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Von
Schweikert VR-5
It was an exciting weekend. The new VR-5 Virtual Reality loudspeakers arrived Friday afternoon, together with KR-Enterprise tube amplifiers, packed in heavy wooden crates. Monday morning, I woke up from a spiritual encounter with these loudspeakers. Part of the experience was the Super Audio CD technology, which formed a substantial tribute to the listening experience. |
What will happen if you feed loudspeakers with the best signal in the world? Such a signal can exist on an analog record or a Super Audio Compact Disc. The signal can be degraded in many ways: a lot of problems are in the loudspeakers. It is arguably still the weakest part of the hi-fi chain. Another factor will be the taste of the listener. A lot of consumers don’t have a clue about the relationship between the reality and a reproduction using a hi-fi system. They will compose a system according to their taste and misconceptions. The acoustic environment is also responsible for problems; and last, there are restrictions inherent to the stereo-technology. Two channels may not be sufficient to accomplish a truthful recreation of acoustic space and spatial cues.
A loudspeaker will only reproduce the signal presented to it and naturally is affected by the source, the amplifiers and the cables. The driving system will add colorations and distortions; some important information will invariably become lost. Most loudspeakers are not able to reproduce low frequencies with extension, dynamics and enough sound pressure. In addition, speakers often lack sufficient speed, detail and tonal variation. Only the best loudspeakers in the world are able to recreate the original recording setting, without altering or adding information. Small loudspeakers are becoming popular, especially for sound staging; however, when used in combination with Single Ended Tube amps they will not provide you with low frequencies and very important basic harmonics. System building is all a matter of choice and sometimes space.
Albert Von Schweikert
His story is known; Albert has gained a solid reputation in the field of loudspeaker engineering. Some years ago, I wrote positively about his VR-4 and VR-6 designs. They were representatives of a new sound with stunning realism. The VR-6 was especially able to recreate an emulation of a live event and they stayed for some time in my listening room. I enjoyed this loudspeaker very much. However, a flood ended Albert´s activities and his company disappeared from the market, although there was a serious customer demand. But now, Von Schweikert is back. The factory has started again with fresh capital and also two new models, the VR-5 and VR-7. The designs are different from the former models and they will more easily fit into the domestic environment. You can choose from several expensive wood veneers with a beautiful gloss finish.
The VR-5 is a transmission-line, consisting of two woofers, a composite carbon fiber/ Kevlar driver for the midrange and an Excel soft dome tweeter. There is another tweeter on the back of the enclosure so you can adjust the ambience. The filters are built with expensive parts and are, according to Albert, responsible for the very realistic VR-5 sound. There is no acoustic coating on the speaker baffle and I don’t know if this enclosure design is the last word in the suppression of diffraction. Phase-correction is part of the filter design because the drivers are not mounted in a time-aligned configuration. The impedance is 6 ohm, the sensitivity 91 dB and the frequency-range is flat between 28Hz and 20K.
System building
For a good result, amplifiers and cables are equally important and you have to work very hard to find the right combination. The VR-5´s are highly revealing and will expose every weak point in your system. You can make them sing and expose the levels of reality for which they are famous. But mediocre components will not provide you with the best sonic results and you will probably end up blaming the speaker.
My listening room is about 10 miles from Amsterdam and I’m blessed with a very good acoustical environment. Most homes in the Netherlands are small, especially in comparison with the US. The relatively small VR-5 and VR-7 loudspeakers do fit nicely in the average rooms and represent a less obtrusive design than the former VR-6.
The VR-5´s were placed in the listening rooms' standard position, with almost no toe in. It’s a computer-aligned position, where most loudspeakers deliver an optimal performance. Despite the short time I had for evaluating these speakers, I was able to try different combinations of amplifiers and front ends. Of course there were the new KR-Enterprise VT850MK Single Ended class A monoblocks and the Musical Technology C2L tube pre amp, but also CAT and Spectral amplification. In the front end I use Sony’s Super Audio CD player and a Mark Levinson #30.6 CD player. Harmonic Technology, Siltech and NordOst provided cables. The analog front end consists of a Pluto Audio turntable with van den Hul Black Beauty cartridge. DMP provided their new series of six SACD's which were recorded using Sony's DSD process.
Sound
How can I attempt to analyse the VR-5´s appeal in audiophile terms? Well, there’s a wide, deep and holographic soundstage with a convincing and very stable focus. The image-size is realistic and the imaging focus provided by the VR-5 is state-of-the-art. The reproduction of the acoustic environment is very good, very realistic. The VR-5 is able to retrieve all the ambience information from the recording. Dynamics are all well and good. Trumpets are reproduced with tremendous dynamic capabilities. Although I tried very high sound pressure levels, the tweeter and midrange drivers survived and generated no audible distortion. Of course, that has also to do with the special characteristics of tube amplifiers. There’s a gradual clipping curve and the harmonic structure of the distortion is not really harmful. It’s less dangerous for drivers than transistor distortion.
The VR-5 delivered fast, powerful and well-defined bass. It has depth and extension but it has also a slight "laid back"(or neutral) character: if there is no bass-content in the recording, you won’t hear any bass. But when you feed the VR-5 with church organ or synthesizer tracks, everything is audible in the right tonal balance.
So, in the audiophile language, the VR-5 is a top performer. In its price range ($7,500 USD), there are some very good loudspeakers. Why should you invest in this loudspeaker? Well, I think there is one important characteristic that will set the VR-5 apart from any other loudspeaker: it has to do with the VR-5's ability to produce a very realistic sound. Especially with SACD and analog records, the illusion of reality is complete. According to Albert, this is partly due to the capacitors in the filter section and the proprietary drivers. But low level signal retrieval, dynamic behaviour and his ‘inverse radiation pattern’ design are also playing an important role. I don’t know if he’s willing to tell the whole story, but it’s under his control. Recently, I listened to the VR-7, which has the same realistic capabilities. The illusion of realism must be due to something inherent in Von Schweikert's designs; you will encounter this illusion with any good amplifier connected to his speaker system. Funny, but realism is a recognisable feature even for non-audiophiles. During the weekend, a girl walked into the listening room and her very first comment addressed the level of reality she encountered with the VR-5. While this young lady is definitely not an audiophile, she has a good perception of live music.
Conclusion
The Von Schweikert VR-5 is capable of handling every audiophile parameter with respect. This loudspeaker has no audible shortcomings, but its medium size induces some slight limitations. The comparable but larger VR-7 can play with more volume pressure and authority. The VR-5's main attraction is in the very realistic recreation of the acoustic event. There’s simply no competitor for the VR-5 in this regard. The illusion of "liveness" in reproduced sound is a valuable phenomenon dependent on the loudspeakers, equipment, the recording and a dozen other factors. With the VR-5, this illusion persisted and behaved in a constant manner. Every time I listened to the VR-5 system, it sounded convincingly live. Maybe I have to talk to Albert about using this loudspeaker as a reference.
Ruud Jonker, Reviewer
MusicHome
Studio magazine
The
Netherlands
Distributor: Eurogram The Netherlands