Vandersteen 3A Sig vs. Von Schweikert VR4 Jr.

"I had Vandersteen's and they are easily beaten for the dollar these days imho" -- and your a VPMS dealer, nice!

At $3500 the 3A Sigs compete and hold up very nicely to the competion. To each his own, I listened to the VMPS, the 4Jr, the Dali Helecon 400, the Joseph Audio RM25 and each was plesent and had their strong points. Musically, however, none bested the 3A Sigs. With all the others, the speakers never disappeared, leaving just the music like the Vandy's did. All were set up in very good environments, with equipment that probably betters mine.

I auditioned several diferent brands recently when I was choosing.I went to a dealer who really was pushing the Linn's.While I was waiting for him to change to a different setup, he put me in a room with the Vandersteens.They were the only speakers that sounded more than just a speaker to me.I was looking for a speaker with a little more cosmetic style to it also.I listened to the Von Schwiekerts a few days later and was not terribly impressed.I even listened to the much more expensive db-99.I went back and listened to the B&W's I had also auditioned(803,802)I really wanted one of the other speakers to really stand out,as I was not impressed with the Vandersteen look.I had originally ruled them out because of what I saw online.But the sound just surpased anything else except the Gallos Ref III, which I purchased for another room.I ended up with the 3a's and a complete 7.2 system.

So many criticisms of the Von Schweikerts, I have to say something. The VRjr is so revealing, it revealed blatant distortion in tube amplifiers that my B&W 802's never revealed. This shocked the heck out of me. I hear details in recordings never heard before. I hear complex musical threads unraveled so I can hear every element.

Listening to speakers in stereo stores often brings disappointing and misleading results. Unfortunately, many stores have dreadful setups where nearly everything sounds awful. There are dealers, as well as audiophiles, who lack the discernment and discrimination to know what truly musical sound is.

As far as speakers disappearing, the VRjr has done this more than any speakers I have had or listened to. The transparency and see-through quality was shocking, even when I first hooked them up cold, with no break-in. They are truly serving as a reference quality device to zero in on the character of every component in my system. I never heard such differences in power cords on every component in my system as I do with these speakers.

Albert Von Schweikert is a speaker design genius, and has an impeccable engineering background and credentials. He has designed speakers for other major companies, including the famed Eggleston Andra. I have no connection with Von S., I'm just a happy VS owner.

It’s very sad how so many dealers dump as many speakers that are pushed against the wall and expect us to learn about the true qualities of a particular speaker. To qualify my point further, I was in a store looking at different amps and have stumbled across a McIntosh Amp/Von Schweikert VR-4jr demo. I was very disappointed with this set-up.

VR-4jr’s were not loaded with lead and didn’t have the spikes. One of the speaker’s was berried in the corner of a room and practically blocked by the other demo speaker. The M/T module was not sited properly almost falling-off of the bass enclosure. The other speaker was pushed against the wall next to the open door. A single run of MIT cables were incorrectly plugged-in into the bass input of the woofer module and the interlink cable was used for attaching M/T to this woofer module.

As cheap as my electronics is, my VR-4jr’s sound 100 times better simply because I’ve followed the instructions provided to me in the manual. Why should we pay extra dollars to so-called dealers if they don’t even understand how to properly set-up audio systems?

Obviously everyone has a taste for a particular sound, as far as my taste goes the VR-4jr’s sound incredible if properly set-up.

Best regards,
Alex

Don't forget about Meadowlark Ospreys, which are an easy and tube-friendly load. Tubes are the way to go for jazz and acoustical music, if your room allows for proper set-up. Meadowlarks are imaging champs, too.