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Von Schweikert VR4JR & Tube Amp???

So...without boring you with too much details, I've been FORCED to move my rig into a small dedicated room in my basement. I currently have the above speakers, Marantz SA8260 SACD/CD, Marantz PM7200 (95wpc), Kimber Silver Streak, Audioquest Montblanc & CV-6. My room is only about 12x10 and it's in a corner of my finished basement so, I have two walls that are poured concrete behind the paneling. Obviously, the sound sucks. Since the room is fully enclosed and mine alone, I literally had to surround the room with R-15 Insulation covered with heavy felt moving-blankets and built some baffling in the corners. Ceiling is typical foam drop-ceiling tiles. Floor is carpeted. After some experimentation with speaker placement, I have ACCEPTABLE sound accross most frequencies except the bass (too boomy). Now here's the question: I'm hoping to make the following hardware changes as final adjustments since I might be here for awhile: Replace the PM7200 with a Primaluna Prologue 2 or Manley Stringray and the Audioquest cables with Kimber 8TC. I don't have the experience with or the ability to audition the considered new gear but, what do you wise and insightful folks think???
pawlowski6132

Showing 4 responses by robm321

robm321
932 posts
 
Pawlowski6123,

I also had my VR4jr in a 10 x 12 or 10 x 10 or something close, and first of all I feel your pain. Be careful not to over dampen the room. but I know it is necessary to absorb more than a typical room otherwise the high frequencies will blow you out of your chair. It is a balancing act. If you have the ability a diagonal speaker placement will help a lot with the bass. Anyway, I'll let others chime in on the equipment question.

Rob
robm321
932 posts
 
All great responses.

I was able to overcome room problems and tuning the JR's. Beleive me the manual and setting up the global axis nextwork to integrate with the room is a must to get what these speakers can do. I think some people don't realize that and change speakers. The bass, rear ambiance driver and toe in all have to come together. Then you will get the transparency that the speakers are capable of.

Room treatment is a must also. More than some other speakers, because the JR's are designed to include the room as part of the soundstage. Although other speakers obviously take this into consideration as well, my experience with the JR's are that they can sound horrible in a bright room (more than some speakers) and like your case boomy, but if you take the patience setting up the speakers as explained in the manual and treat your room. You will come to fruision as I have (in my case 2 years), but it took that long because I didn't "get" the whole integration thing and treated them like typical speakers.

Hope this helps,
Rob
robm321
932 posts
 
Ajahu,

VR4jr has the best bass at it's price point of any speaker. Unfortunately, for you it recieved outstanding reviews, but for the rest of us living in the land of reality, we were thrilled to hear it. Go back to your sad bass lacking system and continue to be jelous ;)
robm321
932 posts
 
Good information blindjim. I agree with all of it. I actually bought the program CARA and read books about room treatment, but I feel like I don't know much more than I did. However, I am happy with placement and treatment. I used compressed fiberglass panels (like Owens - but a generic from india with almost same absorption spec's) - I use them on the back wall and side reflections and book shelves behind me. A bass trap in the corners.

I use a 50wpc amp (30wpc) in triode. In triode it is a little slow. At 50wpc in pentatode it is fast and has good bass.

I think the best set up would be a triode 30 wpc on the mids and highs and a solid state 100wpc + on the bass. But that's just a theory - one day I will try it.
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