Speaker Asylum: REVIEW: Von Schweikert Research VR-6 Speakers by mikem

Some background...
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After owning the VR-4's for almost 2 years, I came to appreciate what vonschweikert has done for us audiophile types. He gave us a very high quality speaker system which is very musical at a very reasonable price. One of the true hi-end values out there.
When Von Schweikert had their factory flood, it was unfortunate for them, but it created several good buys for some. I was one of the lucky ones that was able to acquire the VR-6's for a great price. I was quite happy with the performance of the VR-4's, but I was attracted to the looks and the thought of an even better sound.

VR-6 description
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The VR-6's are a full range stacking tower system. Each speaker weighs 175lbs and has a very futuristic look to them. I have had comments saying they looked like they were right out of the terminator movie. They look similar to the Wilson Grand Slamm speakers. They are very nicely finished in a dark cherry satin wood finish. The "cheeks" not only add to the distinct looks, but provide additional resonance control. The midrange/tweeter module sits on top of Black diamond racing cones. The BD pads are in the woofer module, recessed a couple of inches below the top.
The M/T module has 3 carbon fibre racing cones that sit on the pads to isolate any resonance from the woofer module. This also allows some horizontal adjustments and they also have vertical adjustments for the M/T module.
The driver compliment consists of:
2 - 9" Cast Eaton woofers
2 - 5.25" woven carbon fibre Audax midrange drivers
2 - focal titainium tweeters. One is rear fired for ambiance control.
The VR-6's use a 4th order crossover network and have a 96DB sensitivity rating. Seperate cross-overs are provided for bi-amping or bi-wire. The rear firing tweeter has an ambiance control to fine tune the soundstage.

Associated equipment
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After owning these speakers for a few weeks, I realized how important it was to have the rest of my system up to the task. The VR-6's are VERY revealing and EVERYTHING comes on thru.. My system is still evolving but I currently have the following...

BAT VK5i pre-amp
Llano 200-S SS Class A 200wpc amp
Audio Research CD2 CD player

I am running all balanced interconnects..

The Sounds..
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The VR-6's are very detailed. Everything comes through loud and clear. I say loud because they are very sensitive and don't need much gain to play loud. The soundstage is very wide and deep. I have them setup 9' apart with only a very slight toe-in. The listening area is 10' from the speakers.
The center image is well defined with no holes. I only have them 18" from the back wall, they would probably sound better pulled out more, but due to the WAF and furniture setup, I can only have then out this far. I also have them spiked.

Bass
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Albert VS uses 2 smaller drivers to attain bass down to 20Hz. Two smaller drivers are faster and tighter sounding than one large driver. The VR-6 has much tighter bass than my VR-4 did. The bass is fast and clean. My VR-4's provided more of a "wow" factor. But the bass produced by the VR-6's are cleaner and much tighter. Those who like "thumping" bass found in some speakers will most likely not like the VR-6 sound. I find the bass to be very natural and realistic.

Mids
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The mids are very natural. I can find no overlap with the other drivers during varying sounds. The mid band is quite wide which accounts for the seamless sound. Female voices are crisp and clean. The dual midrange drivers really make the mids strong.. but not forward sounding like I found in the B&W naut 801's. The VR-6's mids are very clean and natural sounding.

Highs
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Wow.. talk about intense. The VR-6's use the focal titainium tweeters which are VERY detailed. In fact, they are almost too detailed. I am having a hard time trying to tame these suckers. I already had to upgrade my front-end. This helped a tremendous amount, but I still find some music selections to be on the bright side. I have some new cables on order to try and "tune" out some of this high energy. I can also try some tube swapping to help. I also plan to get a tube amp to drive the mid/tweet modules.
The positive side is that the quality of the highs is superb. Very detailed and realistic. Some finely mastered CD's sound like heaven. I feel this is one area I will be tweaking for some time to come..

The whole picture
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I am in audio bliss most of the time. The soundstage is wide and real. The voices hang in air. There is black space between instruments. The VR-6's are very dynamic.. they never sound strained and are always ready to go louder. Low level listening is very balanced. The drivers are seamless and the speakers disappear when you get into the music. When I tame the slight edge on the tweeters, I will be totally happy.
This class of speaker demands everything up-stream be correct. This can be a never ending costly quest. I plan to stick it out because I feel that the speakers are worth the effort and will return the investment and time in enjoyable music listening sessions. I feel I can reach audio nirvana with the VR-6's. I just hope the bank account holds out long enough for me to get there.. Thanks for listening.
mike

REVIEW: Von Schweikert Research VR-6 Speakers Review by mikem at Audio Asylum