Oh boy foot in mouth disease hit me. I seriously jumped the gun on the VR-4 SR Mk.III.
In an earlier assessment I said the Mk.3s needed at least 150wpc to sound their best. As it turns out, I was wrong. VERY wrong.
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Upon setting up the SRs I prepared myself for the horror that is breaking in a Von Schweikert precision monitor. All Bozanians know what I'm talking about. Anyway with my trusty LSA break in amp away I got to burn in the SRs with the aforementioned Lamm M2.2s that needed burning in for their owner too. A hundred or so hours in, I figured I had better quit torturing the close to a million buckeroo amps. At this stage the SRs were still edgy and seemed to lack bass. Again normal at this stage but prior models were very much less so at this juncture.
The M2.2s were eventually delivered so I pressed into service my goodie midget the Bel Canto S300i. The Bel Canto is a 150wpc Class D amp and it is a little powerhouse. This little guy has been known to easily drive tough loads like Maggie 12s and 1.6QRs. In he went and for 10 straight days the SRs received a banging playing Tiesto's In Search of Sunrise 6. I was playing it so loud I could barely stand to be in the room to check for thermal distortion. On day 10 where the SRs now hit 300 hours, I said enough is enough. The little soldier of an amp actually got warm
What I noticed was the midrange surround. The AAD is a professional driver. Unlike the usual hi-fi driver it is made for low excursion. No bouncy foam or butyl surrounds here. Like most pro drivers like the cherished alnicos of yore the surrounds are stiff as boards. Now welcome to the space age. The aerogel age. What used to be stiff like cardboard when new was now very pliant. It now felt like tightly stretched electric tape whereas before it felt like hard craft paper. The edginess was apparently coming not from the tweeter but rather from the midrange that is crossed over much higher than the norm. How much higher? Albert won't say, and even if he did, I ain't saying
Anyway, duty called and off I went to attend to the Presidential and Vice-Presidential canvass of which I was selected to act as one of nine to represent the House of Representatives. The SR Mk.IIIs received no playing time until after the inauguration.
Talking to Dante, I remember commenting that the Mk.3 was less romantic at the expense of the gains in clarity. I also said the same to an SR Mk.2 owner. I had mistakenly attributed this to the change in tweeter from the Vifa to the more expensive air cooled Scanspeak WSRR. Here is the rub. A few days ago, I decided to reconfigure the small room this time going all tube. Back in were the Lamm ML1.1 amps and the heavily Mullarded LL2 Preamp. When I hit play, I was shocked.
The mids and highs now running freely there was no more need for extra power for the bass to play catch up. The balance was and is spot on and the clarity allowed you to hear the mullards in action. As Raf put it the mullard blur. Quick, nimble, tonally seductive with a set of brass balls. Time to spike them I think. There is a sense of presence, of envelopment, that I previously found only in the VR-5 SE which costs a whole of a lot more. The 5 still outdoes the SR especially with classical music but elsewhere one might actually prefer the SR the way one might prefer the more robust sound of a Stone Koetsu to that of a XV-1s.
This is indeed a very special loudspeaker and one I am glad I am keeping. I am also very glad I was wrong!
![]:)](./images/smilies/emoticon-0116-evilgrin.gif "Evil")
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