds surrounding a new bottle of Crown Royal.

High quality spikes and a sturdy allen key accompany screws for the plinths, which like the speaker cabinets are pre-drilled and therefore very easy to install once you have loaded the cabinets with lead shot (avoid sand at all costs - for starters, the MDF and moisture absorbing sand do not mix well over time).

The speaker grills are mounted to the cabinets with a thin but effective piece of plastic that is inserted in the corresponding holes. I much prefer speakers that organize this event in the opposite direction, with the speaker cabinet having attached to it the male plug, as it is far too easy to damage this part of a speaker grill since it is far more likely to be moved to and fro than the actual speaker cabinet. Okay, a minor quibble, but I have already managed to accidentally bend one of the plastic stems. I suppose the generous 10-year warranty goes along way in remedying this.

In the VR-2, Von Schweikert delivers one of the best midranges on the planet, with an extended but natural top end, not in itself some means to an end (e.g., an “analytical” presentation that might fool un-initiates). The bass performance belies the size of the speaker, especially in a decent sized room. Add to this their incredible coherency, small monitor like imaging plus an ability to play loudly without congestion or ringing, and you have a design which can work well in a variety of rooms (the bass can be tuned by the user) and with any number of high powered amplifiers. The best part is that all of this combines to get the listener focused on the music, not the speaker.

If the VR-2 is representative of the entire Von Schweikert Audio line, countless more audiophiles might begin listening to music instead of the individual sounds that comprise it. Meanwhile, lovers of the Spendor, Harbeth and other BBC sibling based lines may soon realize it is possible to have you cake (midrange purity) and eat it, too (real bass below 50Hz, lack of that almost boxy sound). I for one found myself staying up until 4am two nights in a row one weekend, listening to small jazz ensembles. Those listening sessions have little to do with this review except to note here that at the time I did not once reflect on anything but the music. Realizing this meant the VR-2’s would replace the Triangle Celius as my main loudspeakers.

Which explains my final point: I do not think these will appeal so much to the audiophile who insists on sonic shockwaves of aural pleasure. In audiophile terms, these are not that “special,” and do not have an identifiable house sound beyond perhaps the bass. But music lovers and in particular the more discriminating musician may well come to love these speakers, and the reason I feel confident saying this, aside from the fact that several I know wish to own them, is this: The VR-2’s arrange and balance the intangibles in such a comprehensive and musical way, they always shape a most compelling emotional response from this listener. So please pardon my French, but I think this Albert Von Schweikert is f’ing brilliant. As my Spendor owning friend the concert pianist said in response to one intense three-hour listening session, and almost as succinctly if not quite so crudely, “Dude, THOSE are great loudspeakers!” They certainly belong on the short list of anybody looking to spend under $4,000 on speakers.

I hope this review has been useful to you.

-Goyescas

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Product Weakness:	Require high power amplification; while a full range speaker, the bass is not THE most powerful.
Product Strengths:	Coherency, A World-class Midrage, Versatility, Imaging/Soundstaging; a most deliberate and balanced design.

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Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	Please
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	See
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	My
Speakers:	System
Cables/Interconnects:	For
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Please See Review
Room Size (LxWxH):	22 x 14 x 8-10
Room Comments/Treatments:	Please See Review and System
Time Period/Length of Audition:	4 months
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	Details
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner
Your System (if other than home audition):	"Goyescas's Home System"

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