Von Schweikert "rear ambiance driver" revisited

Rob,
Agree. I found that after break-in the rear ambience tweeter really seemed to open up the soundstage, but at the expense of slight bright or forward presentation. I felt that the VR2 is a forward sounding speaker anyway, which is not a bad thing..just not to my liking afterall. There is forward and bright or harsh and then there is a upfront presentation that the VR2's exhibit which works well for the speaker...But getting back to the rear tweeter, I eventually used quite a bit of front wall absorbers and diffusers as well as corner diffusers for bass and got the sound very smooth, but still found that with the rear tweeter level above about 1...I could here a brightness to the upper end. Im not at all sure what the answer is, as your right in pointing out that there is no set guide for setting the level..I think Albert's intention was to use it variably and set it where it best sounds in your set up under your listening conditions..i.e..room, equip, etc.
For me..I made the choice to move into another speaker which I felt was more dynamic, didn't compress as much under power, and is less forward to my ears. YMMV..Best-Ken

I demoed the VR-4 Gen III SEs and I also felt that the ambience tweeter needed to be nearly "off". Didn't notice what #it corresponded to, but less was definately more, in this case.

I agree I keep my vr2 at 6 but i use tubes and it is not fatiging

How many hours do you have on the speakers? If it is less than 600 hours, do not worry about it yet. I would leave them open fully so they will bvreak in quicker.

If you can endure :)

The front end of my room is pretty heavily treated and my VR2s are about 5 feet out from the wall. I settled in at 3.5 for the rear tweeter level on my VR2s. I feel it adds plausible depth to the soundstage and helps the speakers to "dissappear" a little better. I've had it as high as 6 while experimenting but it throws off the balance at those levels. Overall I feel the rear tweeter helps to enhance the performance of this speaker.

Curious to hear what others have to say on this. I know people who have it turned off, but their room dictates keeping the speakers almost up against the wall. That rear tweeter needs some breathing room.

I keep my VR2s at about 5 they are 3.5 feet from the wall and are not too bright for me or my wife. They do help create the holographic sound no clatter or echo is noted by my audio friends. One famous Agon contributor thinks they even sound a little dull. He is on the otherhand a clarity meister. I am using an EL34 based amp with rolled Mullards etc. Also the CD player is Tube output. (also tubed with Mullards). Vinyl is rich and lush, this pair broke in beautifully really some of the best I've heard and has good synergy with the amp. I am breaking in some much more costly JM labs on my second system which will need time to sound as tonally correct!

I was led to understand that the rear tweeter should be turned up until the absolute focus is corrupted.That was relatively low on my VR-6s.A little of their magic was lost with that tweeter completely shut off.

"absolute focus corrupted" can you please elaborate?

With it completely off I've found it to be too sterile also.

Thanks,
Rob

Robm321,I mean that the focus on a solo performer will not be as articulate.It will become more ghostly and lack solidity.There is a "balance" to everything.

I may be speaking of excessive rear tweeter augmentation.The VR-6s were satusfying with no augmentation.But,they had an electrostatic sound with the rear tweeter properly adjusted.This is dependent on distance from the rear wall and the material covering that wall.

tpsonic - gotcha

I actually agree with you and tvad. I notice that with the ambiance driver engaged it tends to be less focused because it increases the depth of the soundstage.

So, it is a trade off of focus and stage depth.

However, like tvad pointed out the top end, especially with the driver turned up high will cause drum wacks especially to be incredibly real, at the expense, in my case brightness that makes sense.

-- I ended up placing Auralex foam pads on my backwall including behind the ambiance driver. This may sound strange , but it kills the brightness and still does what it is supposed to.

Thanks for all inputs on the thread! Rob