He stayed inconspicuously in a corner with his eyes shut and swaying or foot tapping to the fantastic LPs brought by mva, Jadis, Jon Agner and myself.
The addicting palpability and bloom mixed with the focused and precise power of a properly fed Von Schweikert loudspeaker is something many have heard and from an initial "anong kumpanya iyan? (What company is that?)" and "Saan gawa yan? (Where are they from?)", VSA has become here in the Philippines and abroad a marque to aspire for. A loudspeaker that can be appreciated by even the most die-hard planar lovers due to VSA's high speed and resolution and even by die-hard low powered SET afficionados due to their ability to reproduce liquidity, warmth and image float with coherence rarely found in multidriver dynamic designs. Rarely will one find loudspeakers that can just "get out of the way" and really let you know what is happening in the signal path before them. This is perhaps why VSA speakers are owned and used by more PFO reviewers and contributors than any other single brand.
The venerable VR-4 SR is now in its Mark 2 configuration with a new 100dB sensitive Aerogel midrange driver (A paper and kevlar pulp suspended in an aerospace gel and cooked at high temperature resulting in an ultra light ultra stiff cone with the best Young's modulus ratio of any dynamic driver available). It also incorporates the same damping material (the material used to sound proof the inner hulls of US nuclear submarines) that made its debut in the more than twice the price VR-5 SEs.
The germans have been hogging the US press lately here is what Germany's premiere audio mags Image Hifi and Hi-Fi and Musik say about the new VR-4 SR Mark 2:
VSA delivers ultra-high levels and dynamics with ease. And even more power is not bad – the
speakers use whatever you are willing to give to them.
Once you find the optimum place in your listening room, this is the time to add the spikes to the
speakers and also the time for the adjustment of the “Ambience Driver”; subtle but thoroughly
crucial. This second “Ambient” tweeter expands the presentation of room and the colors of the
instruments and voices with a decisive “kick” towards “live”. In accordance to Albert Von
Schweikert, all other frequencies are omni-directional in a sufficient way and therefore presented all
over the room. The “Ambience Driver” is of enormous importance for adjusting the sound from the
speakers. It’s the completion of the best part of the VR-4 SR: the disappearing of the speakers,
within a short period of time, from the acoustic soundstage.
And soundstage in this meaning is not a 2-dimensional picture. No, here it happens in the form of a
“head cinema” in an overwhelming 3D-format – and exactly in a way, which was never achieved by
the picture technology: Perfection in sound colors without exaggeration; totally sharp with
harmonious motion sequences; virtuoso meshing of instruments and voices; no jerking, no jigging,
wonderful 3-dimensional soundstage with enormous depth of focus – all in all ... a special treat for
connoisseurs.
And where other manufacturers are anxiously waiving “one-note” deep bass in order to optimize
other disciplines, in the VR-4SR you can simply find it all together:
• wide band homogeneity,
• musical rhythm and flow,
• almost endless dynamics and
• an extremely deep, well outlined fundamental bass.
If all this doesn't mean “real” high-end – then what does?
Here's the kicker from the measurement section though......
"..truly world class, (sic) the VR-4SR is one of
the best engineered speakers in the world."
When was the last time you heard germans praising american engineering?
ladies and gents.......
The VR-4 Senior Mark 2 msrp $12,000
