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Von Schweikerts higher models on "bad recordings" ..... ?

Posted by Rune (A) on November 25, 2007 at 05:42:24

And what the heck do I mean by that topic? Well,I will try to explain;-)

I have had and heard many of the Von Schweikert lower priced models,and I have owned the VR-3,VR-4SE and DB-99(and this and VR4SR are the highest models I've heard from VS line) .
Now I have Audio Note E kit with the alnico mid/woofer that AN uses in their most expensive speakers,and its a fantastic speaker,but I miss alittle bit off the more good sense of PA energy the superb bass section off the VR4 at its best can give,and the total dissapearing act VS can create and offcourse that they in fact in my opinion at their best can do what Albert claims- "create Virtual Reality" .
Recently I heard the VR4Jr. MKII and its total musical presentation impressed me.
Off all speakers I've heard the Audio Notes and VS stands for me as the most complete I've heard,and as a musician I always look for naturalness and realness of what comes out of a speaker,and at its best both AN and VS are capable of fooling me to believe I listen to a real instrument in front of me.But this usually takes the very best recordings,and this good recordings stuff can be fun for awhile,but in the long run its for me all about the MUSIC,and I want to be able to enjoy the music on what would be considered as the worst sounding recordings made as well.

I belive that there are no perfect speaker,and there are no perfect microphone,recording-equipment,resistor,cap,wire,transducer aso., so what it comes down to in my opinion is VOICING of a product.Its like a chef trying to make a good meal with not one single perfect ingridiens.Not one single part is what people like to call neutral.Its a stupid word ;-) .
Its easy to voice a speaker to sound immediate very impressive when you put on the "best" "show-off" recordings,but when you try to play some great music from less good recordings from Beatles,Led Zeppelin,Deep Purple,Charlie Parker aso, the recordings then often sound very bad,and people then say that is because thats how its recorded......? But nobody know how the event sounded unless you where there when recorded,and I can assure you that in 99% of the cases it sounded very good in the studio,and not at all like the sterile,lifeless and often harsh way much "high-end" gear presents it.

The best gear I've heard in my 20 years with hifi manage to pull more real information from ALL recordings,and it sounds natural,and does what I'm really after and thats hearing more MUSIC from whats considered "bad recordings" .
Audio Note are one of the few that comes to mind that does this for me,and I also had much of that feeling with VS VR4SE and VR3.

What I really look for here is a little help from people who have had the chance to listen to what Albert himself consider his best constructions VR11,VR10,VR9,VR7,VR5.I do believe that my room is to small for anything bigger than the VR5,so I guess VR5SE is the highest I will stretch,but from what I understand Albert in the VR5SE have tried to replicate at least the qualities throughout the midrange from VR9SE.
My concern is that these speakers are voiced so that they make the listener focus on "bad sound" on the "bad recordings" instead of real transparency that let the music come better through on even the worst recordings.

The reason of my concern comes from the DB-99 experience.A great speaker by all means,but in the long run it sounded to my ears to have been voiced a little to forward.Impressive for awhile but not musical satsifaction in the long run for me.I know it could be that my room is to small,and the surounding equipment off-course has all to say whith a real transparent speaker,but all that aside I felt the speaker in itself had a kind off un-natural forwardness.A little forward horn-like quality if you like
;-)
I also remember the experince I had when I went to pick-up the DB99s I allready had bought.At this dealers room I listened to the VR2 and VR4SR side by side the DB99,and I remember how different I felt the presentation was from DB99 and VR4SR.They stood in the excact same location in the room and we used the exact same equipment on both,and the sound from the DB99 seemed to be much more forward than from the VR4SR.The difference could be bigger because the DB99 was used a lot less than the SR,but still this forwardness in DB99 didn't seem to change much with break-in.
First impressions can then seem to be that the SR are boring and less impressive,but from what I remember now I guess the SR would have been the more musical satisfactory speaker for me in the long run.
DB99 was said to be a "baby VR9SE" ,so if this means that the more expensive models sounds more impressive because of a kind of forwardness,I know thats not to my liking in the long run.
Then I'm probably better off with a more forgiving, "smoother" or "warmer-balance" SR or Jr,if thats really what they are.Compared to DB99 I would certainly say that jr and SR are smoother and "warmer" voiced,and more like the balance I feel a speaker must have to be able to make musical sense out off all recordings that excist.

If anyone can relate to this and have listened to the higher models for a longer period than short "Show-impressions" I would very much appreciate any input or thoughts you have on the subject from the MUSIC standpoint :-)

Kind regards,
Rune

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