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HiFi ‘97 Show Report #3 The Von Schweikert Research VR-6 I would like to share what has just amounted to an out of body experience. This transcendental occurrence took place in the Chairman Suite of the Westin St. Francis Hotel, location of HiFi ‘97, the Stereophile Home Theater & Specialty Audio Show, in San Francisco. This suite contained the Von Schweikert Research VR-6 and VR-8 loudspeaker systems, Balanced Audio Technology, Highwire Systems and some others. The suite was on two floors with the Big Gun VR-8 on the lower floor ( a magnificent system, but not the subject of this review). Above in a properly rarefied atmosphere, the lair of the VR-6 dominated things. Once the sirens called I was clearly under their spell and many a pilgrimage up the stairy mountain paths to the Olympic heights elevated both body and soul ( to the tune of castanet creaking of knee joints ). The more I went up the more addicted I became. I must have listened for six hours or so over the three day show. Aside from the above part, this entire review was written on site, within the confines of the VR-6 sound envelope. This means I’m not writing from memory. I’m like a wartime correspondent writing from the front. Everything was verified. When I wrote concerning the way I felt about something, I waited until the played passage came up in another demonstration period to confirm my feeling. ( With six hours in three days I had plenty of confirmation. ) The VR-6 claims "virtual reality". That what the "VR" means, of course. (Well it could mean that.) The VR-6 claims it occurs from just about every listener position. Now, being a native Californian and not from Missouri, I still like to find out things for myself. So I wandered about in No-Mans-Land, amid cables and things and eventually found a position that surely must fit rather closely the euphemism, "worst case." I chose a spot on the floor that is about 4 feet from where the wall behind the speakers (or should I say, the wall in front of the speakers?) meets the right side wall. This location is about five feet outboard of the right speaker and about two feet ahead of the woofer baffle. The left speaker seems about fifteen feet away. At one point a Jazz combo is cued up. I’m sitting on the floor writing part of this review. I notice the music sounds interesting, so I put down my pen (actually it’s Albert’s, I left mine home) and close my eyes for a bit of listening. WHAM ! The teleporter must have kicked in ! I’m sitting on the floor in a small bar. (Believe me that can be a hell of a shock !) The effect is so startling I’m disoriented for a moment. (Remember, I’ve been climbing halls for three days.) This wasn’t LIKE being in a small bar. I was IN a small bar. I was in a small bar and damn sure down on the floor. I still have a pseudo picture of it in my mind. I never fell off a bar stool (that I know of), but that was my first thought. Then I had sense enough to open my eyes. I sure would have hated to walk around that bar room blind. Never before, in my almost forty years of listening to and designing loudspeaker systems, have I been so startled as by the almost absolute reality of that VR-6 presentation. All the time I have been writing, people have been coming into and going out of the room. At no time have I been noticeably aware that I was in a stereo speaker audition room. (Except for the fact that I knew I was.) It sounded like maybe a rehearsal hall. A funny thing: People have been moving in and moving out, but there isn’t much moving around after they have come in. I see very few attempts to capture a "sweet spot" seat. From my searching around experience I expect that many people, once they have been inside for a bit, have merely forgotten that they aren’t in the sweet spot, and are actually in a "non-optimum" position. Actually I was never able to find a NOP. Perhaps they are an endangered species in the Chairman Suite. I just realized: Here I am in the Chairman Suite and I’m sitting on the floor. I’m sure glad that I’ve been taught to take what comes along. It’s very insidious. With most speaker systems you have to develop a suspension of belief to convince yourself you are hearing a "real" sound. When listening to the VR-6 a suspension of belief is required to be able to realize that loudspeakers are being listened to. Of course to obtain this high degree of illusion the sound pressure level of the playback must be close to the level of the original source. Von Schweikert is a sly dog. HE HAS CREATED MUSIC! Following are some of the qualities I have perceived in the Von Schweikert Research VR-6 during the three days I enjoyed it. There is a whole continuum of qualities I’m sure, but during the chaotic ca-ca of a National Audiophile show is not a time or place to sort them all out. I felt the spectral balance of the VR-6 was poised on a razor’s edge, resulting in a pristine sensation of reality. It’s long been my opinion that if the sound spectrum was presented in a balanced form, even a portable radio can sound quite musical. It’s always been a puzzle to me why so many otherwise excellent loudspeaker designers choose to ignore this simple essential fact. Shrill, bass shy, and mellow bombastic bottomed speakers are a dead giveaway to artificial music. Without a balanced sound spectrum there hardly seems any reason to go further into the design of a speaker system. Fortunately, the VR-6 has consummate balance in this area. So finely honed is it that in most cases it’s taken for granted. The mind simply accepts the sound as music. (Which it is.) I have never heard a speaker system display a more seamless sound envelope than the VR-6. I’m referring here to the psycho acoustic impression that all the music coming form the VR-6 is coming from a single monolithic source, in spite of the fact that there are several drivers firing in a couple of directions. This is the basis for a believable sound stage (along with the above spectral balance). I know of no other speaker system that has presented to me a greater achievement in this area. The closest contenders I can think of were also wrought from the mind of the same genius that brought forth the VR-6. (His mother should be proud). This achievement would be great at the sweet spot of any system, but Albert Von Schweikert wasn’t satisfied with that. The VR-6 does this from a listening position almost anywhere in the room and from any listening height from sitting on the floor to standing on a chair, in front of, to either side or to the rear of the speakers. The transient response of a VR-6 is absolutely realistic, from the gentle whisper of a quiet voice, to the explosive sharpness of an aerial bomb in a fireworks display. No speaker presents to me a piano with finer exactitude than the VR-6. As I mentioned before, this is not a statement borne on the vapors of memory. I am writing within the VR-6 soundfield (a soundfield that presents everything in appropriate perspective according to the size of the original source and it’s acoustic environment). Even if you can’t afford a VR-6, or don’t have the room (get a VR-4), you’ve just got to get out and hear this one, just to see how close real sound is now beginning to approach the sound of speaker systems. In my humble, but considered opinion, the Von Schweikert Research VR-6 created the best sound of the 1997 Stereophile Show John Cockroft |
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