klipschking
As a former owner of Quads and VR4 Gen 2 speakers I totally get where you are coming from.
In the 90s I had Quad 63s stacked on the famous Gradient dipole subwoofers designed specially for the Quads. It still is probably the most seamless match of stat and subwoofer I’ve ever encountered. It produced such a huge, midrange - centered wall of transparent sound. Ot never failed to wow me and guests.
When I began to find the palpabily and body lacking in the electrostatic sound (I continue to find this the case with every stat I’ve heard) I searched long and hard for a dynamic speaker to replace the Quad/Gradients. It was only upon encountering the Von Schweikert VR 4s that I found something comparable. And when the Gen 2 version came out the form factor was better and the sound further refined so I bought a pair.
The strengths of the VR speakers were they sounded like a dynamic version of the Quads/Gradients - transparent, boxless, big and rich in the midrange, startlingly 3 dimensional imaging and soundstaging, but with the punch and body of a dynamic speaker.
I definielty had many guests looking like they had seen a ghost when those were played properly set up. Friends used to refer to them as if I had some sort of magic speaker :)
Its hard to know for sure how much is nostalgia or those early blown-away moments when you begin this hobby. But I have long had the sense that it has been tough to equal the Quad/Gradients or VRs in the sheer spectacle they conjured.
The VRs were particularly dramatic given they were rated down to 20Hz and I believe measured fairly close to that. They could do live concert recordings like Earth Wind and Fire with a massive sense of scale!
I’ve owned many speakers and auditioned many others in my home and I think it wasn’t until I got the Thiel 3.7s that those systems were finally trounced. The Thiels did scale similar to the VRs, imaging as well - better even in terms of focus/density - even better tonal bass, but with more accuracy, transparency/detail and a more realistic tone.
Stlll, I’d love to travel back in time to my listening sofa just to experience my old Quad and VR systems again!
As a former owner of Quads and VR4 Gen 2 speakers I totally get where you are coming from.
In the 90s I had Quad 63s stacked on the famous Gradient dipole subwoofers designed specially for the Quads. It still is probably the most seamless match of stat and subwoofer I’ve ever encountered. It produced such a huge, midrange - centered wall of transparent sound. Ot never failed to wow me and guests.
When I began to find the palpabily and body lacking in the electrostatic sound (I continue to find this the case with every stat I’ve heard) I searched long and hard for a dynamic speaker to replace the Quad/Gradients. It was only upon encountering the Von Schweikert VR 4s that I found something comparable. And when the Gen 2 version came out the form factor was better and the sound further refined so I bought a pair.
The strengths of the VR speakers were they sounded like a dynamic version of the Quads/Gradients - transparent, boxless, big and rich in the midrange, startlingly 3 dimensional imaging and soundstaging, but with the punch and body of a dynamic speaker.
I definielty had many guests looking like they had seen a ghost when those were played properly set up. Friends used to refer to them as if I had some sort of magic speaker :)
Its hard to know for sure how much is nostalgia or those early blown-away moments when you begin this hobby. But I have long had the sense that it has been tough to equal the Quad/Gradients or VRs in the sheer spectacle they conjured.
The VRs were particularly dramatic given they were rated down to 20Hz and I believe measured fairly close to that. They could do live concert recordings like Earth Wind and Fire with a massive sense of scale!
I’ve owned many speakers and auditioned many others in my home and I think it wasn’t until I got the Thiel 3.7s that those systems were finally trounced. The Thiels did scale similar to the VRs, imaging as well - better even in terms of focus/density - even better tonal bass, but with more accuracy, transparency/detail and a more realistic tone.
Stlll, I’d love to travel back in time to my listening sofa just to experience my old Quad and VR systems again!