Von Schweikert opinion and help.

I really like VSA speakers but they have always marketed just as we see in Ibetuwill's last post, "this speaker is better than competitors selling for $X or $Y". I hope people are savvy enough to do their own auditions to determine relative valuations.

They are not VR4SR- MKII's... they are actually MKI's.

There were many (major) upgrades between the MKI & MKII - all drivers & crossovers were replaced as well as a variety of other tweaks (mainly for the midrange and bottom). There was a much smaller upgrade to the MKIII which mainly dealt with the tweeter and a lot of marketing hype as they were using a similar driver to their competition in the $30-$40K range.

I was looking at them just for the cabinet as a donor and go for the MKIII Upgrade, but that would put them at $9,000... not such a great deal. I've read many reviews on the MKI's and have recently talked to Albert (Von Schweikert) on several occasions this week and for a variety of reasons decided against the MKI's.

However,... the new VR33's look very interesting!!! They are comparing them sonically to speakers Retailing for over $15,000. There is limited visual bling to the cabinet though... they just put 99% of their efforts into sound quality.

Will do :-)

Contact your VSA dealer for any info you need :-)

Von Schweikert definitely do a lousy job at keeping their website up to date. How do they expect to sell their speakers if you can't find any info on their website.

yes revel f 52s, not as cool looking, but are very good sounding speaker.

This sounds like a good deal on the VR4 SR MkII.

Von Schweikert has just introduced VR-33 speakers with introductory pricing of $3750 per pair. You might consider these as an alternative. More information is available at the Von Schweikert forum on audiocircle.com.

VR-33 SPECIFICATIONS

Size – 50” tall x 8” wide (front) x 16” wide (rear) x 12” deep.
Frequency Response – 20Hz to 30kHz, +/- 3dB.
Impedance – 4 ohms nominal, high-current amplifier recommended.
Weight – 103 lbs per side, raw, 150 lbs in crate (each).
Subwoofer – Peerless 10” with Low Distortion Motor, laminated composite
cone, elevated spider, long throw design, and copper clad pole piece.
Midrange – Two 6” treated paper cast-frame bass-mids with Low Distortion
Motor, elevated spider, copper clad pole piece.
Tweeter – 1” treated fabric dome, Dual Ring design with rear chamber for
low resonance and response down to the midrange band, Low Distortion Motor, and specialized voice coil/top plate design for long throw, high power use.
Woofer Alignment – Quasi-transmission line design using three chambers,
each tuned to a different resonant frequency to extend the bandwidth and reduce “one note bass” typical of ported boxes. Woofer “fires” at rear wall to boost the bass at 20Hz by 3dB, can be “tuned” by user.
Power Rating – 25 watts minimum, up to 500 watts on peak music.
Warranty – Three years parts and labor (excluding abuse), non transferable.

Wow the original Mk1s are better? Did someone say that? They are like 4000.00 more. I had the Mk1s and I thought they sounded pretty great. I could never get the bass quite right in my room. Lots of deep bass but not to much midbass.

I'd say 5000.00 is a pretty good deal. I would hope however that the Mk2s are significantly better at such a higher price.

Shakeydeal, Yes, I sort of agree.
That is why I went ahead and paid for the tweeters, but in order to get them to play even moderately loud, I had to crank the volume up quite a bit.
Compared to my previous speakers, Legacy Focus and my present speakers, Andra 2 the VR4's really were not too efficient.

I used to have VR-4JRs, and when one of the woofers failed, they have replaced it without asking twice. I found their service to be quite efficient. At one time, when I called with a question, Albert himself was on the phone, and took his time answering.

Ozzy,

I see their point somewhat. It's rare that two tweeters fail at the same time without there being some user responsibility. However, a good company would have replaced them anyway. But they still had a valid reason to point the finger at you.

Shakey

I haven't spent any meaningful time with the 4SR but did own and greatly enjoy the 4JR. VSA with the right gear is awesome. Also, all of my dealings with Albert and VSA were great in terms of help and after the sale customer service to quickly and with without cost replace a broken binding post. I'm not sure how things are going now that they've gone to the online business model.

The originals are the better if you have decent electronics. The upgrade to II was due to some of the original drivers were no longer being made because of a hazardous manufacturing process. The Mark II's were "dumbed down" a bit as some thought they were to revealing with sub-prime electronics. VSA uses (mainly) Pass gear to voice their lineup. If you have not so great electronics these may be the way to go. I do not know the story of the upgrade to III.

I owned one for a while. Mine sucked quite a bit of power. The tweeters went out shortly there after.
Von Schweikert woould not cover them even though they were still under a 12 year warranty. They said the tweeters must have ben over driven. Huh???
Anyway because of that I purchased new tweeters and then sold the VR4SR- MKII's.
Lousy company to do buisness with.

Jump on it fast!!!